Non linear complex processes

This image is Dostoevsky's notes for chapter 5 of The Brothers Karamazov. The non linear composition of ideas depicted here amazes me. Dostoevsky uses drawings complementing the scraps of written ideas for materializing mental images or concepts. It's beautiful to see, because I, not being a writer, often think of written media as a linear activity of story telling.

Of course many authors work with non linear ways of telling their complex stories, after all reality is not linear. If I understood Russian maybe I could have followed Dostoevsky's stream of consciousness! I was told yesterday of an artist friend who often prefers the sketches of paintings rather than the finished work, because it is possible to read the artists intentions in the sketch - later to be camouflaged by timely layering of paint.