posted
I'm working on one right now, and I'd also love to hear tips and warnings. Right now I'm alternating chapters, with one plotline and character POV in each. The characters meet up, but it doesn't happen until the 6th chapter, and there's a period later in the story where they get split up again.
I've only had readers for the first chapter, so I'm not sure how well it comes across. There have been some other threads on this subject in the past, if I'm remembering correctly. One of the common issues is when one plotline or character becomes more compelling than the other, and readers find themselves skipping over the second one to get to the good parts. Another is pacing: sometimes there are really interesting things happening in one plotline and not much in the other, so alternating chapters may not always work.
posted
One of the best examples of 2 plot lines running simultaneously would be THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. You have Luke and Yoda in one plot line and Han and Leah in the other one.
The other thing that I've read about doing this is to have simlarities in what is happening in either one. For example: In EMPIRE, Luke enters a cave to face Darth Vader. At the same time Han flies the Falcon into a cave and has a confrontation. If you look through the entire story, this happens again and again and helps binds the 2 plot lines together until the story's conclusion.
posted
Unwritten, do you or your kids watch Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender? The writers switched from the Aang and Zuko storylines in quick bursts, but you may learn from how they are kept together.
For example, in the episode, "The Storm", the onset of a storm leads to tension in the two characters and both characters act out. To explain his reaction, Aang tells a friend how he survived the massacre of his people and why he's unhappy as the Avatar. Meanwhile, Iroh tells soldiers, annoyed over Prince Zuko's reaction, why the Prince is obsessed with Aang. Viewers finish the episode with the knowledge that Aang and Zuko, though enemies from vastly different backgrounds, both carry shame from past choices and vulnerabilities most characters don't see. The episode also shows, for the first time, how strongly Aang's and Zuko's destinies are tied together.
Now, imagine each storyline's scenes as unbroken scenes in a novel. The two storylines gel because of a similar situation in each (one character providing background to explain a reaction) and similar emotions. Plus, both storylines are interesting and essential, in my opinion.
[This message has been edited by aspirit (edited September 20, 2008).]
posted
Tolkien's The Two Towers does this, once the fellowship disbands.
The master, of course, is GRR Martin, who juggles quite a few story lines in Song of Ice and Fire, switching POV characters. I don't know if I have tips for you... I think pacing is pretty tricky. You also run the risk of losing readers who are mainly interested in one specific character.
Oh, I guess Pyraxis already mentioned that. I'll try to add something...
Confusion is also an issue. If the plot is too complicated, or if too long has passed since we've encountered a character, the reader might get frustrated because they don't remember all the nuances of what was happening. When reading SIF, I remember feeling kind of disoriented at times. Also, I sometimes get annoyed if the sections end on too much of a cliffhanger--it seems like a cheap trick to keep me reading.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited September 20, 2008).]
posted
I've not yet really attempted this (although I will in the future), so this is my best guess: make sure that each POV/storyline switch begins and ends with something critical. And keep the pacing balanced so that one storyline doesn't fall behind another.
posted
Unwritten, I was working on a novel before coming to Hatrack that does this. I actually have 3 storylines that are slowly merging and will later diverge and then come back together at the end. I have stopped working on it to get my name out there with some short stories. However, I am very pleased with what I have written thus far.
I have a brief prologue (oh, the horror!) at the beginning that creates a thread. The first chapter begins with the catalyst storyline and vaguely introduces the antagonist in an isolated paragraph at the end. My second chapter introduces the second main storyline. From this point, I alternate storylines in chronological order, creating pauses in the action of each between chapters. I continue adding more of the antagonist story to the chapters that surround the catalyst storyline. The stories finally meet in chapter 6 - where I stopped.
I don't know if that made any sense, and I don't feel that I'm the best resource here. However, I patterned my pacing after LOTR and after Xenocide by OSC.
quote:I sometimes get annoyed if the sections end on too much of a cliffhanger--it seems like a cheap trick to keep me reading.
I'm like this, too. If I think, "Oh, no, what will happen to this character?" then I flip past the other POVs. I dread going back to the other storyline when the author stayed too long away from the storyline and POV I prefer. OSC and Terry Goodkind upset me in a couple of books, because (I felt) they juggled too much at once.
posted
I didn't have that problem with OSC, but I ended up skimming Terry Goodkind, and finally gave up in exasperation, when I realized I still had thousands of pages to read. I may pick it up again when I have some free time (ha, ha, ha)
So--keep the storylines connected with some kind of theme (a la Tolkein), finish each section with some breathing room BUT leave unfinished questions. Keep the stories in the same chronological order. Maybe this is beyond my skill level. I guess we'll see, won't we?
Oh well, life is supposed to be an adventure. Melanie
[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited September 21, 2008).]
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