Wanted: #Writing Advice
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Wanted: #Writing Advice
Have any of you *completed* a novel where there are multiple story lines that thread in and out of each other?
I started writing it in the order I imagined it: so switching when I'd expect the reader to switch, but this has become confusing.
I'm separating the story threads by character and I'm planning on working on them like individual stories for a bit.
Then I think I will weave them back together.
Does this sound like a good idea? Anything I might watch out for?
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Wanted: #Writing Advice
Have any of you *completed* a novel where there are multiple story lines that thread in and out of each other?
I started writing it in the order I imagined it: so switching when I'd expect the reader to switch, but this has become confusing.
I'm separating the story threads by character and I'm planning on working on them like individual stories for a bit.
Then I think I will weave them back together.
Does this sound like a good idea? Anything I might watch out for?
@futurebird As a device for the planning stage this sounds OK. I'd lay out a diagram with all the separate events lined up nicely, then decide which part I tell in the time it happens, which parts I tell in retrospective (and maybe some in foreshadowing), and which I omit completely.
It may be a good exercse to analyse some stories of others in that respect. LOTR, "Imperial Star" by Delaney, etc. (I dare everybody to do the same for "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" by Potocki!)
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@futurebird As a device for the planning stage this sounds OK. I'd lay out a diagram with all the separate events lined up nicely, then decide which part I tell in the time it happens, which parts I tell in retrospective (and maybe some in foreshadowing), and which I omit completely.
It may be a good exercse to analyse some stories of others in that respect. LOTR, "Imperial Star" by Delaney, etc. (I dare everybody to do the same for "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" by Potocki!)
Funnily enough, just last night I went down the Wikipedia rabbit hole for Potocki and “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.”
It is referenced in “The Burning Page,” the third book in Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series. Adding it to my want list, as it sounds intriguing.
Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon strikes again!
