How to Plan and Structure Multiple Plotlines in Your Stories
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/
/ authorkmweiland
Welcome! I'm K.M. Weiland, the award-winning and internationally published author of acclaimed writing guides such as Structuring Your Novel and Creating Character Arcs. I mentor authors on story theory, technique, and all the wild and wonderful highs and lows of the writing life!
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Writing multiple plotlines in your fiction doesn't have to be hard. Learn to navigate the intricacies while balancing the pros and cons.
Read transcript here: helpingwritersbecomeauthors.c...
TIMESTAMPS
Three Types of Multiple Plotlines
04:14 Multiple Plots
06:47 Multiple Timelines
07:46 Multiple POVs
How to Approach Multiple Plotlines
09:16 Separate Plot Structures
17:56 Intertwined Plot Structures
21:39 Subplots
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How to Structure Stories With Multiple Main Characters?: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
How to Outline Your Novel: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Book - Outlining Your Novel: kmweilandstore.com/b/hl4zm
Book - Outlining Your Novel Workbook: kmweilandstore.com/b/sxyPe
The Secrets of Story Structure: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Book - Structuring Your Novel: kmweilandstore.com/b/wkAVC
Book - Structuring Your Novel Workbook: kmweilandstore.com/b/e0I6Y
The Crucial Link Between Your Story’s Inciting Event and Climactic Moment: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
5 Questions About How to Balance Multiple POVs in Your Story: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
How Perfect Does Your Story’s Structural Timing Have to Be?: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
How to Calculate Your Book’s Length Before Writing: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Book - Writing Your Story's Theme: kmweilandstore.com/b/DTHEj
What Is the Relationship Between Plot and Theme?: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
5 Tips for Organizing Subplots: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Story Structure Database breakdown of The Great Escape: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
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BOOKS
For more on archetypes, check out my book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
For more on character arcs, check out my book Creating Character Arcs: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
For more on story and scene structure, check out my book Structuring Your Novel: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
For more on theme, check out my book Writing Your Story's Theme: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
WORKBOOKS
Outlining Your Novel Workbook: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Structuring Your Novel Workbook: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
Creating Character Arcs Workbook: www.helpingwritersbecomeautho...
GUIDED MEDITATIONS
Archetypal Character Guided Meditations (previews): • Archetypal Characters ...
COURSE
Creating Character Arcs Course: kmweilandstore.com/b/mBoHK
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Completely unrelated to the excellent content of the video:
The door handle in the background kept looking like the Word line marker. I was listening on my phone but twice I glanced up and for half a second wondered where my mouse was to move the thing away from your face 😂
The video was perfectly timed. My story occurs in contemporary Lima, Ohio and in ancient Memphis Egypt, involving the serpent mounds near Lima and a plot to usurp Khufu as Seneferu is dying. Thank you, it was a good clarification of how to structure the two plots and the timing of how they converge.
Sounds interesting!
@@Iwasonceanonionwithnolayers . Thank you. I'd be happy to send the first chapter, If you want to have a look. Great handle by the way.
Cool to hear about a story partially set in Ohio!
@timshuman3550 Thx, and yes I would love to read it!
@@lesliecrislipnielsen9928 Thanks. I'll try to do it justice.
This was very helpful, thank you.
My novel, “When the Wood Is Dry,” includes multiple storylines that intersect a culminate in a series of climaxes, with the different characters meeting their separate moments of truth. I created this structure by accident, just wanting to do justice to each character. The main character has a relatively flat internal arc, so the story structure makes sense in showing the impact of her ordeal on the other characters. The timelines mostly do not overlap, as each character carries the ball of the main plot along the timeline from their unique perspective. That is how I can have the main character in a coma for much of the second act, while some of the more dramatic scenes are happening.
I can look back now and understand what I did from an analytical perspective, but I really developed it intuitively. I think the structure was influenced by Quentin Tarantino movies, like Pulp Fiction, that tell the same story from differing perspectives and focus on character. And yes, it was difficult to write!
That sounds a bit like my story structure is turning out to be (i.e. substitute 'in a coma' for 'leaving the country' or 'going to jail'). As you may have guessed I haven't quite decided which as yet. 🤔
You are the best, helping me a lot to improve my writing. And To focus my imagination. Thanks
Love the longer videos!!!
Underrated channel
This is so helpful, thank you
NCIS does this very well. One story line is usually a murder and subsequent investigation. Forensic science almost always has a piece, the screen time of which varies per episode. Autopsy also has a piece, also varying in screen time. The whole team is together in some scenes. While also there are many scenes with only two or three of the four main characters. It makes a lot of sense. A huge part of the series includes the developments of the characters and their personal relationships with each other.
Excellent explanation, Katie. Thank you!
Thanks a lot. you are a contemporary legend. loved all your books.....
Great work!! Thank you so much!
Well done. A good topic to make a longer video for. Love The Great Escape analogy.
Thank you 😊
Hope you are feeling better soon. Good video as always. Blessings
Thanks!
You're a mindreader, thank you!
I like the new format. You come across as knowledgeable and authentic. Yes, “The Great Escape,” is brilliant. LOTR does a good job of weaving plot lines too, and does this in a variety of ways.
Excellent. Well Done. I have quite a few of your books, including ones about structure.
Great stuff, as always! 🙂👍 Thank you! 🙂
My two favourite dual plotline stories are 'The Conjuror's Bird' by Martin Davies and 'Touch Not the Cat' by Mary Stewart.
Both have the second plotline a couple of centuries in the past, with the characters in the present trying to find out something relating to the story that's happening in the past. In both cases, key moments in the historic timeline resonate with the ones in the present, just as you explained. 🙂
There is another very clever thing that Martin Davies does with the character in the past in 'The Conjuror's Bird' that I didn't realise he was doing until nearly the end, but I feel that revealing it would be a major spoiler. 😁
I read a novel called "The Virgin Blue" in which the MC from the 2000s is trying to figure out what happened to her ancestor in the 1500s. The two plotlines (modern-day and historical) are told alternately throughout the book.
Love the CZcams option. Thank you for the great advice. :)
good idea
Hmm. I was so caught up by the 'multiple plotlines' that I missed the idea of palnning them. I pants everything, usually with multiple plotlines. Let's see what happens.
How do u know in your story when to use the character's pov and when to use the narrator pov it would really helpful if u explain when to change povs ❤❤
Mommy thanks 😊
Most Star Wars films involve cutting back and forth between different conflicts. Would you say that's a legitimate consequence of multiple subplots, or mainly to keep the audience entertained?
Depends. The recent films have a host of problems, including storylines that do not contribute to the bottom line of the main conflict. The original trilogy does a much better job, in that every character's storyline is crucial to the bottom line and brings everyone's contributions together in the end.
Hey kate, you said that if the character arcs dont converge it may be the case that they are different stories. What about if they dont converge in this book, but will do in the next, and are all essential parts of the whole completed tale? Would you split them up, or still have them in the same book? I have four POV characters (epic fantasy), but only two of them converge in the first book, while the other two have entirely separate arcs. Thematically theyre united by pursuit of purpose and belonging, but their actions never see them interact, or even know of each other in part 1. Word count is 320,000 😫
Thank you for the video 🙏
Certain genres, such as fantasy, support this better than others. Ultimately, what's most important is that readers' expectation that the storylines will come together is fulfilled by the end of the series' overarching story--as we see, for example, in Game of Thrones.
How do you feel about Chicken Run?
Minor suggestion for videos -- you could lower your microphone so that it doesn't obstruct your face. (I do audio engineering and mixing). This won't affect sound quality at all as long as the distance from your mouth is the same and the mic is directed toward your mouth.