Problem with converging plot lines

vrabinec · Mar 5, 2008

So I'm alternating chapters between two plot lines that converge a third of the way into the book. I'm curious how annoyed you guys get when you don't get two chapters in a row with the same POV character, that far into a book.

otterman · Mar 5, 2008

Alternating plot lines might set up expectations for the pattern to continue. Is there any reason why you had to alternate up to that point? If not, you might consider throwing the alternating pattern out and visit POVs based on the ideal flow of the story. It might be that the story works better with a POV continuing for more than one chapter before switching to the other. There's very little work involved in altering the pattern, and you will avoid the problem you're experiencing.

Dale Emery · Mar 5, 2008

In one of my favorite books of the last few years, Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, the chapters cycle through three POV characters. That worked just fine. We know early in Elantris that two of the characters' plots relate, and from that we can guess that the third will connect before long.

Dale

otterman · Mar 5, 2008

I'm reading Elantris right now and didn't even notice the pattern until Dale mentioned it. Goes to show just how much a reader is aware of the POV pattern. The fact that Elantris has three POVs (told in omni) rather than two makes it a little less noticeable. Two POVs would likely be more noticeable, but it's hard to say. I return to my earlier question: is there a good reason why the POVs alternate for the first third of the book?

Shweta · Mar 5, 2008

Are you planning to stop switching POVs once the plotlines converge? Because if so I'd probably get much more annoyed at losing a POV than I had been at switching POVs.

I'm personally quite happy with switching POVs, with one exception. I hate hate hate when authors stick me with a cliffhanger and then go somewhere else for 50+ pages. I cannot enjoy those 50+ pages, because I'm stuck waiting for the cliffhanger resolution. I feel like I'm being forced to read, rather than allowed to read.

windyrdg · Mar 5, 2008

I love parallel plotting. I first became conciously aware of the technique when I read Frederick Forsyth's Day of the Jackal. It's really not that different from multiple voices which seems to be all the rage now. Like evrything, it all comes down to the way it's handled. It either works, or it doesn't.

TheIT · Mar 5, 2008

Shweta said:
I'm personally quite happy with switching POVs, with one exception. I hate hate hate when authors stick me with a cliffhanger and then go somewhere else for 50+ pages. I cannot enjoy those 50+ pages, because I'm stuck waiting for the cliffhanger resolution. I feel like I'm being forced to read, rather than allowed to read.

That's good to know. My novel WIP has two POV characters which begin together, separate for the middle of the book, then they get back together. At first I alternate between the two POVs, but there comes a point while they're separated where I put one character on hold, focus on the other for a day's worth of action, then switch back to the on-hold POV when they're about to get back together. I've been trying to decide whether I need to keep interweaving the POVs during the separation, and this is lending weight to continuing to interweave.

Red-Green · Mar 5, 2008

I enjoy alternating POV books, as long as each is as interesting and compelling as the other--although not necessarily in the same way. I'm with Shweta, I hate cliffhangers that don't get resolved for chapters, and I also get annoyed when one character's POV is dramatically more interesting. As an example, I'll cite Sarah Monette's Melusine series. There were parts of the first book where I felt like one of the POV's was simply there because she felt she had to keep the "equal time" principle, even though that character's POV became a bit dicey and even boring--he was going insane.

vrabinec · Mar 5, 2008

otterman said:
Alternating plot lines might set up expectations for the pattern to continue. Is there any reason why you had to alternate up to that point? If not, you might consider throwing the alternating pattern out and visit POVs based on the ideal flow of the story. It might be that the story works better with a POV continuing for more than one chapter before switching to the other. There's very little work involved in altering the pattern, and you will avoid the problem you're experiencing.

I have two MC's who are a part of a family in one country, and another MC who drives the plot in another country. I have to establish motives and character build leading up to the point where the plot lines converge, or it would look absurd to have a lunatic show up from another country, raving, without knowing the history. Also, much of it is based on actual history, so I have to be as true as I can.

Danger Jane · Mar 5, 2008

Shweta said:
Are you planning to stop switching POVs once the plotlines converge? Because if so I'd probably get much more annoyed at losing a POV than I had been at switching POVs.

I'm personally quite happy with switching POVs, with one exception. I hate hate hate when authors stick me with a cliffhanger and then go somewhere else for 50+ pages. I cannot enjoy those 50+ pages, because I'm stuck waiting for the cliffhanger resolution. I feel like I'm being forced to read, rather than allowed to read.

Same for me. I have two POVs in my one story, and their plots sometimes converge and sometimes diverge. I still alternate POVs every 1000 or 2000 words, because it bugs me, too, when I have to read for 50 pages to get my favorite character's POV back. And if one drops out...why were they important enough only for the first third of the book? Or whatever.

vrabinec · Mar 5, 2008

None of them actually drops out. They converge, go along together for a while, then they diverge until I butcher one. He, he.

HourglassMemory · Mar 5, 2008

As long as each chapter does its job, that is, develops the plot, moves the story forward, then I don't mind.

jenstrikesagain · Mar 5, 2008

Okay, I'll go out on a limb here - best possible example of converging plot lines is The Strange Case of Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde by our boy R.L. Stevenson. Hear me out--everybody knows the story, but not very many folks have actually read the thing. Do it--it'll take you an hour and you won't be sorry. Dr. Jeckyll, himself, hardly ever shows up. The story is about his friends and acquaintances and how they're worried because he's acting so strange. Best part about it, though, is how the plot lines converge. The elderly barrister passes a door, for example. Out of the same door in the next chapter comes the milkmaid, who goes to see the apothecary. Then later on the apothecary runs into the barrister, who tells him about how the milkmaid was--okay, I'm rambling here. Seriously, go read it. It rocks.

Metaphor · Mar 6, 2008

My only problem with this is that sometimes, when one plotline is much more interesting than the other, I tend to skip the more boring one, because I want to find out what happens in the exciting one

So, look out for that, but if the're both interesting and important to the story, I'd say keep them by all means!

jenstrikesagain · Mar 6, 2008

There's that, too--I quit reading the Wheel of Time books when I realized that ol' Robert Jordan wasn't going to get back to the one plot line I was still reading for two more volumes. That's kind of an extreme example, though.

Raphee · Mar 7, 2008

vrabinec said:
So I'm alternating chapters between two plot lines that converge a third of the way into the book. I'm curious how annoyed you guys get when you don't get two chapters in a row with the same POV character, that far into a book.

Khalid Husseni's A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, has two POV characters. he has set us the novel as:

Part 1 is MC 1' s POV
Part 2 is MC2

and in Part 3 the chapters more or less alternate between MC1 and MC 2.

wayndom · Mar 8, 2008

In the sixties, there was a NYT bestseller called The 100-Dollar Misunderstanding. It was about a white college student who sees a black hooker over a weekend. Every chapter, not only the POV, but the narration switched characters -- both told the story, first-person.

It worked superbly, and just the opposite of what's apparently worrying you happened -- on the rare occasions when one character got two chapters in a row, you felt sort of cheated, since it was always intriguing to see how differently the two saw the unfolding events.

Don't know if this has been helpful, but your post brought it to mind.

And as long as I'm here, there's a strange kind of orthodoxy that seems to exist in the background here, and dictates ideas like, "tell the story from one POV only," and other "rules" I've never heard of before.

Others have said it and will say it again, but it always bears repeating: Whatever works, works, and a LOT of different approaches work.

I'll now turn my soap box over to the next contestant...

scribbler1382 · Mar 8, 2008

The thing about multiple viewpoint novels is, regardless of your intent, you never know which of the viewpoint characters is going to ring loudest for your readers. So if you give who you view as the "favorite" character a few extra chapters, you may just end up alienating readers who would prefer the other character's viewpoint.

Do what the story wants you to do. If you try to pander to the reader, you're taking an unnecessary risk, IMO.

Problem with converging plot lines

vrabinec

Dipwad

otterman

Word Voyeur

Dale Emery

is way off topic

otterman

Word Voyeur

Shweta

gone

windyrdg

New kid, be gentle!

TheIT

Infuriatingly Theoretical

Red-Green

KoalaKoalaKoala!

vrabinec

Dipwad

Danger Jane

vrabinec

Dipwad

HourglassMemory

jenstrikesagain

Metaphor

twiftie

jenstrikesagain

Raphee

In debt to AW

wayndom

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader