• A reminder that Forum Moderator applications are currently still open! If you're interested in joining an active team of moderators for one of the biggest Pokémon forums on the internet, click here for info.
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Multiple plot lines?

Marcat

Marcat

Just Marcat
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
457
Reaction score
1
Hey guys, so I'm planning a fic and I was wondering what you guys think about mulitiple plotlines. Seeing as my new fic is going to have some, I'm hoping to get advice and what you guys think.

So, do you think multiple lines detract or add to a story?
If so, how would handle them. As in to juggle two or three while still giving justice to all of them?
 
I think that multiple plots in one story is the best way of telling a story. If you do plan on using them, having them cross at one point, or come together at the other, is going to make the story much more exciting to read. It's even better when, inside the plots themselves, are character story lines.

For example, my story has current three plots, there are more, but they are hidden from the reader as of now. On one hand, Galen is searching for his past. The second plot takes place a few years before that, with another group trying to hide the past from Galen. Back in the present, for Galen to find the past, he must work for Oak. The first and third plots are coming together, while the second one is happening on it's own, without any of the main characters of the other two appearing in it (yet).

Inside them, Galen wants to uncover the past, Seer has an unrevealed goal, and Oak wants Galen to finish his job. In the past plot, Raven wants to starts a manhunt, Mr. Yarlott disagrees, and wants to keep the circus going.

Eventually, I plan on having these three plots clash, with a fourth one joining in soon after one or two of these plots have been resolved.
 
All of the spinoffs I write will have some major effects to the main books or vice-versa, and the point of views in the one I'm writing usually have an effect on another too.
 
Godo-kun said:
All of the spinoffs I write will have some major effects to the main books or vice-versa, and the point of views in the one I'm writing usually have an effect on another too.
Click to expand...

But what about a single story? Does any of them (single stories) have multiple plots in them, or do you only have one plot for each story.
 
Although having a bunch of plot lines in one story is a really cool way of telling it, it can get out of hand at times. Two to four plotlines are good enough. Any more will overload you, although the readers may or may not enjoy the many intricacies layered upon the collective stories.

A good example of these on our own forums would be Dragon Days or Stray.
 
Noob is right. Multiple plots are good if they are handled well and aren't way overused. For example, the book Holes: it has three plot lines that each continue on their own, until the end where it all comes together (brilliantly, in fact) with foreshadowing from each of the plotlines affecting the 'main' plot.
 
Indeed, as the other two have said, multiple plotlines can really enhance a work. It allows multiple perspectives. In fact, it can really make a world come to life.

However, I wouldn't say that you have to connect all your plotlines together. Sometimes, especially for thematic works, it can help if you conclude certain plotlines without connecting them. In my fic, for example, several plotlines are going to carry out, but the ones in the present show several different perspectives, that of the soldiers out there doing the fighting in the war, that of the commanders who aren't on the battlefield making decisions, and that of the civillians who try to ignore how bad the fighting is going, the ones who have grown cynical and distrustful, and the ones who have to make sacrifices and suffer so that the war effort can go on.

Two of these plotlines will come together, but one will conclude separately since it would be bad for the main character if all three connected.
 
Since I specialize in shipping, my plot lines are a main couple, then a beta couple, and so on... :p *fails hard at plotting?*

Either way, even in romance stories, something else must happen. Only-romance stories are kind of boring, after all... So, in the end, you handle as many plots as you have couples, and at least one plot that is not shippy at all, which, in itself, can have many other plots hanging depending on the quantity of main characters or concepts.

...the conclusion is, I guess, that there's no such thing as a single-plot story. I'm sure even your other stories had multiple plot lines, even if you didn't notice them. However, giving each plot line a priority is something that depends fully on you and on what kind of story you want to tell. There's no such thing as "giving them all justice" either; each plot has its own place in your story, depending on the priority you give them, and respecting that priority is giving them all the justice they need.
 
I don't really see the point of concluding a plot without it at least affecting the story, because then, it may as well be an entire story on it's own. If it is there to give perspective to the reader, and not affect the main plot, then yeah, it served a purpose. But if it's just two plots in their own separate way, then it serves no purpose.
 
Well, one can always use a plot for world-building. That can't be a bad thing most of the time, I think. Especially for authors who have their own universes that they want to build on. Though, admittedly, it would help if they were used for more than just that.
 
That's interesting... I never thought of it as world-building material. I guess that does make the plot of use to the story.
 
Multiple plot lines going on at once can be very interesting to read, but difficult to manage in prose form. I would recommend that you always keep one subplot as the main focus at any given time, save for the few points where they overlap, and for the sake of avoiding confusion, stick to less than five active plots at any given time. Just make sure that all of your plots are relevant to the overall course of the story - they either have to have a significant result in character development, help in world-building, or have an impact on the overarching plot. If your subplot isn't doing any of these things, consider removing it from the main story entirely and making it a spin-off or separate (but related) story.
 
In Magic of a Melody I have the main plot (the quest to assemble the Necklace of the Mystical Rainbow and save the world) plus:

--Brock wanting to avenge his fallen mentor
--Dawn wanting to find her mother (this one is going to be wound up very soon)
--Misty wanting to find her comrades and bring them home
 
Kyuujux said:
But what about a single story? Does any of them (single stories) have multiple plots in them, or do you only have one plot for each story.
Click to expand...

Umm..., wouldn't the series just be counted as one big story?
 
All the advice here is really good, but I have something to add. In my opinion, the best way to easily differentiate all of your multiple plotlines is to have each one be related to a character. I'll use my own fic as an example. I try to avoid specific examples, but it would get confusing if I didn't use names. Here are my plotlines:

The Keith Plotline - named after the main character, this one involves Keith traveling Kanto to better himself and answer his many questions (eg: training under Sabrina, looking into what Pokemon attacked him at Cerulean Cave)

The Criss Plotline - named for a vigilante character that fights Team Rocket, this one involves just that, fighting Team Rocket (although there is a little more to it than that).

The Nolan Plotline - This one's a little different, as it's told from the PoV of Nolan rather than Keith. It involves discovering who Nolan is, Criss's past, and some fighting of Team Rocket.

The Tim Plotline - named after the main character's best friend, this is the generic journey fic plot. Go from gym to gym collecting badges until you can fight the Elite Four.

Whenever I want to switch between plotlines, I just change which character the focus is on. If Keith's alone and introspective, it's the Keith plotline. If Criss approaches him with a plan on attacking a Team Rocket base, etc, it's the Criss Plotline. If it's told from the PoV of Nolan, it's the Nolan plotline. And if Tim is getting all excited about battling, or Keith and Tim are just hanging out, battling, or talking, it's the Tim plotline. Everything stays separate because, for example, Keith doesn't know who Nolan is and Criss doesn't really care about the gym challenge.

Hopefully these examples aren't too specific and you get what I mean. Just have each plotline be driven by a specific character. It helps keep things from getting entangled.
 
As I said in the Recurring Characters thread, relating characters to plotlines (as in AetherX's advice) is a good way to do it. This makes it a lot easier for readers to keep track of anything. I find it's usually good if characters other than the main character only have 1-2 real objectives while the main character can have some more.

Also, I personally think that all of the plotlines should relate to one another in some way, although the links can be very tenuous.
 
Absolutely, absolutely, as long as the plots are intertwined in some way, and don't exist seperately from each other, so the story comes together to form more than the sum of its parts.
 
Multiple plot lines are a good thing but it all really depends on how it's done. I for one are the type of people that write multiple plotlines but I do it subtly and don't really give it a lot of importance because I don't think I can handle so many things. I'm also the type of people that adds plotlines without even noticing and I have to reread my chapters just to remember what I put and how to fix it all.

In my fic for example the main plot line has always been Reggie's life in the Pokemon academy as well as finding Chigon's past as the story goes on I add another plotline with an assasin trainer, then I add the rival's storyline which is about tracking the person that killed his adoptive brother who just so happens to be the assasing. Then there's Fin's storyline which talks about his problems with Lance whose his father and wants to come back home and there's a bunch of other storylines that I still haven't accesed.
 
Personally, I enjoy a fic with multiple plot lines. Unless it's very short, a fic with only one plot line is often a little empty, occasionally to the point of being boring. I think it's important to have some deviation and distraction - for example, reading about Johnny going around Johto, challenging Gym Leaders and generally being a typical boring journeyfic MC is all very well, but it instantly becomes far more interesting if you add a second plotline. Whether it's as simple as (heaven forbid) Team Rocket constantly trying to steal his Pikachu in more and more inventive ways, or as complex as Johnny stumbling across an anti-government conspiracy that threatens to plunge the whole region into war, it straightaway falls into a more interesting vein that makes a reader want to keep doing what readers do best . . . reading.

Personally, I tend to handle it a bit differently. My ongoing fic, Champion Game (Jeez, just realised I really need to post that here), consists of, at present, two main storylines. One where the main character is going about his business as the region's new Champion, the other where . . . well, I won't give too many spoilers, but it's essentially an adventure in a different world, of a completely different kind. The second plotline has no Pokemon at all, whereas the first does have them. The first plotline is, in a sense, the 'home' plotline - it's the one upon which the main character embarks from the very beginning, and the one to which he continually returns as a source of comfort and reassurance. Exciting as it may be, it is nowhere near as heavy as the second line, but no less important thanks to its role as a support. Later on, it will have more and more bearing on the other plotline until the two finally converge. That will be the denouement of the story, the point where sparks fly, the earth shakes and Pokemon and Trainers alike fight for their lives. Spending a whole fic building up to that from two separate angles makes it all the more satisfying (both for readers and for writers) when the conclusion finally comes.

Interestingly, you can engineer this in miniature by creating 'mini-plotlines' within one of your larger ones. For example, Ren's 'real life' plotline in Champion Game (as opposed to his 'fantasy' one) contains several smaller threads - Ren's awkward relationship with the single mother he essentially left alone for five years while he went on his journey, Ren's developing friendship with an extraordinarily pretty actress, Ren's conflict with a member of the Qirfan diplomatic corps, Ren's coming to terms with his identity as Champion, Ren's attempts to live a normal life despite his newfound fame, and so on. All of these can be used to create a microcosm of the situation I described in the previous paragraph: eventually, two or more of these plotlines will clash. What happens when his friendship with Bella and his rivalry with Vila come into opposition with each other, or with his attempts to live normally? These smaller, less climactic, but no less important, events are the ones which shape your story. If you will, think of your story as a sheet hanging on a line. Your beginning is the peg holding it up at one end, while your massive conclusion caused by the meeting of plotlines is the other peg. But what does it do in the middle? It sags, getting all crumpled and stretched and not drying as quickly. So how do we prevent this? We put more pegs on, spacing them evenly so the sheet hangs straight, fits neatly and comes down dry. Pardon the ridiculously extended metaphor there.

I hope I haven't rambled too much . . . But this is certainly something that I find important. But to echo what some people have said or hinted at: don't let yourself get tangled up. Too many plotlines results in a messy fic with too much going on at once and not enough space to do it in. Be careful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom