Thread: Multiple plot lines?

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.