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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24938
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24938
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You need to be very conscious of the difference between history and story. If you have multiple sub plots that are not obvious, there is a good chance that they are more history than story.

History is a bunch of stuff that happens. History consists of many things happening at the same time in independent threads, so you have to do some folding of time-lines in order to describe all the various threads.

But story is something very different. Story is like a bent bow. It is an arc of rising tension. Everything you tell should contribute to that arc of rising tensions. You don't follow the logic of history in telling a story. You follow the logic of tension. Sub plots should follow their own arc of rising tension, but should also in some way contribute to the rising tension of the main plot.

So, it does not actually matter that a subplot is not advancing in time sync with you main plot. What matters is, where does the insertion of the sub plot in the narrative contribute to the arc of rising tensions. If that means telling the sub plot out of sequence with the rest of the time line, that's fine.

Original score: 1