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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42652
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42652
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Amadeus's answer is great if your goal is story-driven-story. IF however, you're working with something more experimental, I think the nested allegories can work, just like a musical leitmotif for one character can also have a musical phrase that echoes the adventure theme.

Margaret Atwood does great work with this. In _The Robber Bride_, one of the characters is a history professor, and she figures out historical battles by using seeds and spices on a topographical map, and they also are reflecting her antagonism with other characters. One of the characters changes her identity to suit the other ones (for good or ill), so there's all sorts of complexity going on. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Robber\_Bride](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robber_Bride)

In _The Blind Assassin_, the story takes place over different time lines, and in one time line there's a story about a pair of lovers, one telling the story of the "blind assassin" (an explicitly invented story within the story), and there are echoes of the lovers' relationship within that as well.  
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Blind\_Assassin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Assassin)

In general, look to poets-who-are-also-novelists (or vice versa) to get a sense of these possibilities. But I look forward to whatever you come up with!

Original score: 1