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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43777
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43777
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think the best answer is to see what other authors have done, like many have suggested. I was [listening](http://audioworm.rein-online.org/) to [Worm](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/), and in arc 11, _Infestation_, all 8 interludes (we realize) all take place simultaneously.

In 11.a, the dogs are howling, and some superheroes battle Rachel (who owns the dogs.)

In 11.b-11.f it's not clear that things are necessarily happening at the same time, but it's a different MegaVillain in each, interacting with isolated groups of heros or less-evil-villains, with no overlap.

In 11.g, there's mentions of "fires downtown" (which matches 11.c) and in 11.h, the text mentions explicitly that, of this hero group focused on, some of their family members are the heroes fighting "Hellhound" and her dogs at this moment.

It becomes clear that ALL the sections were simultaneous, not just the first and last (although they are the most explicitly linked.) Each Interlude here is focusing on a single MegaVillain and their interactions in the city

Chapter 12.1 resumes with the narrator's POV and more sequential events.

(In this book, main chapters (end in numbers) are always first person POV. Interludes are tight-third-person, almost always a single person, and much more subject to flashbacks and time oddness. One follows a dog, one follows a TV reporter, many have the "origin stories" of the character in focus, plus their real-time story stuff (but some stay only in the past.) So the lesson you can learn from that is **"establish a pattern of "this is normal" and "this is the potentially more experimental area."** Then the reader can know what they can take for granted or question.)

Original score: 1