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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7215
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7215
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Along with nodding vigorously at everything Neil said...

You can have discontinuity in the beginning, but at some point it has to be apparent to the reader how these threads are connected.

In GRRMartin's _Song of Ice and Fire_ series, the main action takes place on the continent of Westeros. Dany Targaryen is the exiled daughter of a previous king of Westeros, and all her story takes place far to the south. But a few characters cross back and forth, and Dany's entire purpose is to come _back_ to Westeros to reclaim the throne. So the main plotline may or may not interact with Dany's so far, but the reader knows that at some point they will.

If Plotline A is an echo of or metaphor for Plotline B, I would say that by the time we're a third of the way in, the reader should be getting some clear hint that they are connected.

There may be an audience for "impenetrable characters doing things for opaque intents," but I really prefer to be able to figure out what the hell is going on and why. Mystery is great as long as the mystery is both solvable and revealed.

One example is the movie _Murder by Death._ It's a parody of great detective characters, and **[SPOILER]** if you've never seen it:

> in the end scene, the antagonist complains about books in which the murderer was only caught because the detective knew something the audience didn't, and there was no way for the reader to figure it out because the writer deliberately withheld detail.

Don't do that.

Original score: 2