A bit of a rant, but how do writers think jumping from character to character, sub-story to sub-story, is a good idea?
I find it incredibly difficult to follow what is happening, holding 5 to 10 different unfinished mini story plots in my head. These days, the moment the story switches over, I take a break from reading. Thirty minutes later, I read a hand full of pages and have to stop again..
I’m not naming any authors because I have noticed this in any many books.
Turns out, some of my favorite books are the ones that follow max three different characters.
by in_234
9 Comments
Oh that’s my favorite type of book haha. Although sometimes I get annoyed when it switches from a storyline I’m super engaged in to one I don’t really care about but I love reading a bunch of seemingly unconnected stories come together
Sounds like you would hate Cloud Atlas!
It’s not hard for me, I like it.
They like it because it allows for diverse character styles and more complex narrative structures.
If ya don’t like it then ya don’t like it.
But if you’re having difficulty following it then maybe you just need to keep working on it. Literacy is a skill that needs to be practiced.
“I find it incredibly difficult to follow what is happening, holding 5 to 10 different unfinished mini story plots in my head.”
Then do not, under any circumstances, read The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. It has ‘5 to 10 unfinished mini story plots’ per chapter.
I liked it. ASOIAF did it pretty well, imo.
I like it! I like twisty stories where there are multiple viewpoints and pieces that come together in the end. (There’s a bit in the movie Knives Out that describes the mystery as, roughly, a donut inside a donut inside a donut. We came out of the theater and my husband said to me “I can see why you liked that, you like donuts in donuts in donuts.)
Writers use it allows you to set up different plot elements or characters. To pick on one author for an example, Tom Clancy had a tendency towards characters that would be used like once for an inciting incident and then never again.
I’m not the biggest fan of it either but when the writing is good enough I let it slide