{"id":1498,"date":"2017-07-26T12:29:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T16:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2017-07-26T12:29:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T16:29:53","slug":"the-braided-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-braided-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Braided Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty easy to confuse a braided novel with a fix-up novel<\/a>. What\u2019s the difference? A braided novel follows multiple viewpoint characters, each of whom has his or her own story, and the stories interweave and converge at or near the climax of the book. If the individual stories are strongly plotted and largely independent of each other until the climax of the novel, this is known as a parallel plot<\/strong> structure.<\/p>\n

A braided novel could be a fix-up \u2014 Stephen King\u2019s\u00a0Hearts in Atlantis<\/em>\u00a0is arguably that sort of book \u2014 but I\u2019ve read many that are not, and of course a fix-up could only involve the ongoing adventures of a single character.<\/p>\n

Braided novels are probably quite familiar to people who read thrillers. One storyline might be from the antagonist\u2019s perspective, and the others from the points of view\u00a0of protagonists who are independently trying to investigate or work against the threat that the antagonist presents. Take, for example, Stephen King\u2019s epic novel\u00a0The Stand<\/em>, which presents\u00a0a large cast of\u00a0characters with their own concerns and plots within the overall plot of the book; while some characters die mid-way through, many of their stories are completed at or near the end of the narrative. Braided narratives are also common in fantasy novels and literary novels.<\/p>\n

I have seen some people confuse a braided narrative with a shared world anthology<\/a> in which multiple writers create separate stories around the same characters and settings. And the two can certainly seem very similar to readers.<\/p>\n

The way to tell the difference, I think, is that while the storylines in a braided novel are initially all different (though often\u00a0emerging from\u00a0the same disaster or triggering event, as you find in\u00a0The Stand<\/em>), they do converge and add to the main\u00a0plot arc once you reach the end of the\u00a0book. Many\u00a0(or all) of the individual stories are resolved along with the main plot at the end. If the self-contained stories only loosely connect and provide a mosaic view of a world and characters rather than an integrated overall plot, then to my eye that\u2019s not a braided novel because it\u2019s missing the strong core\u00a0plot you generally expect in a novel. (Which isn\u2019t to say that I think shared-world anthologies are lesser creations: I love them and they can be tremendous fun to write and read.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty easy to confuse a braided novel with a fix-up novel. What\u2019s the difference? A braided novel follows multiple viewpoint characters, each of whom […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[50,20,17,4],"tags":[108,6],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-novel","category-publishing","category-writing","category-writing-advice","tag-stephen-king","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/thestand.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-oa","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1486,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-fix-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":1498,"position":0},"title":"The Fix-Up","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Most avid fiction\u00a0fans\u00a0have probably read plenty of fix-ups, but they might not know the term for this type of book.\u00a0A fix-up is a collection of short fiction in which the stories are linked so that the whole thing works as a coherent piece of long fiction. In other words, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "novel"","block_context":{"text":"novel","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/novel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hearts-in-Atlantis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hearts-in-Atlantis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hearts-in-Atlantis.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hearts-in-Atlantis.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hearts-in-Atlantis.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hearts-in-Atlantis.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/classic-horror-novels\/","url_meta":{"origin":1498,"position":1},"title":"An Overview of Classic Horror Novels Written by Women","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"How does a horror novel become a classic? First of all, it has to be good, or at least unusually compelling. But quality alone doesn\u2019t ensure that a book will become a classic: it also has to be read, admired, and spread widely enough to inspire other creators. There are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "gender"","block_context":{"text":"gender","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/gender\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1493,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/shared-world-anthologies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1498,"position":2},"title":"Shared World Anthologies","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A shared world anthology (also known as a shared universe anthology) is a type of themed anthology in which the writers create works \u2013 usually stories, but sometime poetry or sequential art \u2013 exploring the same fictional world. If the fictional world is already known in popular culture, the writers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "game"","block_context":{"text":"game","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/game\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/MediaSlider.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/MediaSlider.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/MediaSlider.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/MediaSlider.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/MediaSlider.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1834,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-gunslinger\/","url_meta":{"origin":1498,"position":3},"title":"The Gunslinger","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"March 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Gunslinger\u00a0is the first novel in\u00a0The Dark Tower, Stephen King\u2019s classic, epic cross-genre series. It introduces the reader to the last gunslinger, Roland of Gilead, as he pursues The Man in Black across a vast land\u00a0laid to waste. The setting\u00a0is part Wild West, part medieval fantasy, and part far-future dystopia.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/gunslinger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/gunslinger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/gunslinger.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/gunslinger.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/gunslinger.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/gunslinger.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2271,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/nanowrimo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1498,"position":4},"title":"NaNoWriMo","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"September 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Since 1999, National Novel Writing Month has happened every November. Twitter is abuzz with people who are gearing up for it now. Like most everything else, NaNoWriMo has some vocal detractors; I am certainly not one of them. 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Snyder","date":"March 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Drawing of the Three\u00a0by Stephen King is the second volume in\u00a0The Dark Tower, his epic, cross-genre novel series. I enjoyed the first novel,\u00a0The Gunslinger, but for me, this is where\u00a0The Dark Tower\u00a0really starts to get interesting. 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