Final Assembly

Right now, I'm at the final assembly stage of the various plotlines I've been working out. I'm struggling with it a bit more than I thought I would, and I think it's because for the most part, the plotlines don't really intersect. There are places that they do, but for the most part, they don't form a unified whole in this book.

I think I'm just now discovering what all fantasy authors who write multiple book series eventually find--when a story is larger than just one book, it can take some work to hold it all together. Imagine three ropes that are tied together at both ends. If they're kept in one piece, they can stay together without a problem. If you cut them into, say, three pieces, then there is nothing holding the middle together.

So what I need to do is to maximize the binding that holds them together. If I braid my plotlines together, then it doesn't matter so much that they're nothing tying them together... the friction of the braids accomplishes the same thing.

To make the metaphor plainer, I want to interweave the plotlines together so that each scene leads into the next really well, even if they're not strictly related. And that's taking some effort to figure out.

Perhaps I should just start writing--i.e., making the ropes--and worry about how I weave them together later.