Parallel narrative

Reedsy defines the form: "A parallel narrative is where two or more stories are told concurrently, though they may not always be happening at the same time." The threads "tend to be interconnected, though how they relate may not be immediately obvious," and eventually they "dovetail, resulting in some kind of plot twist or revelation"; its example is Gone Girl, present-day chapters alternating with diary flashbacks. The working rule comes from Writer's Digest: "each storyline must be as strong as the other, otherwise a dual narrative will not work," the threads joined by "the one thing that connects my two stories together," a place, a story or people. As the Guardian's Lisa Halliday puts it, they connect "if not plotwise then thematically."

Across different periods the form is a device of the nonlinear narrative, each jump between threads a time skip, and keeping the lines straight is the job of timelines across POVs and flashbacks.