Having multiple arcs at the same time.

[Blackout]

It's normal for anime, manga and their Western counterparts to have one arc at any given time. Will it be confusing if there are multiple arcs at the same time, all of them involving the MC? I mean, it sometimes happens during real life, right?

 

[Mr.Grey-Cat]

it happens even in anime, you know? it's just that you don't feel it much.
though for the clear case, there is an anime like KumoDesu where the story is too confusing but is still awesome.

so it totally depends on how you will do things because as you can guess but work on multiple arcs at once is hard.

 

[Deleted member 58005]

Mine are kinda like that. The two sub-stories aren't about the MC, but his two co-workers who were also reincarnated. Eventually they'll meet, of course.

 

[SpiraSpira]

It’s not that unusual but generally speaking equal time is not given to each “arc.” The most common way this happens is that there are overarching arcs while other ones are going on. For example, a character suddenly wakes up to discover he or she is now been sent to the past to when he or she was a child! They have the overarching goal to save their family from something terrible that happens sometime in the future, and also reconcile with them because they were a shitty teenager in the past. To save them they need money, but now they have knowledge from the future.

In this outline there are several arcs happening at once, first the main one is prevent a future catastrophe — this is the overarcing goal that will tend to tie together our MC’s exploits into some serialized drama, second is to reconcile with family, third is make money. In most story-telling the “make money” arc would be given the most time because it is the most exciting or full of possibility while at the same time some time would be used to show the character reconciling with his or her family, how they are more grown up now and not as childish, etc etc. You could even add a forth arc on here where they suddenly become a top student and it wouldn’t be out of place.

 

[Lloyd]

Arcs are just a largely informal way to separate the story into chunks based on what's happening in the main plot. You can have multiple plots / subplots but not multiple arcs at the same time.

 

[TheTrinary]

Yea of course. Character arcs. Main story arc. B and C plot arcs.

You've seen it before, you just aren't looking at it in that way so you don't notice.

 

[KrisVFX]

It's normal for anime, manga and their Western counterparts to have one arc at any given time. Will it be confusing if there are multiple arcs at the same time, all of them involving the MC? I mean, it sometimes happens during real life, right?

Idk about others but i prefer when the novel focuses only on the MC. It gives the feelings as if I am living the life of the main character. People have different preferences where they want to read other's perspectives and side stories (in your case different acrs)
But for the new readers, different arcs at the same time is going to be hella confusing.
Or not, since it depends how you manage the story.

 

[Jemini]

It's normal for anime, manga and their Western counterparts to have one arc at any given time. Will it be confusing if there are multiple arcs at the same time, all of them involving the MC? I mean, it sometimes happens during real life, right?

Yes, it's very common in all forms of mainstream story-telling.

It's called the "A plot" and the "B plot." There is a reason why they are named like that. The idea is that you should make the "A plot" your main focus and dedicate the most time to it, while slowly progressing the "B plot" as an under-current to the "A plot." Normally, "B plots" are stories that would be a lot shorter if they were told all at once, and only go on so long because they are stretched out and told in increments over the course of the "A plot."

In long-run stories though, it is possible for a "B plot" to be extremely long and stretch out over the course of multiple "A plot" arcs over the course of a larger story. In these scenarios, it is often the case that the extended "B plot" is actually more of a through-line that ties all of the smaller "A plots" together. An example would be in One Piece, the quest for the treasure at the end of the grand-line in order to become pirate king. Or, in Detective Conan, the quest to ferret out details on the black organization.

A few final details. While it is normally the practice to have only one "A plot" arc active at a time, you can have as many "B plots" as makes sense for your story. There is also such a thing as a "C plot." A "C plot" is usually a sub-plot that is generated from one of the "B plot" arcs. They tend to be comparatively short, and serve a purpose of supporting the "B plot" somehow. You never hear about a "D plot." This is because if your "C plot" actually spawns a "D plot," then you are way too deep in the weeds and you have probably already lost your readers by that point. So, I recommend against "D plots." Reviewers actually deride writers who create them as having written an absolutely confusing mess of a plot, and use the fact that "D plots" exist to be an example of why it's so bad.

 

[TheHelpfulFawn]

It depends on how it is done. I have seen people write multiple arcs at the same time. Switching from one character's perspective to another from chapter to chapter or even mid-chapter. For me, I think it gets too confusing with all the necessary info-dumping needed for the readers to understand context of the situation and dialogue.