parallel narrative
Concurrent story threads
Parallel narrative is a storytelling technique where two or more storylines unfold simultaneously, often cutting between them.
The narratives may eventually converge, reveal thematic connections, or remain separate while illuminating each other through contrast: The film's parallel narratives follow a father in wartime and his daughter decades later.
Common in novels, films, and television.
- interweavingCrossing strands alternately
- subplotSubordinate narrative strand
- alternatingOccurring in turns
- back and forthRepeated alternating movement
- juxtapositionAdjacent contrasting placement
side by side · flashback · past and present · crosscut · cut to · braided · split screen · meanwhile · converging · thread · timeline · montage · interlocking · mirror · echo · counterpoint · simultaneous · intersection
- storytellingstorytelling, story, tale, storyteller, story time
- narrative techniquesflashback, nonlinear plot, flash-forward, point of view, first person
- storytelling techniquesflashback, voiceover, subplot, flash forward, twist
- Franchise Mediacinematic universe, expanded universe, extended universe, shared universe, franchise
- narrationfirst person, second person, third person, voice-over, telling
- narrative voicefirst person, third person, POV, point of view, limited
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