a matter of timing

[marycatelli]

When you have two stories running in parallel and two events connect them --

Those two have to happen in the same order.

Which is to say, when the heroine finds the castle in the condition after the first story, and the hero had set out to do something and been turned back, before the first story, not only does the hero have to do it first, I have to explain the time gap between that and when the heroine acts.

The easiest way to do that is to have him get lost on the way home. Lots of stories where the hero gets lost in the woods, but those generally end with his promising his firstborn to some monster. Possibly through some riddling request. Though if he refuses, that would prolong it, usefully. On the other hand, he will need some other way out.

sigh Many fairy tales just put a character on a shelf until needed. In The Three Princes and their Beasts, the oldest brother goes off on his chosen road and fights robbers, kills a dragon, marries a princess, and gets lost while his brothers just go down theirs, come back (at different times), and try to rescue him.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Other types of stories invent reasons for a character to stay out of the story for a while, so the situation won't be resolved too quickly or the other characters get a chance to shine. In The Hobbit, Gandalf is off fighting Sauron for much of the story. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes decides he can work more effectively by staying off the scene.

[marycatelli]

Oh, yes, but the trick is that it has to be genre-appropriate. Holmes isn't going to fight a necromancer, even one not yet revealed as a Dark Lord.