Several television shows I enjoy reached a point where they decided to split up their cast and follow them separately. It doesn’t always work well. In the cop show Castle , they used the detour then put the cast back together. In the musical high school Glee , they are still trying to hang onto the old cast and follow a new cast and the show suffers for it. The same is true of a book that follows two separate plot threads. A parallel plot generally tells two stories of equal importance, moving from one to the other and back again as opposed to a subplot. It is hard to get caught up in one plot when the writer keeps the verbal camera moving between two separate story lines, especially if they don’t connect. The potential for plot holes is enormous. If you choose a parallel plot, ask yourself these questions: 1. Who do you want the reader to care about? Splitting the focus between two protagonists weakens the reader’s attachment to them. Every time you move the verbal camera...