By A.C. Williams by @acw_author 

I love complicated stories, don’t you? Stories that reach to far-flung imaginary worlds are my cup of tea, and I love bold heroes who’ve survived tragic backstories that come back to haunt them in unexpected ways. And no matter what story or series I read, I always ALWAYS cheer for the side characters.

Complex stories scratch an itch in my storytelling brain. That’s one reason why I write complex stories. My “heart” stories are all part of one massive series of books that can only be described as the Marvel Cinematic Universe in full-length novel form. They don’t sell well because they defy categorization, but that’s where my heart is.

As of late, I’ve been noticing in several recent edits that the same issue keeps appearing over and over again, where an author is trying to tell too many stories within one book.

But isn’t that what makes a complicated story great? Telling more than one story in a book?

Here’s one of the greatest paradoxes of storytelling: You can only tell one story at a time.

Now, of course, there are subplots, and subplots and secondary characters are essential to most stories. But if one of your subplots or secondary characters becomes more interesting or important than you main plot or your main character, you’ve got a problem.

Your story should have one main plot. Your main character should have one main goal. And both the plot and the character’s external goal should come from the growth journey of your main character (the character arc).

But how do you know what story to choose? How do you know what your character wants? How do you know which path to select when you have so many stories you want to tell? And why can’t you just cram five different main storylines into a single manuscript? People love complicated stories.

Believe me, I get it. But when you shoe-horn multiple main plots into one book, all you manage to do is confuse your readers. The average reader can’t truly follow more than one story at a time in a novel.

Now, some of the confusion can be cut down by writing with an ensemble cast, but that’s a whole different conversation. Maybe we’ll talk about that next month. Writing with multiple main character perspectives in a novel is one of the most difficult choices you can make as an author. And even then you STILL need to decide on one main story for the book as a whole.

Even the most complicated novels and series out there have one main story. Look at the Lord of the Rings. Yes, it has a vast cast of characters, and they all have different goals and stories, but everything is secondary compared to the story of Frodo Baggins and his quest to destroy the Ring of Power.

What about Harry Potter? Same thing. Many MANY beloved characters, all with complex histories and individual growth arcs (I’m a huge Neville Longbottom fan, myself), but the primary story from book to book is Harry’s growth as a wizard and his subsequent showdown with the evil Voldemort.

Whether you’re talking about the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, the Shannara Chronicles by Terry Brooks, the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, or any other epic, huge series with a huge cast of characters, each book still has a MAIN character and a MAIN story.

And, my friends, if Brandon Sanderson can tell one story, I guarantee that we can (and should) too.

So how do you know what story to tell? That’s the hard part. How do you know what character to focus on? How can you know what is a sub-plot and what is a main plot?

First, you need to know your characters. Which characters are going to play central roles in the story you’re telling? After you’ve identified what characters are even in your story, then you need to identify what each of them want.

That’s the other issue I see with most manuscripts: The characters have no goals. We need to understand what your characters want to accomplish.

Once you know what each of your characters want, that will help you understand the story’s stakes. What happens if they accomplish their goal? What happens if they don’t accomplish their goal? How will achieving that goal (or not achieving it) change them as a person?

The most important question you can ask yourself about your story is this: Which character has the most growing to do?

By the end of your story, which character will have changed the most? Which character will have shifted his or her mindset? What does that character have to experience in order to become who they need to be?

In general, that is your main character. And the main story is the journey he or she goes on to accomplish that growth.

Find the one story in your story and focus on it. You can add subplots. You can add secondary characters, but keep the main thing the main thing. Not only will this help your readers stay engaged, but it will also help you summarize the story you’re writing more efficiently and effectively.

Award-winning author A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. She’d rather be barefoot, and if she isn’t, her socks won’t match. She has authored eight novels, three novellas, three devotional books, and more flash fiction than you can shake a stick at. A senior partner at Uncommon Universes Press, she is passionate about stories and the authors who write them. Learn more about her book coaching and follow her adventures online at www.amycwilliams.com.