Not sure if there is a name for this approach (the cliffhanger approach?), but some writers like Dan Brown do this thing where they have a main plot and a subplot, and each chapter alternates between the two - so that, say, all the odd-numbered chapters (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 etc) are about the main plot, and all the even-numbered chapters (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) are about the subplot.
I get the purpose - it’s to keep the reader continuously tantalized, like a TV show ending each segment on a cliffhanger, but IMHO it achieves exactly the opposite effect - it only serves to ensure that the reader can never get fully “into” the story because as soon as he/she is immersed in the story, he/she is promptly yanked right back out from the main story to go to the subplot (or vice versa.) I find it massively frustrating. It’s like eating a meal and dessert, except that you’re forced to alternate with one bite of steak and then one bite of apple pie and then back to the steak and then back to the apple pie. I would rather have the novel come in big blocks: Several chapters in a row all about the main plot, then several chapters in a row about sub-plot, etc.
TV Tropes calls this “Two Lines, No Waiting”. The literature section of the page lists a number of authors who are known for this technique.
Tv shows and movies that do this can be confusing as hell unless very well crafted, but with books it’s a bit less frustrating as it’s easier to skip about. But I get your point though.
I like stories that have more than one plotline and this this approach is perfectly fine for a low number of lines.
Not exactly the same, but reminds me of George RR Martin’s way of splitting up the A Song of Ice and Fire books. Each chapter is about a different character and in his or her internal voice, then the next chapter changes to another character who often is in an entirely different place with different events happening and it may be several chapters to get back to the previous character (or sometimes they may only show up in a different character’s chapter, sometimes even just as a bit part). You want to know what happens next to Jon Snow? Too bad, it’s a Dany chapter.
I may be missing something but I think the majority of novels I read are split along two or more plot lines.
Reading a lot of detective fiction at the moment, and would typically have plot lines following the perpetrator, victims and the detective main character which intersect at crucial moments. If done badly, I agree it can be a mess but I think when competently done adds to the plot being interesting, allowing for surprise twists or unfolding the story behind the story, and can give you grown-up and well crafted characterisation.
When I read “A Dance With Dragons”, I skipped all of the Daenerys chapters (because I found them to be the least interesting part of the previous books) and then went back and read them afterwards. I thought that was actually a slight improvement.
A book I remember doing this literally (alternating) is Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (mentioned in TVTropes). A pseudo-realistic story interleaved with a fantasy world, and it’s not clear until the end how they relate.
Not strictly alternating. But books 4 and 5 would’ve been especially frustrating as they are roughly occurring at the same time, but feature completely different casts. Want to know what Davos is up to? Gotta wait 11 years.
For me, the Cersei chapters were the biggest slog. Well written, but it was a lot of Nixonian paranoiac fantasies. Maybe Bran, too.
in the 90s there was a really good biography on guns and roses but for some reason, the author decided to include some weird thesis comparing the band to ancient mythology and modern psychology every other chapter
i tried reading the first one but after that i just read the biography chapters which were great
the reviews i read agreed with me they said read the odd number chapters and skip the twaddle in the even ones…
Which is fine when that’s your choice. It is is really annoying when some plotlines are left entirely out of books or volumes of a series and you have to wait for yet another publishing date to get to your favorites.