Thread: Multiple Simultaneous Scenes?

A question of technicality and structure.

The story I'm working on has multiple plotlines, following the lives of several individuals, each affecting each other's lives, but also going through their own independent issues. Their character arcs move on a timeline where all of them end up converging in a single moment in time to their own individual climaxes. These climaxes occur in different locations, while juxtaposed over a main scene to highlight the parallels between each character's struggle.

The film "Magnolia" does something close to this effect, where the many characters all reach their predestined ironies as each of them experiences the same phenomenon of frogs falling from the sky.

Writing this "multiple-scenes-converging-simultaneously" event has me puzzled. I'm contemplating writing each scene individually, then splicing them together with the main scene . Though, I'm not exactly sure this is the best approach.

Any advice, examples, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I'd do the following:


-Begin writing climax one
-Something big happens
-Switch to climax two
-Something big happens
-Repeat

Keep on switching, writing each one of them little by little. If you have more than three of those, try to split them in groups (if you have 4, write the less important pair first and then the more exciting one last). I wouldn't try juggling more than three at a time though, it would be confusing.