Subplots

Some approaches I've seen work...

The same problem affects different characters in different ways. The race to reach The Thing Of Power brings both the powerful good guys and the powerful bad guys to a Certain Place. Certain Place has its own set of problems and its own not-so-powerful good guys and not-so-powerful bad guys. Put The Thing Of Power into the hands of the not-so-powerful bad folks, who will attempt to manipulate the powerful good guys into aiding their cause in return for their cooperation.

Up the ante for the protagonist by piling more problems on him. The accusation he faces not only threatens his job, it threatens his marriage and his standing in the community. All will be made right if he can prove his innocence, but until he does everything is spiraling down the loo. Make him sweat just as much at home as at the office.

Every character is the center of his own universe. Pretend it's a subplot and the reader will play along. Weren't we reading about Frodo and Sam just a minute ago? Oh yeah. It's the same story, we're just following the other characters now.

Don't even bother. Even the most linear plot can hold the readers' interest if the characters are compelling enough. Try writing from the bad guy's POV for some sections. Wouldn't the final third of LOTR been even more interesting if we'd had chapters from Gollum's perspective? Or Sauron's?


In my WIP, the characters come with subplots of their own simply because I've put so much effort into developing them and their motivations. They've got lives and problems beyond The Big Problem. That fact fleshes them out, and it gives me more to work with, and more ways to create and relieve tension, during the denouement stage.

Do the subplots add anything - drama, understanding of the characters, depth to the story - or are they just there as padding? If the latter, it's probably the main story that needs the work.

I do plan my subplots, but they're always a part of the character/story development. They're like a tight weave. They add complexity and flavor, but never distract from the main plot.

I agree that each character should have their own lives and they think they're the center of the story... so there would be a lot of subplots. It depends on if and how you present them -- what do they add to the main story?

Uncle Jim's three big criteria: Do they advance the "main" story, develop characters, or strengthen the themes?

In my first book, I DO NOT have obvious subplots (in the traditional sense where we follow other characters), since the story was linear and told in first person. But they are there, revealed in different ways (narration, dialogue, characters' absense -- What are they doing behind the scene? What would be the consequences and how do they affect the plot? -- letters, phone calls, foreshadowing, etc.) There's also a parallel thread going on, tied closely to the theme and also the main story, but we won't know until the very end. My characters also go off and do something (without the protagonist's knowledge) -- so their stories go on -- and their actions affect the protagonist's decisions and actions and the main story. So my subplots are very subtle, but they're there, tightly integrated with the main story.

When I was writing "Angels Among Us", the main subplot jumped out at me when the hero revealed his society is homosexual and he's a closet hetero. This led to his personal development as the main story unfolded, but also let me look at critical issues in his home world, like reproduction and family and all kinds of stuff.

Then another character threw another snippet at me and the next thing I knew I had a series of subplots which I had never intended to exist all woven into the tapestry of the story. It actually worked out pretty well, to my surprise and delight.

Torin

I always have subplots, but they are interwoven with the main plot. That is, I list what each character Wants, and choose the Want that would most conflict with or aid in the MC's main quest. The MC also has his own subplot, but it, too, is interwoven with the main plot. All the threads are brought together and wrapped up in the end.

One character seemed to have no Want other than escaping his prison and returning home. I needed to take care of a loose end in the form of a little boy orphaned by the actions of the villain, so I gave the imprisoned character a history that would compel him to take in the little boy.

Honestly, I think subplots are innate in every single story already, and you don't have to do any work on them.

As long as the main story and your characters are right, your subplots will develop all on their own. But, that's just my two cents.

I do both. Some are planned, some are not. In a sense, some of us fly by the seat of our pants more than others. If I conceive of a character or plot-line, they don't always work. No matter how you tweek it, the thing doesn't come out on the pages like you thought it would, and yet the story itself is good as a whole. That means you have to change directions. Some people are better at that than others. A rigid structure wouldn't work as well for me.

As for me, I like to allow for a bit of spontaneous discovery. If in my writing, I grow fond of particular person, or couple, I may build a secondary plot around them, or their relationship.

I believe in what I call Incidental Inspiration, which is accidently saying something very profound and meaningful, moreso than what you planned to say.

This can all get very psychological or quasi-spiritual. But we all have a different approach to things. In science, they realize that some people are right-brained dominant, others left-brained. People can write from either side, but what and how they write will differ. I tend to be most creative when I am spontaneous. Others would do better by mapping everything out, and don't fly by the seat of their pants.

We say things subconsciously. Some called them "Freudian slips", in that we have a conscious and subconscious mind, and the two don't always know what the other is thinking. Sometimes our most creative moments aren't planned or mapped out. So, while I am writing my story, something may jump out that I like and want to keep that was entirely unplanned. I love those moments. In a sense, perhaps sometimes it's inspiration, other times a part of your mind clicking in.

You think, "Wow, this wasn't what I was planning, but it's better." In my opinion, creativity should never be too anal (Obsessive compulsive-it has to go like this-this is the exact formulae-you must never deviate) where there isn't room for flexibility. Allowing for unplanned sub-plots really works for me. I'm not sure it works for others as we all think very differently.

TashaGoddard said:

Where do your subplots come from?

Do you plan out your subplots at the start, along with the main plot, or do they come to you as you're writing?

How important is it to have a subplot/subplots?

Do the subplots need to be related to the main plot or can they just be something else that the protag needs to deal with?

I'm in the process of rejigging my outline (again!) and feel it needs some subplotting, but I'm not really coming up with any ideas.

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Subplots don't come to me at all. I never even think about them. I just tell a story, and any good story is going to have subplots, even if you never think about them at all. It is, I think, darned near impossible to write pulishable novel that doesn't have subplots, even if you never think about subplots, and don't even know what a subplot is.

My problem with planned subplots is they seldom seem to merge well with the overall story.

In truth, a subplot is nothing more than a secondary problem or complication or storyline, and any character who is acually fleshed out will have secondary problems and complications without the need to plan them.

Lack of subplots usually just means the writer is producing one dimensional characters who have no life outside the immediate plot problem.

Jamesaritchie said:

In truth, a subplot is nothing more than a secondary problem or complication or storyline, and any character who is acually fleshed out will have secondary problems and complications without the need to plan them.

Lack of subplots usually just means the writer is producing one dimensional characters who have no life outside the immediate plot problem.

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I think this sums it up nicely. I find my subplots eminate from the main characters' problems, internal and external, or even the minor characters' relationships with them.

I have never consciously set out to create any sub plots. They simply happen in the course of telling the main story. When I discover them during rewrites I will sometimes expand them, sometimes delete them, and sometimes leave them as they are.

Beth

The subplots I've created are intertwined with the main plot. Some I hadn't planned out and fit into place. The ones I've planned are a bit bigger than the others, but are harder to put in place.
My subplots usually come from the world around and the characters' reactions. If they make a mistake, then it gives an interesting twist and gives you more freedom to write. Of course that shouldn't be done too often unless your character has really bad luck or something. If they succeed, then everyone can get on with the storyline.

Good luck with your outline, TashaGoddard!

Jamesaritchie said:

Subplots don't come to me at all. I never even think about them. I just tell a story

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Same here. Maybe readers can identify subplots in my books, but I can't--for me, it's all just plot.

- Victoria

I don't have subplots.

there are a few things which could be considered diversions from the central storyline, but it's still part of the plot. everything that happens is connected to oone of two things, which quickly become related. absdolutely everything tiesw together in the end- if part ofnthe story does not change what happens in the end, i cut it.

I have one clear story, i just try to make it textured, that is, give it many different levels and layers which twist and wrap togther. but if it starts to unravel, i snip off the threads that sdiverge from the center.