The Writing Life Too

Last night I was walking along the Springwater trail near my neighborhood and the sky was like an ocean of boiling clouds—so dramatic and beautiful. This morning they are a ‘whiter shade of pale ’ or grey and the sky is supposed to clear by afternoon. I’ve been working on a client’s manuscript the last few days and wanted to say something about subplots.

I’ve been studying subplots in the novels that I’ve been reading for the past few years. When I wrote Between the Lines my chapter on subplot was the last one I turned in to my editor and it never felt quite complete to me, so I’ve wanted to keep adding to my knowledge of the subject. It seems to me that sometimes subplots make or break a novel. Too many and it can become chaotic, too few and the story is flat and closed in. My client has got an intriguing concept for his 99,000 word manuscript, but two of his subplots are overshadowing the main plot and I’m creating a memo that I hope will help him balance out the manuscript. You see there are many aspects of balance in fiction and when a subplot is given too much weight in the story, it becomes unbalanced. I like to think of subplots as a means to provide complications and to prove that fiction, like life is dense and intricate.

S.ubplots are miniature stories woven into the main story, like threads woven into a tapestry, complete and intriguing in their own right, and serve to contrast, reinforce, or divert attention from the main plot. They are secondary actions in a story, complete and interesting in their own right. There may be more than one subplot, and sometimes as many as three, four, or even more running through a piece of fiction. Generally short stories do not contain subplots and subplots are distinguished from the main plot by taking up less action and having less significance.

Subplots enhance and deepen every aspect of story including the theme. Subplots are devices that drive fiction along with the protagonist’s emotional growth, dramatic action, and the significance of theme and premise. Subplots can involve the main characters in actions other than the main story line, or are based around secondary characters or can combine both. These stories within stories can run the entire length of the plot where they’re resolved near the climax or at the climax, or they can have a short run and end long before the climax.

Here are more tips for subplots:

• The number of subplots in your novel will depend on its length. The longer the novel, the more room you have for multiple subplots.
• Typically a shorter novel (60,000 -80,000 words) contains at minimum a main storyline, a second storyline or subplot starring the protagonist and a second subplot featuring a secondary character. A longer novel (100,000 + words) adds an additional five subplots (or more) featuring secondary characters or viewpoint characters in lesser storylines.
• Subplots will always have fewer words and scenes than the main storyline.
• Generally subplots are introduced after the inciting incident and deepened in the middle of the novel. However, a subplot can open the story instead of an inciting incident, be followed by the inciting incident, or can set the story in motion. When the main storyline arrives later the purpose of this structure is to acquaint readers with the protagonist and the story world before launching into the ramifications of the inciting incident. It’s important that if you use a subplot to start off the story that you stay true to the genre.
• The best subplots arise from a crisis.
• Subplots are effective devices for featuring main characters sorting out painful emotions.
• Subplots can be used as breathing room in the midst of intense events.
• Subplots can be also be designed from weather, setting, environment if they have a major impact on the main storyline such as when a storm or hurricane isolates characters on an island so that they cannot escape the danger there.
• The most effective subplots affect the outcome of the main storyline.
• The best subplots cause unbearable complications in the character’s life.
• The best subplots bring contrast to the story and cause it to range further and possibly explore different classes of people, subcultures, and lifestyles.
• Subplots are often best used to strengthen the middle of the story.
• Generally most subplots are resolved but there are sometimes exceptions such as when the outcome is left dangling in longer works or in series fiction.
• The protagonist’s or main character’s subplot, like the main storyline, will be focused around a goal. This goal will be met with opposition, causing additional conflict, tension and suspense.
• When plotting or outlining, it’s helpful to develop a hierarchy of your subplots.
• Avoid focusing too long on a single subplot, keep juggling the various threads of the storyline and subplots.
• Subplots never rehash events that have occurred in the main storyline.
• When designing a subplot ask yourself if it adds to the intimacy, intricacy and texture of the whole.
• When designing subplots ask yourself who are your most important secondary characters and their relationships to the protagonist.
• Remember that subplots are still plots and require the same elements of fiction as the main storyline, although they may not be a part of the full novel from beginning to end. Often they have a setup or inciting incident, the first plot point, a midcourse reversal, and resolution. Each subplot is associated with a secondary character.
• Subplots have many purposes, but many show complexities in your characters, prove that the story world is lifelike, a complicated, teeming place.
• The best subplots are a natural outgrowth of the main story and most contribute to the resolution of the plot in some fashion.
• Subplots are a great means to illustrate inner conflict.
• Use a subplot to expose a side of the protagonist that will not be revealed in the main storyline, such as how he interacts with more vulnerable characters.
• Subplots can be used to foreshadow events in the main story.
• Subplots can be linked to the back story if connected to the front story and changing the outcomes of the front story.
• Subplots often are structured of rising action then falling action.
• Generally subplots will contain less exposition and description than in the main story.