Plot B – The man downs five straight bourbons in a row. Plot A – The kids are excited, the teacher and ranger explain what they’ll be seeing today. Plot B – A man drives to a bar for a drink. The kids and teachers arrive and get off the bus with their bags. Plot A – It’s a school trip to a national park. Here’s a simple idea to demonstrate the concept: Just make sure it’s something that the plot lines each have in common – don’t force them to join in an unnatural way, or your efforts will feel artificial and unbelievable. ![]() They may come together through a location, a specific person, an event, or anything else you choose. If it’s of heavier importance, it could feature more frequently, even driving the character(s) involved to step away from the central path for a while.įor the revelatory subplot, apparently disparate storylines may commence at the same time, before one takes precedence over the others as they gradually come together. If your subplot is minor to the overall message or meaning you want to convey to your readers, simply pull back a little and give it fewer chapters, spaced further apart, relative to your main plot. You can make the converging subplot any size. Because of general storytelling conventions, the reader automatically knows to expect that this minor storyline will eventually come back around and converge with the main one. This is down to the fact that these subplots involve characters that have already been introduced and established as important, but they’re breaking away for a short time to complete their own smaller arc. This is the standard kind of subplot, and usually they feel connected to the main story as soon as they appear. ![]() For the rest of the story, either alternate between them or quickly resolve the subplot and have its resolution cause ripples in the primary conflict. Only after you have established your main plot and readers know what the driving conflict is do you then begin the second plot. Start the story with your main plot and characters, and introduce your protagonist. This is a subplot that springs to life parallel to the main plot, before converging at a later point. Here are a few methods you can use to work subplots into your novel: If it’s a major character, they get more story time for a minor character, their story will be a subplot. What makes a character’s story a subplot rather than a main plot is the time you dedicate to revealing and resolving their dilemma. The individual dilemma that each of these characters faces, and the potential resolutions for such, is equally important to know. This means you need to know them well – so start by creating backgrounds and qualities for three-dimensional characters that will populate and propel your story. ![]() To begin, remember that every character presents their own potential for an individual plot. Patch potential plot holes in your main storyline.Change the ‘mood’ of a portion of the story (an action novel, for example, might relax a little when sliding into a comedic subplot).Reveal additional information to your characters or to the reader.Provide opportunities for your main characters to grow (or even become corrupt).Think of subplots as strands of story that support or drive the main plot. So something feels ‘off’ or overly convenient when your narrative follows a line as straight as Legolas’s arrows, and readers can easily pick up on this – usually by complaining that the story feels underdeveloped or too simplistic. When something big happens, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum – day to day reality frequently throws interruptions, unexpected delays, and sucker punches at you on a constant basis. That’s because major events in real life rarely progress in isolation. Instead, subplots bring realism to your narrative by existing alongside the primary story. ![]() Naturally, yes, it is – but that doesn’t mean that subplots are complete detours from the main event, or lazy distractions designed solely to pad out your word count. What use are subplots? You have a story to tell, and any good novel is supposed to stay laser-focused on what really matters, isn’t it?
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