HOW TO DO SUBPLOTS - THE RIGHT WAY

what's up my friend Abbi here and welcome back to writers life Wednesday I know it should be the other way around because I'm back from hiatus but let's not digress today we're talking about subplots what they are why they matter and how to include them in your story without annoying your readers and losing their interest and I'm going to share with you the one quick question that you can ask yourself to determine whether any subplot is good or just a distracting the sideshow ready to take some notes okay first things first what are subplots subplots can be defined as a secondary story that receives less screen time or story time and less emphasis than the main plot at their best subplots are supposed to enhance the main theme and conflict of the story doesn't sound too hard right well it is some people would argue that we don't even need subplots the character that the readers really care about is the protagonist so why even waste time with other characters in their stories because other characters and their stories give your novel more layers of goodness for the reader to pull apart and they also give the reader other ways to grasp the themes that you're trying to deliver with your story so basically subplots can be powerful if they're done right and that's why today I'm going to show you what I believe are the keys to making subplots just as engaging as in the main plot and keeping track of them so that they don't take over your story or worse just distract from the main event okay so the first rule of subplots it is not plot it is a character I mean yes it's a plot but let me explain if you've been watching writers life Wednesday for any amount of time you know my mantra that I happily scream from the rooftops every chance I get and that is story is not about what happens it's about how what happens affects and transforms the characters now this goes for the main conflict of your story as well as the subplots so instead of starting a subplot and thinking I want this to happen to this side character instead start with something like I want this side character to learn fill in the blank like I said before subplots are usually designed to drive home a point that you're trying to make with your story and the point can only be delivered through a transformation that's gonna happen off to the side with this side character so wherever you write down your subplots try writing them down outlining them like this write the name of the character then explain preferably in one sentence what their role in the story is in relation to the protagonist what their agenda is and how they're going to impact the point of the story now that's very elaborate I know so I'm gonna use an example in our example today is going to be Pride and Prejudice because I'm obsessed no shame we all know that Pride and Prejudice is a story about just that how two people Elizabeth and mr. Darcy find true love through a series of challenging events that cause them to realize how prideful and prejudiced they both have been and transformed them into loyal selfless couple goals there are a lot of characters in this story and her go a few subplots one of the biggest subplots in this story is with Lizzie's sister Jane and if I were to outline the Jane subplot using the method I just mentioned character role agenda impact it would look something like this Jane Bennett Elizabeth's closest sister and confidant is on a quest to make a good match and hopefully find true love in the process she falls in love with the wealthy and charming mr. Bingley win win and their relationship raises red flags for Bingley's friend mr. Darcy who unfeelingly separates the couple and throws a monkey wrench into his own relationship with Elizabeth well I know there's a lot going on in that little description right there but stay with me if you want to make your subplots the strongest they can possibly be there's one question you have to ask yourself does my subplot directly engage with or impact the main conflict or main character in my story kind of a muddy question I know let me explain when your subplots stop affecting your protagonist they start to get dull because we care about the protagonist every time something happens outside their field of vision we are interested in it and we're anticipating what's gonna happen when the protagonist finds out about this essentially it's like this even if you think you have more than one protagonist in your story there is always going to be the one character that is really the main overarching character because we're gonna filter everything that happens through the perspective of that character okay so as I'm saying this you're probably thinking about your own book and you probably know the character that I'm talking about there's one character that all the readers are gonna filter what happens through their perspective you only know who that is now your job is to make sure your subplot directly engages with or impacts that character and as your subplot grows and changes and takes the direction of its own it doesn't have to keep continuously impacting the life of the main character but bonus points if it does because see our brains are constantly searching for meaning and everything how is this important how is this meaningful why does this matter if my protagonist meets a new character and then they part ways and we follow this new character home our brains are all on high alert like what's gonna happen over here with this new character and how is it gonna affect the person we care about the protagonist most writers get this right with the villain subplot because we're always making sure what's happening in the villains world is going to directly impact and engage with what's gonna go on in the protagonists world but we kind of stop after the villain it's like the villain is the only one that affects the protagonist and then we have these subplots with these characters that nobody cares about that the protagonist doesn't even care about and we're letting them steal the show see the protagonist is the yardstick that we measure everything by everything gets this importance from how important it is to the protagonist and that's why stories with no real protagonist are typically very lackluster so back to our example Pride and Prejudice let's just walk through the Jane subplot and see if it hits all these points in my character role agenda impact cry method character obviously our characters the sweet and long-suffering Jane Bennet role she's Lizzie's closest sister which means whatever happens to Jane she will feel on a very personal level agenda Jayne doesn't really have much of an agenda she just wants to marry well to someone she loves and the stars aligned for her when she meets a young man of large fortune impact now you want to think that this turn of events would have much of an impact on Lizzie's story but it does because Bingley's best friend is mr. Darcy and he has a big problem with Bingley and Jane being together he eventually separates the couple which is like a slap in Lizzie's face and that is what leads to a major rift between Darcy and Lizzy a rift that Darcy has to mend which causes both him and Lizzy to transform as characters no not all subplots have to be this seminal but bonus points if they are because there's nothing cooler than being able to point to something that happened offstage at the beginning of the story and be like that one person doing that one little thing had this huge impact on the rest of the story and everyone in it so that's the important thing to remember that's my rule of thumb if my subplot is not directly engaging with her impacting the main conflict or main character of my story I need to work on it some more until it does use my character role agenda impact cry method it really works what I like to do is just keep a list in my Scrivener project of all my subplots using the crime method and it helps me to just keep track of my subplots so that I know where they're headed and I can keep them on track so they don't steal the show so there it is that's how I organize my subplots and develop them so I know they're adding to the story not distracting from it comment below and tell me how do you develop subplots and what are some of your favorite subplots in fiction smash that like button if you like this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every Wednesday and I'd love to have you here in the community until next week my friend raka [Music] see

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 103,848

Keywords: writing, subplots, outlining, authortube, author, books, ya fiction, fiction, writing advice, abbie emmons, abbiee

Id: Whs7SRPZ0NY

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019