The ABCs of Subplots

Copyright © 2005 by Mary Lynn Mercer

 Subplots weave dimension and complexity into stories, and are as simple to create as learning ABC. The main plot line is often referred to as the "A" story. In My Fair Lady, the main plot involves Henry Higgins' passing off Eliza, a cockney flower girl, as a duchess. The "B" story is the secondary plot, or subplot, involving Freddy's courting Eliza. The "C" story, or tertiary subplot, involves Eliza's father becoming respectable.

All it takes is ABC, and sometimes D. Most stories can only support one to three subplots. Any more distracts readers from the "A" plotline and muddles the story. Each subplot is structured as a complete story. However, subplots do not float independently alongside each other or the main plot, because that dissipates focus and fractures reader identification.

Each subplot connects to the "A" story. They may intersect because the romantic interest in the subplot is the mother of the key murder witness in the main plot (Witness). They may connect because a subplot about wacky inventions contributes to the main characters' triumph over evil grasshoppers in the main plot (A Bug's Life). Good subplots are so integral to the story, that to strip them out would leave it unrecognizable.

As interconnected as subplots are with the main plot, their impact is indirect, at least until the end. In Spider-Man, Peter's frustrated romance with Mary Jane has little direct impact on his "A" story goal of saving the city from the Green Goblin. It does, however, complicate that goal by turning allies in the main plot into rivals, raising the stakes, and setting up events triggering the final confrontation with the antagonist. The relationship between the main plot and subplots is a constant tug-of-war. When the main character moves closer to the "A" story's goal, it's a step backward from the "B" or "C" story's goal. In moving closer to a subplot's goal, he moves away from the goal in the main plot.

A good subplot fleshes out a story in a number of ways. In plot-driven stories, a subplot often conveys the theme because the main character may be too busy with action in the "A" story to delve into deeper life issues. Subplots can deepen characterization by exploring a main character's desires, relationships, vulnerabilities, or growth. In character-driven stories, a subplot may carry the action in the story. That's the reason that when novels are adapted into movies, often the main plot and a subplot are transposed to increase the visible action onscreen.

Subplots are all about contrast--not recycling the events of plot "A." Maybe the main plot is about a large family escaping tyranny, while a subplot involves a group of nuns who stay behind (The Sound of Music). Maybe the subplot emphasizes family and loyalty, while the main plot involves isolation and betrayal (Witness).

Comic relief alone is generally not a good enough reason for a subplot to take up valuable space in the story, but if a subplot also succeeds at being funny, it can make the story more interesting. In Die Hard it's funny watching the limo driver in the parking garage spend much of the story time oblivious to the dangerous events happening around him. Even this minor subplot, however, has a higher value than humor. It helps characterize the hero in the beginning before plot "A" kicks into gear. Later it ties into the main plot when the limo driver foils a secondary villain's getaway.

Subplots can be about almost anything in a main character's private, personal, or professional life. Most subplots can be thought of in terms of relationships: a character's relationship with another person or thing. A subplot drawn from a character's private life might be stated simply as "the Jane/stamp-collecting subplot," "the Jane/golfing subplot," or "the Jane/perfect-purse subplot." A subplot derived from a character's personal life might involve Jane and her mother, or Jane and her roommate, or Jane and her pet bloodhound. Subplots originating in a character's professional life draw from complications in the workplace: Jane and her new boss, Jane trying to land a new client, or Jane's quest for a promotion. Either the main character or a secondary character can "star" in the subplot, carrying that story's goal, motivation, and conflict.

Wherever a subplot comes from, it is structured like the main plot with a beginning, middle, and end. What makes a subplot a subplot instead of the main plot is that some of the structural elements--initiating incident, turning points, black moment, resolution, etc.--may occur "offstage" or in exposition. The "A" story, whose structural elements all occur "onstage" or in action, takes the greatest number of pages. The secondary "B" story takes fewer pages than "A." The "C" story takes fewer pages than "B." If the story has a third subplot, that "D" plotline

takes fewer pages than "C."

A subplot's scenes can occur anywhere in a story. When there are several subplots, some may transpire entirely in a single Act. (There are three Acts. Act I = the beginning. Act II = the middle. Act III = the end.) For example, the movie Gone with the Wind's long running time provides ample opportunity for subplots to throw their weight around. The Scarlett/Frank-Kennedy subplot begins in Act I and ends in Act II. It's counterbalanced by the Rhett/Bonnie subplot in Act II and Act III.

For stories on a more modest scale than Margaret Mitchell's classic, it's best for subplots to have at least one scene in each Act. These scenes can be structured to bolster the impact of turning points in the main plot. For example, maybe the romantic crisis in plot "B" sets the hero reeling right before he faces the crisis with the villain in plot "A."

Ideally, subplots end when the main plot does, or sometimes right before. Like a domino affect, the resolution of one should set up the resolution of the other.

Subplots may seem complex, but really their job is only to make a novel seem that way to readers. Crafting a subplot can be as simple as writing a smaller story that:

A.) Takes place simultaneously with the main story.B.) Embellishes on an idea or character from the larger story in a new way.C.) Impacts the novel's resolution.

ABC is more than the beginning of the alphabet. When crafting subplots, it can be the beginning of a three-dimensional journey in storytelling.