Subplots that feed the main plot
Sidle up to your main plot sideways by creating a subplot or two around it. If you're starting here, use this story idea: Why did the protagonist fake those maps? Your subplot's still a complete story arc, but featuring a secondary character, and wrapping around the main plot: touching its theme, affecting its outcome, intertwined.
Use these prompts to whisk up a subplot, by writing your answers to each one in turn.
- Who is the protagonist trying to fool, with the faked maps?
- What's going on in that person's life?
- Why do the maps matter to that person?
- What will happen to them if they fall for the fakes?
- What will happen if they discover the maps aren't real?
- How will their falling for the maps, or discovering they're fakes, affect the protagonist?
If you did yesterday's prompt on Themes, flip back through your characters' argument: is there any aspect of that which is relevant to your subplot? Can you draw on those ideas, to act out an idea from your theme through your subplot?
What have you discovered about your main plot and your protagonist through the subplot?
For more on Subplots, you can download Story Elements: The Complete Set - only available until 30 December 2014. Find out more, see previews, and download it here.
Tomorrow we're writing with... Detail.
