#subplots

thecharactercomma:

Do you ever have scenes with 6+ people and you can’t seem to juggle them all? Or do you ever want to get 2-3 characters in a scene together for some quality relationship development, but that means sending the other characters elsewhere?

I’ve compiled a list of “off-screen” things your character can be doing, for any time you need them to be temporarily somewhere else. With this list comes with a few caveats:

1. If you find yourself always sending the same character somewhere else to a point where that character never actually gets much page time, are you sure you actually need that character in your novel? Don’t use this an excuse to keep deadweight characters that are 100% unnecessary to your plot, but your heart can’t bear to cut. Either draw them back into the plot as a necessary element, or get rid of them.
2. This is only for temporarily getting rid of someone—meaning for a short amount of time, and infrequently. It starts to feel weird if your character always happens to be taking their nap when something happens, and if you’re not careful, it’ll come off as lazy writing. Use this kind of thing sparingly.
3. Sometimes, you’ll need to have a result to their temporary absence. For example, if you say they’re off spying on the bad guy, occasionally they need to come back with a tidbit of info. Not all of their missions will be a success, but again, it’ll start to feel fake if there’s no point to the spying.

And now to the list! There are two sections to it, depending on if your character to be doing something actively plot-related and useful while they’re away, or if you want them to stay uninvolved. Both have their uses depending on the situation.

Active:

• Captured by the enemy
  
• Fighting in a different area
  
• Guarding a captured enemy
  
• Protecting someone in potential danger
  
• Researching the problem
  
• Spying/recon
  
• Training to fight
  
• Watching someone suspicious
  
• With another character (off-screen relationship building)
  

Passive:

• At school/work
  
• Doing a hobby
  
• Hunting for food
  
• Injured/sick/in the hospital
  
• On vacation
  
• Out of the loop (no one told them about the meeting, etc)
  
• Sleeping
  

The passive list could be incredibly longer, but I tried to list enough for you to get the idea. Whatever you pick, make sure it makes sense in your plot and setting, and like I warned before, don’t use this as an excuse to hold onto deadweight characters.

Working this kind of downtime into your novel isn’t bad, since it can take up the necessary but boring actions that your story needs. Someone learning how to fight, for example, won’t learn everything in a week. By occasionally putting them “off-screen” to train, you’re further convincing us that he or she has trained enough to pull off a future scene where they hold their own in battle. It’ll also give a sense that other characters are working in the background and getting things done, even if your protagonist or narrator isn’t always there to see it, which is realistic, of course. It’s not like everyone else freezes in place the moment your protag isn’t around.

–E

yourlocalwriterblog:

Some genres shy away from antagonists that take the form of a person or physical being. Adult contemporary especially tends to focus on internal antagonism. Side antagonists can be found in all types of stories, though, and they don’t all have to be a person. It’s good to mix it up and keep it interesting!

Here are examples of metaphorical antagonists:

• Self-doubt
  
• Mental illness
  
• Grief
• Impulsive/risky behavior
• Nature/Weather/Natural disasters
• Physical illness
• Poverty, Bills, and Debt
• Insecurity
• Family legacy
• Laws, Rules, and Protocol
• Monotony 
• Soul-crushing job
• School
• Loveless relationship
• Aloneness/Isolation
• Lack of resources
• Night time (or day time)

Feel free to add more!

So you’ve written your outline, maybe even your first draft, and you’re a bit worried about the length. Maybe it’s too short for your genre. Maybe you feel something’s missing. Well fear not! There are many ways you can flesh out your plot without making it feel botched and pointless. 

1)Check your beats. Whether or not you’re actively using Save the Cat! as a structure, the beats make for good inspiration. Do you have a clear theme? Do you have a clear catalyst? Do you have a mid-point that raises the stakes? Do you have a B plot? If you’re missing any of these, it might be a good idea to weave them in. 

2)Foreshadowing.This is a good time to ask yourself if you’ve foreshadowed your plot twists and major character decisions. Have you laid the groundwork? Is it justified in the text? If not, you might want to add another couple of scenes that show the reasoning behind the plot twits and big decisions in your novel. 

3)Light Relief. If you really want your reader to feel something when reading your book, you need good dynamics. That means soaring highs before tragic lows. If your book lacks light relief, your reader will become used to the tragedy and it won’t have the same impact. Don’t underestimate the need for a bit of fluff here and there. 

4)Relationships.No, I am not talking about your romantic interest. I’m talking about friends, family, enemies. Explore how you can develop these, how they shape the character. If you’re planning on killing one of them off, make sure we see how much they mean to the protagonist to ensure it will really hurt the reader.

So there you have it, just a few ideas for fleshing out your plot. Feel free to add any other you can think of below! Happy writing! 

[Please credit @isabellestonebooks if reposting to instagram] 

So far on my blog, I’ve covered the first two steps of writing a novel: developing realistic characters and coming up with a plot. Congratulations! You now have an A plot. 

An A plot is the surface level plot. It’s what your character is doing and what’s happening to them. This plot deals with questions like:

• What is wrong with my character’s life at the beginning of the novel?
• What do they think will fix their lives when—spoiler alert—it won’t?
• Why haven’t they achieved this goal yet?
• What catalyst (or inciting incident) will cause them to get off their butts and start chasing this goal for real? 

Now it’s time to move on to the B plot. The B plot is about your character’s development and changing who they are as a person. This is about working out not what your character wants but what they need.

Remember all those flaws we gave our characters? This is where we need to ask the questions:

• How does this flaw affect the rest of my hero’s life?
  
• Do my characters flaws get in the way of them achieving their goal? 
• How is the plot going to help them realise this flaw and overcome it by the end of the novel after their breaking point?
• How is overcoming this flaw really going to make their lives better?
  

This character development is what gives novels their sparkle. The A plot is what makes your plot interesting, but the B plot is what makes your charactersinteresting. 

[Please Credit @isabellestonebooks if reposting to instagram] 

borderlinebravery:

Anger:

• A significant goal is blocked or an activity you desire is prevented.
  
• You or a loved one is attacked or harmed by others.
  
• You or a loved one is bullied or threatened by others.
  
• The integrity or status of your social group is offended or threatened.
  

Love:

• Loving a person, place, or animal enhances your quality of life.
• Loving a person, place, or animal enhances the life of a loved one.
• Loving a person, place, or animal supports the achievement of a goal.

Sadness:

• You’ve lost someone or something permanently.
  
• A situation doesn’t meet your expectation or desire.
  

Fear:

• Your life or the life of a loved one is threatened.
  
• Your health or the health of a loved one is threatened.
• Your well-being or the well-being of a loved one is threatened.

Disgust:

• Something you’re touching could poison or contaminate you.
• Someone you strongly dislike is touching you or a loved one.
• You’re near someone who could harm you or a loved one.

Jealousy:

• An important or desired relationship/object is in danger of being damaged or lost.
  
• Someone is threatening to take away a valued object or relationship from your life.

Envy:

• Someone else gets or has things you don’t have but want or need.
  

Shame:

• You will be rejected by a person or group you care about if something about yourself or your behavior is made known.
  

Guilt:

• Your behavior violates your own values or moral code.

Source:(x)

atelierwriting:

subplot ideas to float your boat (or sink it)

• the good old fetch quest. when your characters realize that they need to get this one thing in order to move on, but also they are doing something else to further the main plot. fetch quest subplots are hard to put in without things feeling like they’re just traveling from point a to point b–take advantage of the space in between to explore your characters, the world, etc.
• there’s some tension between character a and character b. it doesn’t need to be super obvious at first. maybe it’s been kind of growing at the edge of your mind this entire time, and it just explodes. regardless of what kind of tension it is, your story will have to pause to address it. 
• character a actually wants to stab character b. well, that’s a problem.
• figure from a character’s past returns (and turns into a major plot point instead oops). a la jesper fahey and colm fahey. they just appear, and they bring a whole lot of baggage with them for the character to resolve before they can even think about moving on. perhaps they also help the main plot, or perhaps they’re just there to help develop your characters. either way, it’s a good way to get more insight on who your character is, how they are perceived by the people around them, and perhaps even a glimpse into a different part of the world.
• put in a new pov for a side character, accidentally flesh them out and make them a main character with their own personal problems and motivations to further your main plot. yeah. sometimes it happens.

other notes about subplots

• subplots should tie into the larger story–or be interwoven enough that when it gets resolved, it doesn’t feel as though there was no consequence to the bigger picture.
• they don’t actually have to be that big of a deal! you can have smaller subplots littered throughout your story. maybe there’s this minor rivalry between two of your characters that always appears at certain moments. maybe there’s some development to that rivalry that the main characters notice (occasionally) but don’t comment on because that’s…just their thing. it seems like there’s no consequence to it, but it does serve to further flesh out what might have been minor, flat characters beforehand.
• but if you do want to make them a big deal, integrate them well. drop some foreshadowing about the subplot to ensure that it doesn’t seem like it’s coming out of nowhere. how you want to do this is up to you.