The many uses of subplots

So, you want to write a book. You have a vision for a story, and it’s wonderful. You have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

But, what about subplots?

A subplot, just in case this is all very new to you, is a story within your story that is not directly part of your main plotline. Today, we’re going to be using the novel Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix as an example because I’m tired of using Harry Potter and everyone should read Slaying Vampires.

So, as an example, in Slaying Vampires the main story is about a vampire that moves to a suburban town and starts feeding on people. One of the subplots is the main character, Patricia, struggling with her relationships with her husband and children.

Subplots have the power to make or break your book. And it’s almost impossible to write a novel without some subplots. So let’s talk today about how subplots can make your story better.

Subplots work best when they have something to do with the main story. Even when they don’t seem to at first. Especially when they don’t seem to at first. For instance, in Slaying Vampires, there’s a subplot regarding Patricia’s mother-in-law coming to live with them. While that might not seem like it has anything to do with a vampire attack, it sure as hell has a lot to do with the story by the end of it.

Foreshadowing

One of my favorite ways to use a subplot is for foreshadowing. We can do this by adding subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints that appear to have nothing to do with the main plot.

For example, let’s consider Patricia’s mother-in-law. She is suffering from advanced stages of dementia. So when she first sees our vampire, she calls him by another name. This is pretty common behavior for someone with dementia. Which makes this subplot a strong and useful one.

When they provide character development.

Early in Slaying Vampires, Patricia’s husband gives her a pair of earrings. And these earrings have a whole journey on their own.

This story starts when Patricia is worried her book club friends will think she’s showing off, wearing big diamonds to their meeting. Then, one of them is bitten off her head and swallowed by someone infected by the vampire.

Bitten off and swallowed.

When Patricia starts to cry, telling her husband that she’s sorry she lost his expensive gift, this asshole loving husband starts laughing at her. He tells her that those earrings were costume jewelry, and he got them from one of his patients. His therapist patients.

This little story tells us something about Patricia. It tells us that she’s desperately worried about what her friends think of her. It also tells us that she’s uncomfortable with how much money her family makes and that she tends to think that everything is her fault.

What we learn about her husband is that he doesn’t put much care into giving his wife meaningful gifts and that he doesn’t consider it his responsibility to care for her when she’s emotionally distraught. You know, because somebody bit her ear off. It also tells us that he doesn’t care much for the ethics that go along with his profession, since therapists aren’t supposed to accept gifts from their clients.

That’s a lot of lifting for a three-part subplot.

When they balance out the main story.

Some stories are heavy. They’re full of dark content, upsetting themes, and serious subject matter.

That is important work that we undertake as artists. But sometimes, it’s a lot.

For our sake and the readers, we need to lighten the story up a little.

Southern Vampires is of course, about a vampire. It’s also about austerity, and how far people will go to get it. It’s about race inequality. It’s about financial abuse (and physical abuse) in gender-normative relationships.

To balance that out, we need some funny in the story. We need some heartwarming moments in the story. And so we have Patricia’s son as a subplot, with a fascination with nazis. ( Not as good guys. They aren’t from that part of the south.)

We also have the subplot, possibly the most important one of the book, of the creation of the book club itself. We see scene after scene of the women talking about their books, their families, their struggles, and their successes. We see their polite friendships grow into strong sisterhoods, without which their eventual success over the vampire would be impossible. But before it gets too far, these scenes help to lighten what is at its core a very dark story.

Do not add subplots just to add subplots.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with this important suggestion. Subplots only work if they factor in, in some way, with the main storyline. This is why most romantic subplots annoy me because they could be removed from the book and leave no plot holes.

That is a good test for your subplots. If you remove them from the story, what kind of impact will that have on the story as a whole? If not, maybe this is a subplot that should be left out altogether.

That’s all I have to say about subplots for the day, but it’s not all for the day as a whole. Check back in about fifteen minutes, I have a great announcement.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi.