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The smaller scene trouble

So, I dreamt a full story many nights ago. I have everything! A beginning, a middle … and even a plot twist. Now, my question is: how can I add smaller scenes between them. If I’d write those important scenes only, I had just a short story. Any tip?
 
Beginnings, middles, and ends can be the most fun to imagine, especially when they signify things that seem important, fun, exciting.

The only trick or advice I can give for creating those other scenes is to imagine how to make all this importance and excitement of beginning-middle-plot twist-end translate for a reader. The reader needs context. The reader needs to be eased into all that. So the connective tissue is where you do this. Imagine all the examples, hints, foreshadowing of these important things and how you can offer a reader the sort of insight that you got all at once during the dreaming or imagining.
 
Yeah! I knot that FifthView. However, I have no ideas for sub-plots. I have a background for each character. – Even the mentor and prota's mom are connected in the past.
 
Personally, I think subplots are a little overrated, especially if they are used only to fill up space between the major points of the main plot.

I see that sort of thing happening sometimes on television. The whole plot, scenes relating to the main plot, could be condensed into only one or two episodes, but we end up with 10 episodes—satisfying the contract, I'd have to assume—and a lot of miscellaneous, putative "character building" scenes and episodes.

This doesn't mean subplots are useless, far from it, but only that thinking of them as something separate from the main plot can cause all sorts of negative pacing and story issues.

So I'd return to my first comment. How and why does a character get from Main Point A to Mid-Point B, to Plot Twist to Ending—and why should the reader care about any of these points?

If you delve deep into each of your main plot points and story developments, you can find the essences of those, The Thing That Makes Each One Big And Significant, and you can then go through and determine the scenes that help to reinforce these Major Things for the reader.

I know this may seem abstract, but the specifics will depend on the story you are telling.

For instance, we may need to get from farm boy on alien planet to rescuing a princess from the clutches of an evil empire and discovering a moon-sized, planet-destroying space ship, but why should a reader care about the boy, the princess, the planet-destroying threat? We must make the reader care about each of these, and this may include many scenes showing why these elements are worthy of interest and engagement. There isn't much of subplot in that, I think; Luke Skywalker isn't trying to finish his collection of action figures or even, actually, trying to find out who his real father was.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I have multiple sub plots in my 'Empire' series - often intended to divert or distract the character from other events.

In 'Empire: Capital' for example, the primary plot revolves around the 'prep work' for an attempted magical assassination. Kyle, one MC, is in frequent, direct contact with the assassins, but has only a hazy notion that something is 'off' - he's more concerned with testifying about an old mentor accused of black magic, uncertainty about his future, and flashbacks to horrific episodes during his military career. Tia, another MC, is dating a arrogant, boorish 'fall guy' in the plot - but intrigue gets her packed off to a nearby 'hunting lodge' (read 'auxiliary palace') where she learns of a couple of plots that will shape events in the court without affecting her directly.

Now, if you really have backgrounds for each character, then that means those backgrounds will impugn upon their actions in the story - be it an annoying relative who turns up out of the blue, a bad debt that must be settled, or getting drafted by the army. Your characters will have to deal with both these issues and whatever is directly relevant to the plot.
 
I have multiple sub plots in my 'Empire' series - often intended to divert or distract the character from other events.

In 'Empire: Capital' for example, the primary plot revolves around the 'prep work' for an attempted magical assassination. Kyle, one MC, is in frequent, direct contact with the assassins, but has only a hazy notion that something is 'off' - he's more concerned with testifying about an old mentor accused of black magic, uncertainty about his future, and flashbacks to horrific episodes during his military career.

I think the difficulty of tying major plot points together with connective tissue arises when the characters themselves are hardly aware of the larger picture of what's going on.

They can't just be sitting around waiting for the bad guy to attack, heh. That would be boring, whether it happens at the beginning of the story when much is still hidden or later, midway, after the stakes have been ramped up and the "solution" they'd found to the problem in the first act has been accomplished or that problem at least largely has been eradicated.

Still, I think subplots should add something to the experience of the story and not be used merely to fill space.

I've been struggling a bit with that as I outline in detail my latest project. I have two main POV characters who will ultimately be romantically involved, but there's a larger plot that doesn't really kick off until around the second act*. How to get them together, in geography as well as action, before that major plot development?

To some extent, the earlier events or at least the specifics of those events and activities can be somewhat random. Not random for the characters, but random for me the writer. By this, I mean there are multiple ways of accomplishing this, and I eventually have to settle on some. During the process of figuring this out, I am weighing various approaches with an eye on two things principally: what makes most sense for these characters and what can best add to the story and plot overall?

I feel there is a danger also in tying things together too neatly, for instance if their separate paths early in the novel are too on-the-nose, too obviously moving together simply so I can accomplish the plot and story.

*Edit: The larger plot is actually kicking off very early, but oh-so-gradually and not in a way the two characters realize. Their early pursuits are actually entwined with this larger development, but they just don't realize what's happening. In their minds, they are following personal pursuits.

One has been following his personal pursuit for some time even before the story begins, and the other receives news in the first chapter that provokes him to act toward his individual pursuit.

But here's the thing. I don't consider what the first character is doing to be much of a subplot. But what the second character is doing after receiving the news in chapter one may or may not be a subplot. I haven't decided yet whether I'll develop it into a subplot. I don't have a broad definition/idea of "subplot" that applies to just any pursuit or activity or series of events...But a more narrow idea of what constitutes a subplot. I'm still musing on the distinctions.
 
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When in doubt, go for an over-arching "mystery" or "intrique" throughout the main story. It can be very personal to one chatacter, or it could affect many characters.

For example, a character could loose (or have someone steal/ pick pocket) a keep sake, a lucky charm, an heirloom. It's of no real consequence to the main plot, but it reveals the inner workings of that chatacter. Why would some bother to steal something of little intrinsic value? Why is the character searching to recover it? Etc.

Maybe, they're looking for a lost friend who may have moved to a big city when they were kids after a dumb argument. Only to discover after a few inquiries, that the person is long dead and gone.

And, frankly, supply chain or everyday logistics alone can give you excellent sub plot materials to work with. Say you have a character break a sword in battle early in the story, and it cannot be fixed. Well, there's a huge sub plot of having your character going to different weapons dealers, looking for a replacement. Perhaps, the character has to seek out a legendary master swordsmith when dissatisfied with other vendors. People observing the character would probably wonder, Why is this weirdo traveling around with a useless broken sword?

My advice is to take something simple and mundane, then complicate it. A lot. It can bend towards comedy, revealing inner character depth, etc. It's usually relatable to the reader, too.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Subplots exist to support the main plot. For example, in Star Wars, one of the subplots is Luke learning about his father and the force. He takes the knowledge gleaned from this subplot and uses it in the mainplot.

The mainplot could function just fine without that subplot, but it adds something to the overall story.

So, if you're trying to find a subplot, ask yourself what do you want to add to the overall story? What themes are you exploring? What lessons do you want to convey? The answers should be there.

Now, one thing you should't do is add a subplot just to fluff up the story. There's nothing wrong with a straight forward, lean, short story that's powerful. Fluff just dilutes and takes away from their power.
 
So I retreated back to a couple Writing Excuses podcasts to review the topic of subplots, that might help.

The first is an earlier podcast from season 3:

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 12: Subplots

Here's a summary of reasons they give for using a subplot (which may not be exhaustive?) with some added thoughts:

  • "to flesh out other characters for the express purpose of making the world feel more real."

Side characters can begin to seem like cardboard cutouts, or as if they exist only for achieving the main plot or for supporting the main character in the main plot. Particularly, if these other characters only appear when something relating to the main plot is happening, that's a little forced and fake or may seem so. A subplot can show these other characters having motivations and working to achieve personal goals; it can make them feel more real by suggesting that more is going on in the world. Howard Tayler used the old idea that every character is the hero of his own story. A side character is viewing events through a personal, first-person story, and he is more than a simple plot device.

  • "to keep the tension high. Sometimes you've got a large overarching plot where it doesn't feel really tense because you're taking little steps towards something huge."

I think this is something already being addressed in this thread. We have the major plot points, but we can't simply leap from one to the next. It takes time to get from point A to point B. What's all that stuff between those two points? Because we can't simply leap forward, we sometimes need other stuff to keep the reader interested, to keep a certain amount of tension, when the overall plot is developing slowly for whatever reason. That main plot, happening slowly, may not always have a high level of tension throughout, so we have to inject it in some other way, and a subplot can work well for doing this.

  • "explain-something-small-in-great-detail and then give something big a wide miss."

This idea was associated with showing a character's emotional state, which helps to give the story and world—and overall plot—more depth and realism. I think it can also be used to give the world itself more depth. Perhaps it can be a method for delving into important concepts. Basically, you can use a subplot to put the focus on these other things, enabling you to develop things that will have a bearing on the overall story but which you might not be able to explore sufficiently if you stick only to the main plot.

  • "With a subplot you can introduce an element of the story or world before it becomes important to the main plot which allows you to play with it a little bit, show what it is so that later on when it becomes vitally important to the main characters as part of the main plot, you've foreshadowed it. It helps with your learning curve."

I think this one is similar to the previous point. This describes what Penpilot was saying about the Force in Star Wars. Use of the Force will be very important to the climax of the story when the Rebel Alliance attacks the Death Star. Sanderson offered this point and called in a "learning curve." This might describe a character's learning curve also, but it's principally (I think) a learning curve for the reader. Lots of movies do this in a way that seems too forced and obvious; I always get the impression that a director is struggling to make the movie understandable for a viewer when this happens. Early in the movie some bit of technology is introduced point-blank, and I end up thinking, "Ah. They're going to use this near the end to solve everything." I think the original Star Wars movie handled it better by weaving in the issue of Jedi as a larger reality of that world, so when the Force is being introduced to the audience, this introduction doesn't feel like we're being hit over the head with it. (Unlike Penpilot, I don't think Luke learning about his father is so much a subplot in the first movie, even if it's part of the context for his learning about the Force. In the second and third movie, it becomes a subplot. So maybe given the original trilogy as a whole, Luke learning about his father is a subplot. Maybe for the first movie, we might consolidate and say that "Learning about the Jedi" is the subplot, of which learning about the Force and referencing the father as context are major parts.)


A second Writing Excuses podcast, in a much later season, might also be helpful:

Writing Excuses 9.24: Side Quests

The topic is side quests, and I think there's an important distinction between side quests and subplots.

There are two types mentioned, side quests that happen during the telling of a tale and side quests outside the telling of a tale. An example of the latter would be a separate story, passage, etc., not published as part of the story but as some extra material perhaps posted on a blog or as a collection after the novel is published. The former is more to the point of this topic, so I'll focus on it.

The difference between a side quest and a subplot within a story: Side quests are more directly related to the unfolding of the plot even if they happen outside the main plotline. Howard Tayler used a great metaphor for describing why we'd use a side quest: "Because they don't have enough XP to beat the boss yet."

Usually side quests can be thought of as stages of progression toward resolving a main plot. For instance, the group of characters must go to X to acquire a magic item; then, they must go to Y to convince a king to act; then, they must go to Z to recruit a powerful new member for their party; then....and so on. They must go through these stages in order to reach the final resolution to the main plot. Each of these stages is a side quest; there is a definite beginning and end to each side quest.

A story that involves lots of travel might do this as well. The characters need to survive each stage of the travel, and each stage could be a type of side quest. If, after arriving at Town B, members of that party are arrested because they got into a brawl at a tavern, then the "new" quest might be for them to escape or else for other members of that party to rescue them.

For a mystery tale, each side quest might be what's required to discover the individual clues for unraveling the main mystery.

Alternatively, Tayler's metaphor might describe a character who has to do X, then Y, then Z to "train up" so he's ready for the final battle. In a story, the character might not know that he's training up to be ready for the main plot resolution—even the reader might not know this is happening, at the time—but it is.

The primary danger in using side quests is that they can seem arbitrary, a pace-killer, if the reader experiences no sense of progression by the end of the side quest. The characters being arrested in a town may well escape or be rescued, but if they go back to precisely where they were before the side quest began, then the side quest is useless. So something needs to change. They've gained something like an object or skill or knowledge that will be important to the main plot, they've advanced geographically in their travels toward their goal, or else they've changed in some way important to their character arc.
 
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*Edit re side quests: Mary Robinette Kowal made the important point that the change that happens can be negative. So to use my previous examples, perhaps the characters lose an important object, skill, or knowledge, they've been thrown further off-course geographically, etc. Instead of gaining an ally at the end of the side quest, they've created a new enemy. The podcasters relate this change to the try-fail cycle.
 
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