How long does a subplot survive without attention?

[Addison]

To me, a subplot's life and death doesn't depend so much as the subplot itself but its connection and purpose to the main story and its memorability of either characters and/or plot.

Some subplots actually don't need to be presented as entire little....yarns that have a definitve, bold color and take away from the main story. If a subplot is a character's struggle with drinking, snorting fairy dust or resisting illegally using magic to heal their bum leg, you don't need to create all new characters or settings to set the stage. Events and their outcomes can help highlight or illustrate the struggle.

 

[Helen]

This is probably one of those questions that don't have an answer that can't be prefaced with "It depends..." but I'll ask anyway as it's something I'm pondering at the moment:

How long can you leave a subplot before the reader forgets about it?

I'm writing a series, and it's a long one. There are two main plot lines, and the story swaps back and forth between them. Each plot line will touch upon several different subplots - events from the protagonists's past, or people they meet.
Most of these will go unresolved as they're outside the scope of the main story, but some of them will show up early on and then not be relevant again until much later.

The way I see it, if a subplot is left out of the story for too long the reader will forget about it. The subplot dies. Is it worth trying to keep it alive be reminding readers it exists, or will it be better to resurrect it once the time is right?

If I never resurrect an unresolved subplot, will the reader even remember it when they get to the end of the story?

I don't expect anyone to have any specific answers, and it's all relative to each individual story, but I'd like yo hear your thoughts on the matter.

I think you can leave it for quite a long time, intro in Act1 and go back to it in Act3. I'm sure there are examples of them being intro'd in book1 and picked up again in book3 etc.

But I'd ask myself why I'm doing that...it's no biggie picking it up more often.

 

[R Snyder]

This is probably one of those questions that don't have an answer that can't be prefaced with "It depends..." but I'll ask anyway as it's something I'm pondering at the moment:

How long can you leave a subplot before the reader forgets about it?

I'm writing a series, and it's a long one. There are two main plot lines, and the story swaps back and forth between them. Each plot line will touch upon several different subplots - events from the protagonists's past, or people they meet.
Most of these will go unresolved as they're outside the scope of the main story, but some of them will show up early on and then not be relevant again until much later.

The way I see it, if a subplot is left out of the story for too long the reader will forget about it. The subplot dies. Is it worth trying to keep it alive be reminding readers it exists, or will it be better to resurrect it once the time is right?

If I never resurrect an unresolved subplot, will the reader even remember it when they get to the end of the story?

I don't expect anyone to have any specific answers, and it's all relative to each individual story, but I'd like yo hear your thoughts on the matter.

It depends on how important the subplot is.

 

[cjthibeaux]

Don't leave loose ends. It produces holes in your tapestry. If you followed The wheel of time, you will see that sometimes Jordan would leave out a character for most of his book but then go back to it in the next book. People do bitch about it but on the whole if it is a long saga, you might have to as long as it all ties up in the end.

It shows mastery I think when all the subplots tie in. You could kill off a character without them fullfilling their goal but even that in itself should have a purpose.

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince saga, is one example. When a character was killed off without delivering his nessage, it added to the intensity of the whole story. So you could use that to your advantage.

Good luck with your story.