Subplots can introduce secondary conflicts or divulge information that raises the stakes in the story’s central conflict. Subplots can highlight alternative viewpoints and experiences that further expound upon a story’s themes. Subplots can foreshadow future events and create a sense of dramatic irony, revealing information that puts unwitting characters in danger. Subplots can explore the internal and relational conflicts that further complicate characters’ journeys. Subplots can showcase the reasons your characters are so determined to achieve their goals. Subplots can divulge information that readers need to know to better understand the full scope of a story’s central conflict. Subplots can reveal new information about a story’s main characters, lend depth to otherwise one-dimensional secondary characters, and showcase nearly any character in new and revealing lights. When he finally returns a braver Hobbit, he discovers he has the courage to pursue Rosie’s hand. Having been changed by their journey, the protagonist can now resolve this secondary conflict, often cementing their transformation and establishing their new normal.Įxample: Samwise Gamgee is too afraid to ask Rosie Cotton to dance before he leaves the Shire with Frodo. But where Fortinbras and Laertes seek physical retribution, Hamlet crafts a play designed to publicly shame and humiliate his murderous uncle.Ī small secondary conflict introduced early in the story remains largely untouched until after the central conflict concludes. These events force Lizzie to confront her unkind opinion of Darcy’s character.Ī secondary character experiences a dilemma similar to the main character’s journey but strives to resolve the conflict in a different way, a contrast (or “foil”) that highlights the protagonist’s qualities and characteristics.Įxample: Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes all seek to avenge their fathers’ deaths. Wickham, Darcy determines to find the couple to atone for his past mistakes and prove his affection for Elizabeth. Alternatively, a protagonist’s mistake results in a secondary conflict that complicates their journey.Įxample: When Lydia runs away with Mr. Alternatively, a subplot shows readers the story’s central conflict through the eyes of a secondary character, showcasing two sides of the same story.Įxample: As Frodo and Sam journey to Mordor, the remaining members of the Fellowship experience journeys that lead them to wage war on Sauron, ultimately enabling Frodo and Sam to reach Mount Doom.Ī secondary character’s actions complicate the protagonist’s experience with the story’s central conflict. The protagonist’s relationship with a love interest complicates their journey to resolve the story’s central conflict.Įxample: When Capitol citizens decide that Katniss and Peeta would make a handsome couple, the pair must engage in a false romance to better ensure their survival in The Hunger Games.Ī seemingly unrelated plotline occurs in tandem with the main story until the two collide in exhilarating fashion. Subplots typically revolve around a story’s secondary cast of characters, but events in the main characters’ journeys can also produce integral secondary conflicts. Good subplots aren’t just subordinate storylines they’re secondary conflicts that arise from characters’ actions & reactions as they engage with the story’s central conflict. The most effective subplots are those that exist because they must, because to nix the plotline would be to craft a narrative that feels insincere, half-baked, or unresolved. Like any good story element, subplots should serve a strong narrative purpose. While subplots can make stories longer and more complex, these results should be by-products of effective secondary plotlines rather than one’s reason for writing them. While this definition isn’t incorrect, it also isn’t complete-and this oversimplification can lead writers to use subplots in misguided ways, such as needlessly lengthening or complicating their stories in pursuit of “better” storytelling. Often, subplots are defined as “secondary plotlines in a story”. Subplots are a story element that many writers misunderstand.
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