NaNoWriMo Day 18 - Subplots

Howdy NaNos,

I hope this post finds you well on your way to your novel.

A subplot is a plot within your main plot. For example:

Finding Nemo -
Plot: Marlin rescues Nemo

Subplot: Marlin befriends Dory
Subplot: Marlin meets Crush, and learns that sea turtles can live 100 years
Subplot: Life in a fish tank can do things to you…my bubbles


See? Every story that is told INSIDE of your main plot, is a subplot. Use these to your advantage.

What subplots are advantageous for your novel?
- a romance
- an unresolved past
- mysterious death
- social drama
- a random act of kindness from a stranger
- daily life

Whatever you decide, remember a subplot is to be a background story line, it is to aid your plot. So, if it begins to take over and master your plot, you can try pressing it back into the shadows once more, but if that doesn't work. No freaking out! Just go with it, you can alter it all in December!

Subplots can be very complicated…think of the movie Inception. O_o Man, that movie messed with me nearly every time I saw it!

Subplots can be very simple…think Nemo, Marlin's experience with Dory, it played out rather straight forward.

Now, it is possible to have two pronounced plots, and subplots. I did this in my first attempt at NaNoWriMo.

I had my main character's plot (find and save his sisters) and the bad guys plot (banish main character). Added to that was the subplots of the main character's life in his neighborhood, and the lives and interactions of those in the societies around his changing situations.

So, subplots can be useful or in the way, but they are sure fun to experiment with. One thing they are useful for, is continuing a novel into your next book. If the book ends with the main plot concluded, and the subplots unresolved, then it's a lot easier to lead into another book. Makes them seem more real and connected.

Have fun with learning to use subplots!

For example, this verse. It's a story within a story. It is a plot line, a timeline, a series of events that strengthens the main plot.

Genesis 7:1

"Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.""

The main plot of the Bible is the gospel, that is Jesus' ransoming and redeeming His bride to Himself, and the glorification of God. A subplot that God used as a type and shadow of that, was Noah's story. (btw, the Flood as depicted in Scripture was a literal world wide flood, total catastrophe, wiping out everything.)