Handling Subplots in Your Novel

You may find that in plotting your novel you have additional smaller plots that pop up in addition to your main plot.  These are called subplots.

Subplots can add a great deal of depth depending on the type of story you have.  They can also keep the story moving during a lull in the main plot.  But just as a main plot must follow the path of conflict, crisis, and resolution, the subplot must do the same.

For instance, in Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson, a family gets shipwrecked on a deserted island.  Initially, they must face the daunting task of finding food and shelter.  Later, the two oldest boys decide they want to explore the island in hopes of finding other inhabitants and end up rescuing a girl disguised as a cabin boy, whom of course they both fall in love with. To complicate matters, the girl had been the prisoner of some pirates who decide to come for her. But the main plot is the family’s struggle to make the island as much like home as possible while maintaining the hope of getting off.

The battle over the girl’s affection is a subplot with its own conflict or complication, crisis, and resolution.

Complication or conflict: the brothers find out the cabin boy is actually a girl, and they both find her attractive.

Crisis: their jealousy leads to heated exchanges and eventually escalates into a fist fight.

Resolution: the girl makes her choice, and the losing brother accepts the reality. 

One way you can handle subplots is by weaving them together as you would a braid.  Ansen Dibell describes it this way in her book Plot:

In long fiction, plots don’t merely alternate with subplots: they’re often woven together in something very like a braid.  One strand loops around to the outside, out of sight, then warps in or under to briefly become the central point before warping off for another turn.

Once you have the initial situation running, with the major characters established and facing some crucial problem the reader can tell isn’t going to go away, a braided plot won’t just continue on. You’ll bring in a new subject, one that has some new plot thread which you make clear but leave unresolved so that the reader can see that there are more developments to come.

She also writes that subplots work best for stories with plots that are direct (A and B meet, A and B lose each other, A and B find each other again) because it can give them an added dimension and make the stories less predictable. Conversely, subplots may be a problem in stories with central plots that are slow to unfold and are less direct.

The thing to remember is that subplots should only be used as long as the main plot is strong enough to handle the diversions.