![]() Parallel plots may never converge if they do, it is usually briefly, at the story’s end. The difference between parallel construction and swallowtail is that the two paths of the swallowtail always converge and interact with each other for a fairly lengthy part of the story. When you want to create suspense that pays off big, try launching two parallel plots, then weaving them together firmly at a certain point. If you’ve got a subplot that can similarly work as a side trip for your main character, there’s no reason you can’t employ a similar technique. Huck, having grown fond of the Grangerfords, serves as a witness-and in the end, turns away sickened by the violence done in the name of “honor.” In Finn, Twain plunks two church-going yet blood-feuding families (the Grangerfords, who take Huck in, and their rivals, the Shepherdsons) into Huck’s life, then out again, but not before their feud explodes into cataclysm. ![]() Concurrently, the episodes often serve to satirize hypocrisies of the times. Mark Twain purposely wrote the novel as a picaresque, which is essentially a journey story in which every distinct episode has an effect on the hero, usually resulting in the hero’s maturation from boy to man (or from girl to woman, as exemplified in Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle). One of the best examples of this can be found in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. ( Plot twist ideas and prompts for writers.) Be assured-terrific authors have effectively used this technique for certain kinds of subplots from the time Sumerian carvers set down the pictographic exploits of their kings. Too many aspiring authors feel they shouldn’t use this technique because it seems stupidly easy, more like cheating than actually weaving. #Subplot in a story how to#When your threads are at the ready, how to begin the weaving itself? Try these seven techniques that reveal themselves in the fabric of the most memorably woven stories. Once you’ve done this, you can simply write out your subplots more or less sequentially. In fact, the best way to start brainstorming subplots is to brainstorm characters who could populate and propel your plot. It’s no coincidence that each of these characters essentially represents a subplot. And it all happens during tournament week. #Subplot in a story professional#So, aside from the main plot-a mystery she sets out to solve involving a professional golfer-I wove in a friend who urgently needs Lillian’s help a rival on the golf course who will stop at nothing to win a coach who wants Lillian to stop playing detective a rural bumpkin with terrorist tendencies and a neighborhood cur who threatens Lillian’s pet rabbit. For example, in my novel Damn Straight, I wanted to beset my heroine, Lillian Byrd, with so much trouble she can’t evade all of it. And since most fiction starts with characters, so will your subplots. Here’s how to do it.īegin by asking yourself: What do I want to accomplish with this subplot? What do I need? What do I want? What would be fun to work with? For most of us, subplots serve to make life difficult for our characters. When we begin to view subplots as material to weave into our main action, it becomes easier to see the strands individually-and to feel confident handling them. They don’t expect monofilament, so to speak. Readers don’t expect continuous narratives. Interruptions happen, change rushes in, we juggle three or 10 balls at once. Why is this? Because life doesn’t move forward all at once. Subplots bring realism to your main plot simply by existing-by interrupting the flow. ![]() Insert-or, even better, challenge!-a moral lesson. #Subplot in a story Patch#Patch holes in (or solve other problems with) your main plot.Induce mood: menace, comedy, pathos, triumph.Speed up or slow down your story’s pace. ![]()
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