explore | Grilled Cheese

#WriteStuff A3 (cont.)

And besides: subplots can be amazing to explore different perspectives of the main plot. Because maybe a character feels a bit different, and giving them a little side plot to go through their own issues may help put the big issue into a new perspective overall.

#WriteStuff A3

Oh, lots of reasons. The way more important question is if the story you want to tell profits of them or might be hindered by it. Some stories may even come out fine without a main plot when all is just interweaving subplots. Sometimes the story itself tells you if it wants one.

A3: I have subplots because I want to have individual bits of angst build up to a full and complete meltdown of my MC, and for the audience to feel equally exasperated so they are feeling my MC's utter exhaustion intimately. #WriteStuff

#WriteStuff
For me, I write these stories about struggle and hardship, and so I like to break up the constant misery with a more joyful subplot. That's a big part of the function of Enya's kids, and that cast is only going to grow as the story progresses.

#WriteStuff A3 Because as a practical matter it's nearly impossible to have a single sequential story take 90,000 words and not feel poorly paced.

Yes! I also read "Crime and Punishment" earlier this year and all of the Russians had similar names. That makes me nutty (although not a sublot issue so much). #WriteStuff

#WriteStuff Q3 Why have subplots at all?

#WriteStuff A2:

No, I'm incredibly good with keeping track of those. I'm one of the people who can continue conversations where they left off even years after having them and getting sidetracked into other conversations.

naturally, my irl friends often want me to explain complicated shows to them

#WriteStuff

OMG, those Game of Thrones books! I couldn't keep up with the subplots in a A Song of Ice and Fire when I first read it. Plus, all the books have pages with character names since no one can keep track of them all. No wonder I got confused. LOL

#WriteStuff A1:

if its for the games then i write them so that they can be weaved in whatever order players want them to

if its in the novels then i'm having a clear goal in mind but let the story take its own pace and decide when the weaving happens
in those cases i do have a little wiggle room

A2: Yes! I set aside "Beloved" earlier this year because I could not figure out what was happening to whom in what timeline. #WriteStuff

#WriteStuff Q2 ( #CourtroomGhost) Um... I dunno. I've read a lot. I generally keep track pretty well... OH I know one, one of the later books in the Left Behind series, I read like two chapters and couldn't remember who all the people even were. (My grandma got them for me and I read them for her.)

What do you mean by non-linear format?

I know not to info dump when writing a subplot. I try to avoid telling. Instead, I try to show. #WriteStuff

heyhey #WriteStuff \O/

i'm Fin, mostly indie game designer who also writes on books for those games, with a an assortment of wips stuck in production samsara, and here because i wanna procrastinate on my actual writing hehe

#WriteStuff Yes ... it's an endemic disease in modern fantasy, especially quest novels. Not every quest member needs a full backstory and motivation -- sometimes they are just bit players.

Ha! There's a coyote in my current WIP! #WriteStuff

I'm sure I'll get some good tips. Kevin is very well developed. The other characters? Not as much. Subplots may be able to help me do that. I don't want to be like Stephen King who creates so many intricate subplots his books are now 500 pages long. LOL #WriteStuff

#WriteStuff
Line of Demarcation by M P Woodward. Great book, but possibly too many characters. The only reason I kept up with it all is because Woodward does an excellent job establishing character voice early on and using that as a way to distinguish characters.