Subplots are secondary storylines woven around the main plot. Last time, I covered the four primary elements that must be present in order for a subplot to earn its place in a story. After confirming your subplots have those elements, it’s time to find little ways to make those storylines shine. I’ve narrowed it down to five secondary elements that make a subplot feel even more interlaced with the main story and, therefore, engaging for readers.
Why Subplots Enhance Stories
Before getting into the secondary elements, I want to pause a moment and dissect why subplots enhance stories. The obvious answer is that they create layers in the story, making it feel realistic and full. No one has only one thing happening in their life. There are many things we juggle all at once, and people around us impact our lives in ways we never intended. Adding subplots gives stories this, making the world, people, and events feel more real and making it easier for readers to lose themselves in the tale.
However, I argue that subplots do more than just add layers. They can create an effect that makes the story leave a lasting impression on readers. How? The answer is simple: cohesion. Subplots, when done well with the four primary elements, create unity in the story. Everything works together and has meaning. As K.M. Weiland put it: When all the little pieces pull toward one central point and echo one another, it creates resonance. It’s a deep, full, reverberating that hits readers and leaves them impacted. In life, not everything makes sense and works for a common purpose. In a story, we can create that by making everything revolve around one main conflict and theme. It’s a satisfying feeling when you see all the pieces and they link together to create a larger picture. This cohesion that subplots offer is what takes a good story and makes it great.
The Secondary Subplot Elements
Now, let’s get into the components that make your subplot even better once the four primary elements are established. If these secondary elements aren’t included, it doesn’t break the subplot to the point of needing to delete it. However, for each of these you include, the story becomes better. Let’s look at the five elements that make subplots even more gripping for readers.
1. Protagonist Growth
Each subplot needs an internal arc that affects the main character of that subplot, but what happens in that storyline needs to reach outward. If the subplot is still about the protagonist, then he needs to learn something in that storyline to help him grow as a person and be able to get his goal in the main plot. Don’t let him leave the subplot unchanged.
However, even if the subplot is not about the protagonist, it needs to impact the protagonist’s life by making waves for him. Maybe it creates a stumbling block to the goal, or maybe it teaches the protagonist something that helps win the day. Regardless, in a story, the whole world revolves around the protagonist and needs to impact him. Hence, a great subplot will leave a lasting impression on the protagonist.
2. Genre
Every genre promises certain emotions and tropes, and every subplot should deliver on those promises. Readers of mystery want to feel curious and clever. They crave a question and a path to finding the answer. If you have a detective solving a murder, don’t just add a straightforward romance subplot with his girlfriend. Instead, find ways to deliver more mystery within that romance subplot. For instance, perhaps his girlfriend shows up to dates with oil on her sleeves and won’t explain. Maybe she cancels dates, but only on Tuesdays. Build the romance, but add an air or mystery that readers need to unravel.
On top of enhancing genre aspects, subplots can also deliver another side of the genre that the main plot can’t cover. For a science fiction novel, add a subplot about the spaceship mechanic so readers can geek-out over the science of a spacecraft. If the romance novel is about enemies-to-lovers, then have a subplot of friends-to-lovers. Find ways to add more genre fun to your story through the subplots so there are more chances to hook readers.
3. Pacing
Subplots provide a natural way to vary story pacing. If you’re writing a thriller, the story must be fast-paced. Yet a book that doesn’t let the readers breathe can feel exhausting. That’s when a subplot can be woven in to help create slower moments. Perhaps add a subplot showing the antagonist’s methodical preparation for the crime. It’ll provide slower but still tense scenes, and readers will see what’s planned and anticipate it happening.
Subplot also helps the pacing of character arcs. When one character has a triumph, another can have a defeat. One couple may get together at the midpoint, but another couple break up. One person may take a step in character growth while another backslides into old habits. Generally speaking, at the climax every main character should have an All is Lost moment followed by a Triumph, but maybe you want a tragedy for your protagonist. To soften the blow, perhaps let a subplot have a happy ending. Every story is different, but just remember that not everyone grows at the same rate so be open to playing around with your subplot’s internal arc pacing.
4. Tone
Subplots can help balance a story’s tone. They can add hope to horror books, sincerity to comedies, and warmth to thrillers. While people read certain genres to feel certain emotions, the whole story can’t just be that emotion or it’ll feel bland. Love, adventure, wonder, fear—all of them lose their potency if held continuously.
Think about eating ice cream. Every bite you take lessens the impact of the sweet taste. It becomes routine. However, if you stop and eat a sour gooseberry, then take another bite of ice cream, you’d appreciate its sweetness again. The same is true for emotions. If we read a book that only delivers horror after horror, eventually we grow indifferent to fear. We need the warm moments to cleanse our palate so we get another shock of horror later. Subplots can offer tonal shifts and enhance the reading experience.
5. Worldbuilding
The last way a subplot improves a story is by adding aspects of the world we wouldn’t see in the main plot. It is a way to give more context to what is happening outside of the main story so readers can see the ripples of impact on the world. If you have multiple POVs, then this can be easily accomplished by picking characters from different walks of life. A religious leader and a blacksmith. Or a royal and a thief. These people will have different perspectives and access to different parts of the world. If your subplot still centers on the protagonist, then it can show a different part of life. Perhaps work and home life and volunteering at a soup kitchen. It’s the same POV, but the character interacts in different spaces and sees different things depending on the subplot.
However, I want to caution writers on using subplots to build out worlds. Often, especially in fantasy, that is all a subplot does. Remember, every subplot must connect to the main conflict and theme of the story. If you have a subplot just to show this cool aspect of the world, it doesn’t need to be there. I know people like Brandon Sanderson gets away with doing only one scene in a POV just for worldbuilding purposes, but when you make millions you can be the exception. Otherwise, keep subplots essential to the main plot and just use worldbuilding as an added bonus.
Final Thoughts
Now that you have all nine elements of subplots, I hope it helps you craft some amazing stories. While the primary elements may take some major edits to fix, these secondary ones should just be small alterations to make them shine in your subplots. But I know concepts are sometimes hard to grasp without practical application. So, next time, I will take a book and point out all the subplot elements. Until then, pull out your story and see if you can find all nine elements in your subplots.
Thanks for reading!
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