When you're thinking about a story, or are actively involved in writing one, it is easy to get transfixed by the main event and concentrate on the dramas and adventures of your central characters, but don't neglect the preoccupations of your minor characters - Ricky Gervais spun a whole television series out of this with Extras, and if it's good enough for him....
Exploiting the potential offered by your subplot, which documents the trials and tribulations of the bit part players, can have two major benefits to your story as a whole.
Firstly, it can provide a valuable counterpoint to what's going on at the heart of the book -- you can revisit similar issues, but in a minor key. It can give you a variations on a theme capacity. For example, if your story is about infidelity, you might have a scenario where the hero and heroine manage to resolve things happily, but a more minor couple don't. It can give you scope to look at the same thing in the number of different ways, which is an excellent method of adding depth and resonance to your narrative.
Another in credibly important tool provided by the subplot is that it is a means of notching up dramatic tension. You can cut away from action in your main plot to a scene in your subsidiary story, leaving the your reader breathless with desire to know more.
And that's what it's all about...
P. S. Hugo Williams has written a wonderful poem called Heroes of the Subplot - it's well worth tracking down and reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment