S18:E19: 5 Tips for Writing Subplots That Strengthen Your Main Plot

Summary

K. M. Weiland argues that subplots work best when they feel like integral parts of one coherent story—not like separate, decorative threads. A subplot is a secondary storyline that can deepen characters or relationships, complicate conflict, or explore the story’s themes. It may be traceable separately from the main plot, but it should ultimately connect with and affect the larger narrative.

Main plot and subplot foundations

• The main plot is the story’s structural backbone. It remains present at major turning points, including the opening, midpoint, climax, and resolution.
• Weiland identifies three closely related dimensions of a full main story:
  • External conflict: The protagonist pursues a goal while an opposing force creates obstacles.
  • Central relationship: A significant relationship supplies emotional stakes and connects to the external conflict.
  • Internal conflict: The protagonist’s beliefs, fears, or desires are tested against the story’s thematic truth. The character arc matters even when the story is especially eventful.
• A subplot is subordinate to the main plot, whereas a story with multiple plotlines may have two or more largely independent structural stories. Either way, the threads should influence one another structurally or complement one another thematically.
• Weiland’s recurring principle is that writers should aim for one cohesive story, not a collection of loosely connected subplots.

Four sources of subplots

Weiland describes four common ways secondary conflicts arise:

1. Relationships with supporting characters: Secondary characters bring their own goals and conflicts, which can complicate or enrich the protagonist’s story.
2. Supporting characters with their own points of view: Giving a secondary character a viewpoint can make them a “mini-protagonist” with external, internal, and relationship goals. Those storylines still need to support the main narrative; additional viewpoints are not automatically an improvement.
3. Lower-level antagonists: Smaller opposing forces can obstruct the protagonist on the way to the main conflict. They should function as stepping stones, not lead the story into unrelated detours.
4. Secondary antagonists’ goals: A supporting character’s independent agenda can conflict with the protagonist’s interests. Such a character need not be evil; even an ally may create conflict by pursuing a goal at the wrong time.

The episode uses Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to illustrate these ideas. Harry’s changing understanding of Sirius Black drives the central plot, while the stories involving Lupin, Hermione, Hagrid and Buckbeak, Snape, and other characters add complications that ultimately connect to the larger conflict. The example also shows how keeping these threads mainly within Harry’s point of view can help maintain narrative cohesion.

Five tips for writing subplots that strengthen the main plot

1. Identify what your supporting characters want.

   • Write down each secondary character’s goal in the story.
   • Some goals may be explicit; others may be implied.
   • A character’s goal can add depth even if it never becomes a major storyline.
   • If a character’s goals have little to do with the main plot, consider whether the character or that material is necessary.

2. Give the protagonist secondary goals that connect to the main story.

   • Protagonists can want more than one thing or pursue several aspects of a larger desire.
   • Their secondary goals should relate to the main conflict and theme rather than distract from them.
   • Weiland contrasts Jane Eyre’s concern for Adele and the mysteries of Thornfield with an unrelated task such as cataloguing the library: the former fit the story, while the latter would feel arbitrary.

3. Test each subplot against the climax and the theme.

   • An organically integrated subplot should do at least one of the following:
     • Reach a resolution in the climax.
     • Help bring about the climax.
     • Be directly changed or affected by the climax.
   • If a subplot requires its own separate climax, it may weaken the story’s overall structure and impact.
   • A subplot should also reflect or develop the main theme—for example, by exploring the central thematic question or a related idea.
   • Weiland mentions Robert McKee’s Thematic Square as a tool for exploring the complexity of a theme.

4. Make a subplot list and use color coding.

   • Weiland advises against developing subplots entirely separately from the main plot.
   • Once the larger story is clear, list its distinct threads and mark them with different colors in an outline or manuscript.
   • This can help track where each thread appears, how prominent it is, and when and how it resolves.

5. Combine subplot material with main-plot scenes.

   • Weave secondary characters’ goals and conflicts into scenes that already advance the main plot.
   • A scene can move the protagonist toward a major external goal while also advancing several supporting-character threads.
   • The more these threads depend on one another, the less they feel like detachable subplots.

Additional segment

The episode includes a sponsorship message for Damonza, a self-publishing services company. Weiland says the company offers free calls to answer authors’ questions about services such as book covers and formatting, and mentions a 10% discount with the promo code HWBA.

Sources and speakers featured

• Speaker and host: K. M. Weiland, host of Helping Writers Become Authors.
• Sponsor mentioned: Damonza.
• Works and concepts referenced: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; Game of Thrones; Cast Away; Up; Jane Eyre; and Robert McKee’s Thematic Square.