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How do you add layers, sub-plots, and other things that make a story rich and lift it above one-dimensionality?
I can worldbuild, I can do characters, but I cannot create very complex plots. Mine are linear, predictable things as a whole. It is very sad.
How can I get better at this as a rule? Are there any tips or tricks?
I know to get the protagonist into trouble, set up and resolve conflict, but I am not able to make secondary characters that are intrinsic to the main plot have rich or layered sub-plots. Either their characters are mostly supportive/antagonistic to the MC, or they take on lives of their own and their paths branch off from the novel story and veer so far off that I can't figure out a way to bring it all together at the end(the problem in my novel).
Most of my short stories only have a couple strong characters for this reason, but even with just the MC, I seem unable to make events happen besides the main conflict and resolution, and I am noticing a pattern of predictability in my stories.
I'll probably never be able to write a mystery for that reason .
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My problem is the reverse, there are too many subplots multiplying. This is what I do to provide subplots: my stories are strongly character - oriented. So the characters have their own problems and their own ideas about the general situation. Usually the ideas are in a conflict.
Posts: 22 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I too have the opposite problem, which I assume is why it takes me much longer to churn out a story than it does for many of the writers here. What seems to add to the complexity of my stories is that I use more than one of the MICE quotients. One is always the most important, but a second always plays strongly into the mix. Complexity does cause another problem for me -- I have a hard time keeping my word count down. The story I’m working on now is 6,000 words, which is short for me. Also you might want to try thinking of your milieu as if it were a character and consider how it will influence your protagonist and secondary characters. However it seems to me that you’re having a great response to your writing, perhaps simplicity is not an issue, but rather a part of your style. Posts: 397 | Registered: Mar 2004
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You could try OSC's A Thousand Ideas in an Hour idea. It sounds like when that happens you might try to tie things back to existing characters.
For example, if spinoff character 1's current idea is "she can't decide whether to data somebody," make it the POV character rather than a brand new one. Etc.
I learned a lot from . . . Deep Space Nine. An overarching story, but almost each episode was its own subplot with its own complications, and they mostly involved the same set of characters. The bad guy who showed up in episode 1 reappeared at the end of season 6, to interfere with the gods we met in episode 1 . . . and killed a major character . . . whose memory symbiont was put into a new one, so that everyone had to deal with a brand new person who, sort of, was the old one . . . so it kept looping back into itself. I did that in my WIP. My preference in asking "and then what happened?" was for answers that involved the same people as before. And also, I was episodic: I had the overarching story, but what happened in each scene or thread was its own subplot.
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AutumnMuse, try making yourself write a series of short stories where your secondary characters are the protagonists/MCs. Don't include your WIP MC, at least not right away. Instead, use this as a way to get to know your other characters better.
One of my secondary characters revealed quite a bit to me about her personality, motives, etc, in a flash story I wrote for one of Mike's flash challenges. It occurred to me then that shorts and even flashes were a great way to develop secondary characters from a WIP.
Once you get to know your other characters a bit better, once you begin to have insight into their worlds, their loves, hates, motives, backgrounds, etc., you will probably find subplots suggesting themselves to you more readily. You will also have a much better handle on how these characters will interact with your WIP protagonist and/or antagonist. Speaking of whom, be sure to do the same with your antagonist: Take the time to explore him/her through short stories.
Yes, it takes longer to finish your WIP this way, but look on the bright side: You may end up with a bunch of marketable short stories, too!
AND... if you succeed in publishing some of these short stories, then you already have an audience that has sampled some of the characters from your WIP, and will-- hopefully-- be clamoring for your novel even before you finish it. *G*
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Or you don't have to change anything... my novel was rejected _because_ of the character-oriented subplots. The guy who rejected it said it resembled him a teen TV series. It wasn't even close to that, though I admit reading too many X-men comic books. He probably prefers macho-fantasy with big swords anyway.
[This message has been edited by Blue_Rabbit (edited June 19, 2005).]
I have the same problem as you do, however, I know before hand as to what I want to do to put a twist on things. I just have the problem of not being able to put it in the story.
I think my characters are decent, but I know that they can be more solid and such, but I like them just the way they are.
I like the challenge of writing and wish to get better at the plot thing. But all my stories are character driven, so they may follow a 'predictable course', but then again, most character stories are and do follow a predictable course.
But the twist is not predictable and that is one thing as a writer we can do, is put a new twist to an old formula.
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I don't really think about it while I'm writing. I come up with a main theme, main characters, and then go from there. I just try to think about how my main characters are going to go about solving their problem and how they're going to get there. Subplots usually just start to develop from that. I play RPGs a lot of the time, so I get ideas from them as well on how to do subplots and add secondary characters.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Few people are so single-minded that they only want one thing at any one time. Even fewer people are so simple that they only want one thing throughout the length of time that a novel often covers.
What, beyond the goals of your main plot, do your characters want? What's getting in their way? Are the goals personal, professional, geared toward the community, geared toward their family, in opposition (or in support of) some local cause? What do they believe in, and do they act on those beliefs? What challenges them?
I found that if I draw out my linear plots like a flowchart I can see where characters pop in and pop out.
(When I say 'flowchart' it makes it sound very grand, its not, its scribbled lines and highlighted text bubbles and looks a lot like one of Mikemunsil's mind maps.)
When a character pops out I draw another flowchart between the pop-out time and the pop-back-in time, asking myself where are they now? what are they doing? why are they doing it? who are they with? (especially in the event that two character's who are out of the main-line have flowcharts that intersect).
I reckon you should always know where any of your characters are and what they are doing at any given moment.
I do that with all the main-ish characters. This combined with good character generation, almost always suggests ideas for subplots.
In doing all this you got to ask so what? who cares? why is this important anyway?
Here's a mind-bender: your main plotline starts at the beginning of your story, but you can start your subplots well before the main line begins. Some subplots may already be in play at the story's start. These mini-stories can be coming to fruition or conclusion in stages at different points in the story.
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited June 20, 2005).]
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Jeraliey and Hoptoad bring in more good ideas. I'll combine them with my idea earlier:
Write short stories about your protagonist and antagonist, too, encompassing times before your WIP. Explore their personalities and motives more fully, so that you truly understand them when you get around to working on your longer piece again.
Create short stories about your secondary characters, taking place at times when they are in between interactions in your WIP. Explore what they are doing and thinking during those times.
The stories need not be polished or even remotely publishable, but if they are something you can come back to later, take off the rough edges and submit them, so much the better.
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