It’s a lie that your story should only focus the main plot, or your story would end up like the Deltora Quest. A great book, but lacking any romance or side notes.
We don’t always need to hear your character’s great adventures. Would Harry Potter have been nearly as good without Cho, Peeves, the Weasley twins, Luna, Ginny, the Yule Ball, Quidditch, or Divination?
Of course not. True, those guys barely helped the plot advance, but who would read the books without them?
True, a million subplots would be distracting, but generally, the more the better.
Relieve your writer of the constant rise and fall of the plot with the following __ tips:
1) Add some romance. Allow your young protagonist a temporary crush. Allow them their own little plot pyramid.
2) Increase your reader’s love for the hero/s by running him in with a high-ranking character in the book. Let’s say your kid is studying every day for 4 hours in order to make it to Ivy League, but he gets in trouble with his teacher and is constantly getting detentions.
3) Your athlete is having academic problems and needs tutoring.
4) Your hero is having problems at work. He or she gets fired and money is running out.
(Any more ideas? Please comment and I’ll add them.)
Alternation
Alternate your plot and subplots regularly, the one way is to devote one chapter for the plot and one chapter for the subplot(s). Sometimes you’ll want to stick your subplot into the plot somewhere.
Using your sub-plot for your story
It’s a very popular and easy technique to use your sub-plot to introduce major characters into your story or in some other way use it to help develop the bigger picture.
Subplots are a great way to enhance your story and liven up your characters. Have fun making your story better with new side notes.
