Reading a recent interview with Lucy, HERE, I noticed the following reply she made to a question. It sums up her book pretty well, which is hard to do (when you write a lot it’s hard to sum it up quickly for somebody, like the elevator pitch or whatever).
However, it also demonstrates the value of subplots and putting your character up a tree and throwing rocks at them:
The most pressing matter is of course to recover the missing painting, but this is complicated by (2) unwanted police attention in the form of two nosey detectives who are most certainly not welcome sticking their noses into College business. (3) Head Porter is facing mysterious financial difficulties and his personal life seems to become more convoluted by the minute. (4) The Dean is offered an attractive proposition but is torn between his loyalties to Old College and his personal ambitions. (5) Our plucky heroine Deputy Head Porter is trying to hold it all together whilst being stalked by a shadowy, unseen stranger whose motives are highly dubious. There is also the matter of (6) an unexplained death, but no one seems to be too interested in that, for some reason.
Six things going in, ALL of them pretty important.
They aren’t minor stories, they’re the poles that hold up the tent.
The main story is about recovering the painting. That takes us from chapter 1 to “the end.”
But each of the other stories is almost important in its own right.
Which is why her stories are so good.
I had no idea there were so many subplots until I broke it down. I think that when your characters are interesting enough, they sort of write their own plots and somehow squeeze themselves into the main body of the story. Maybe.
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Yes! Exactly!
There’s a saying, write each secondary character as though the story is about them (or something like that). And also, secondary characters can/should be MORE interesting, not less interesting, than the main character(s).
You do both.
The Dean definitely thinks the whole book is about him. So does the Head Porter. So do a lot of your characters.
But they could be right. Each is hugely interesting because you made them that way. Each could be a spin-off book.
That combination creates a very rich literary soup. No dull bits. And that is great writing!
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When you put it like that, it makes sense. I had no idea I was doing that at the time of writing, it just happened. Now, though, I can harness that for book 3. You are ever so helpful, Daniel.
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I really am. People should send me money for this stuff. We’ll pretend it’s a webinar.
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Yes they really should. Money or hotdogs. I have a huge hotdog craving at the moment.
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Uh… it’s probably best not to be compensated in sausage
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I’m counting 8 subplots in Monsters & Angels 🤗
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Can’t wait for that to come out.
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Me too….I’m getting nervous 😳
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The pre-release jitters. Do they ever stop?
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[…] Source: Lessons from Lucy: subplots […]
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Thank you!
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7 but 2 of them are very minor and wrap up rather quickly.
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At least five big ones. Not bad!
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I like things simple – no more than two 🙂
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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I hear you!
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this great post from Dan Alatorre on the idea of subplots.
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[…] several occasions I’ve mentioned good stuff Lucy Brazier does in her PorterGirl books. Subplots. Settings and descriptions. Character development (or was it being a character?). Writerly things […]
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[…] writes stuff that we can learn from and become better writers. This post was a […]
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