Lady Dae Writes

I think now that I’ve cleared what plot actually is, I can talk about the two basic types of plot. A common mistake of writers, new and veteran, is that they get their main plot and sub-plot confused. How do I know this? How about we build a story together right here right now? Here’s our story:

(SN: That’s actually a pretty good premise)

So that means according to the post I did yesterday on Plot and Conflict, the Main Plot will be driven by the conflict between our heroine and this maniac who wants to make all women slaves. That means that every event that happens is going to be connect and have something to do with how this conflict will finally be resolved. This is what our story is about and what the summary on the back of the book will put out to the reader. But then, somewhere along the way this happens:

So if this story were a chic-lit or teen romance novel, there’s enough conflict there to drive a main plot and create an entirely different story. But it’s not our main plot. Our Main Plot is centered around the conflict that the heroine has to defeat the sexist maniac, but that doesn’t mean that this can’t be our Sub-plot.

The sub-plot is usually centered around another mini conflict in the story, but somehow comes out of the main conflict and main plot. The relationship with the guys is obviously complicated enough as it is, but add that she still has to defeat the evil maniac makes it more complicated. The thing about the sub-plot is that you don’t need it to write the story. We could easily toss this sub-plot out the window and the story would keep on going. And, the sub-plot doesn’t have to end with the conflict that started it being resolved like the main-plot does, not unless it’s critical to resolving the main conflict in which case, it’s part of the main plot and not really sub at all… We’ll get to that later.

But even though we could get rid of the sub-plot, sub-plots usually add this realistic feel to writing. In real life we have a million things going on in addition to what we’re really dealing with at the time. For instance, my real life main conflict or issue is getting off the ground as a writer. That’s my number one focus but I have to juggle school, family, and a plethora of other things along with it. So a few sub-plots make the characters more relatable.

Now this seems easy enough to comprehend, so why do writers have a problem with it? Okay, let’s all remember that great television show that we used to watch that had the perfect mix of action and adventure and sprinkles of romance here or there, but we don’t care about that because we want to see how the main character is going to defeat the bad guy. But let’s say three or four seasons in, less and less is the show concerned about the bad guys getting their asses kicked, but the MC’s problem with her love life. This is a case where the sub-plot ends up becoming the main plot and the main plot becomes the sub-plot.

As a result, this is the new summary for our story:

See? The main plot here becomes something of an afterthought and I can’t count how many times I’ve met a writer in a forum who isn’t quite sure how to sum up their story because they want their subplot to be their main plot.

Writers love their sub-plots. I love mine. I love writing about my heroine’s messed up personal life, but that’s not what my story’s about. The writer’s main focus should be the main conflict and the main plot even if they have to neglect their sub-plot some to get that accomplished. Always keep both in place. So if you see yourself writing more about the sub-plot than you main plot, you’ve either lost focus or you need to go back over you original plan and see if you sub-plot wasn’t meant to be the main plot anyway. And if you’re not sure you’re getting off focus, ask yourself this: Can my main conflict be resolved without this sub-plot? If the answer is yes, get back on track. If the answer is no, it’s not a sub-plot you’re dealing with. You’re just writing an event that part of the main plot.

This can also help writers narrow down what to focus on in their queries, which is a whole other post that I'll get to later.

Also, for more information on this, check out my Stuck on the Romance of Harry Potter. It ties directly into this.

Since I’ve really just been breaking down the process of writing and pieces that put together a story, I’ve decided to go ahead and tackle this issue of plot. Inevitably, I also have to talk about conflict.

It’s easy to confuse plot and story. Plot is not the story, but story usually has plot. Plot is the events that happen in the novel and relate in a certain order to help make the story. How do these events relate? They relate because they’re connected by one central conflict. This goes not only for books, but short stories, plays, movies etc.

Conflict drives the plot. Conflict whether internal or external, silly or serious, is what makes the plot unfold and the events in a book to happen. Conflict isn’t just a fight mind you. It’s a problem, issue, or situation that connects all the events and gives them importance. Now why is this important? Why do these two things depend so closely on one another?

Let’s take out conflict. What if there was no conflict and all that we’re left with is plot? You’re going to end up with an unfocused story. Things are just going to happen and they won’t have a connection, which means they’ll have no point or purpose. The thing about writing anything that’s fictional is that you have to write towards some type of end and a central conflict is what helps build toward that end. Conflict helps us weed out the unimportant events that have nothing to do with the story we’re trying to create. Otherwise, we just have a whole bunch of events that may have something to do with each other, but the reader doesn’t know because there is no conflict. By the very definition of plot, when this happens, there is no plot because plot is events and their relation to each other.

Now what if we throw out plot and just focus on conflict. Tsh… at least with a bunch of events there’s some semblance of a story. With conflict all you have is a bunch of people with problems and nothing ever getting resolved. That’s a whole other problem in itself that we don’t want to deal with. No one is going to waste time reading a bunch of conflict that never gets resolved.

So now what is the result when we put these two parts together? We get the story. The plot focuses itself around the conflict. Any event that happen either helps to resolve or even make worse the central conflict. Doing this helps to build up to an end. This is especially important in a book because the book has to end. It’s not like a TV show where a series, like the Simpsons as much as I despise the show, can go on forever with each episode having a plot but the series as a whole not having one. Soap operas are also good examples. But a book has to end, and that’s what makes the relationship between plot and conflict so important.

So when people say, “if there is no conflict, there is no plot,” they mean that the events that are happening aren’t related in some way shape or form. You can’t have one without the other, and that’s why there is a delicate balance between them. They rely on each other.

Wow!  I learned a lot from just writing this and I hope someone else did too. It explains why I can’t write a short story... I’ll get to that one later. Since this got so long though, stay tuned tomorrow for the continuation. The difference between the main plot and the sub plot!