Deanna’s Secret Trick for Dovetailing Subplots
by Deanna Carlyle
© 2005

What do you do when your story garden has too many subplot shoots vying for sun, soil and water? How can you tell which aspect of which subplot should stay, which should go, and why?

I think my recipe for creating subplot unity is just the trick. I hit upon it while analyzing a work-in-progress not long ago. I needed to test whether my existing subplots were dovetailing into my main plot in a way that would maintain believable, front-story suspense for the reader.

My trick worked for me. Maybe it will work for you, too.

1. First I analyzed my various plots in terms of my main character’s external goals, motivations and conflicts.

I left the question of inner conflict and psychological motivation aside for the time being, important as they are. I needed to focus on what happens onstage for the reader.

(Note: in the below example, G=Goal, M=Motivation, C=Conflict, terms formulated by Debra Dixon as a plotting system for writers in her must-have book Goal, Motivation & Conflict)

Example:
Main Plot
External Story Setup
G – Becca wants to find the killer
M – in order to save her play production (by keeping actors alive and own butt out of jail)
C – but the killer is devious and will stop at nothing to cover up the murder and the truth behind the murder, even if it means destroying the success of the play.

Subplot 1
External Story Setup
G - Becca wants to get her play produced
M - in order to establish herself in the adult cultural scene with a vocation
C - but the killer keeps bumping off actors and key personnel.

Subplot 2
External Story Setup
G - Becca wants the PI's cooperation
M - in order to find the killer
C - but he's doesn't always cooperate, and he might even be the killer.

2. Next I checked to see if my subplot and main plot motivations and goals crisscrossed (it helps if they do).

Basically, I made one of the subplot goals (get the play produced) identical to the main plot's motivation, so that progress and setbacks in one storyline necessarily affect the progress and setbacks in the other.

I also made the romance subplot motivation (to find the killer) identical with the main story goal, and arranged for the conflict in the romance to be exacerbated by discoveries and events in the main story.

In other words, I motivated the subplots. They are created and maintained by the main story’s goal (find the killer) and by the main story’s motivation (in order to save the play).

3. Finally, I checked to see if subplot progress and setbacks were affected by the same in the main plot.

In other words, I motivated the subplot conflicts by implicating subplot characters into the main storyline as murder suspects. Thus, in the above GMC example, the cast and crew of the play, who ostensibly support the subplot goal of getting the play produced, are each a potential killer, possibly working against the subplot and the main plot goals.

For non-mysteries, the same dovetailing of subplot conflict applies, the difference being that for non-mysteries, the subplot characters would act as main story saboteurs or naysayers, rather than killers.

That’s enough left-brain story crunching for me for one day. Now it’s your turn. What are some possible dovetailing combinations for your story? The template in the green box is provided as a guide. Happy analyzing!

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