The ProWritingAid Monthly Write-In: Subplots

Subplots are narrative threads that run alongside the main plot, often with their own mini story arc. They can deepen the central conflict, add texture to a secondary character, and give readers more layers to track—so the story doesn’t feel like everything happens on a single track. Subplots also raise stakes by introducing new obstacles and curveballs, which can make the climax more dramatic than a simple progression from point A to B to C. Just as importantly, well-chosen subplots reveal fresh information about characters by putting them in situations that test them, making them more vulnerable and more three-dimensional.

The session frames subplots as tools that must connect back to the story’s core purpose. Adding a subplot “just to reveal something” doesn’t work unless it links to the main plot’s themes, conflicts, or character development. To show how this plays out, examples include Romeo and Juliet, where the feud between the Capulets and Montagues drives the main romance, while the subplot involving Mercutio’s murder intensifies tension and raises the stakes. In the Harry Potter series, the fight against Voldemort is the spine, but relationships and traumas—such as family dynamics and friendships—create recurring side arcs that deepen motivation and emotional stakes.

Different subplot types get named as practical categories. A mirror subplot creates a smaller-scale conflict that reflects the main character’s central struggle, teaching a lesson through a “microcosm.” A contrasting subplot places a secondary character in similar circumstances but with different choices, highlighting why the main character acts as they do. A complicating subplot adds friction by derailing the main character’s path—introducing a wrench that prevents the story from gliding forward without resistance. Romantic subplots add tension through a love interest or relationship dynamic, with the Hunger Games’ widely debated love triangle used as a reminder that relationship conflict often generates reader interest.

The workshop then turns these ideas into three writing sprints. Sprint one focuses on entrances and exits: brainstorm a character who appears early for a conversation with the main character, then plan why they leave and what they do afterward. Participants shared concepts like a main character’s father returning unexpectedly with minimal information, a friend arriving with news tied to a political assassination attempt, and a pseudo-dragon who offers knowledge but repeatedly refuses to make things easy.

Sprint two centers on bridge characters—figures who connect two contrasting worlds (literal or social). The goal is to invent someone radically different from the main character who can facilitate interaction and force new dialogue, values, and constraints. Examples from the group include a healer-like figure entering a more conflict-driven setting, a class-bridging mechanic and FBI agent working together on a killer’s trail, and a journalist-detective partnership in a post–World War I 1920s environment where information sharing is limited by law, sources, and institutional boundaries.

Sprint three argues that subplots don’t always need seamless integration; sometimes they can be an isolated chunk—like a chapter shift in perspective—that still delivers meaning. The key is that readers should take something away: character insight, emotional consequence, or a payoff that later connects to the main story. Shared drafts ranged from a romance blooming in a “garden” interlude to a side quest that seems like wasted time but grants power for the final confrontation, and even a separate character’s arc that emerges as a direct emotional consequence of the main plot.