Advanced Brilliant Writing: Make Your Plots Wider and Your Characters Deeper (Go! Write Something Brilliant) (16 page)

Remember — a Subplot stands alone and yet is connected to the story through theme and players. A layer simply accentuates the story theme.

Adding in a Subplot or a Story Layer will take your story Wider, give it more breadth, as well as resonance.

Layers are easy to build into a story—you just have to remember the two rules:

Simplicity:
The key to a great layer is focus. You don’t want to make the message complicated but, rather, deepen it. First,
define your theme
. Forgiveness? Hope? Starting over?

Now,
what do you want to say about it?
That you must forgive yourself before you can love another? That a second chance shouldn’t be wasted? That hope is about looking past your present circumstances to the God who loves you?

Finally ask:
Is there a character in the periphery
who can speak into the life of the character about it, either verbally, or through actions, or even through like circumstances?

Maybe it’s a friend, or a co-worker, or a sibling, even a situation observable by the POV character.

In
Happily Ever After,
I used Gabe, Joe’s brother, to model what forgiveness looked like to Joe.

In
The Perfect Match,
I used Joe and Mona’s miscarriage and adoption of three children to illustrate that God is always at work behind the scenes of our lives. Joe and Mona were simply characters Ellie knew in the community, but Joe served on the volunteer fire department and, thereby were people Ellie could observe.

In
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
, the roommate provides the simple theme through her actions that perhaps we can do everything “wrong” and it can still be “right.”

In
Return to Me
, the waitress and the cook provide the theme that two hearts that belong together can’t be kept apart, and speak that truth in various ways to the hero.

Keep the theme simple, and speak it through someone in the periphery or cast of characters.

Relevance:
A Story Layer has to be something that relates to the main story theme.

It may have just an element of the entire theme.

For example, in
Happily Ever After,
the Gabriel layer speaks to the importance of forgiving others to maintain family relationships. However, that is only one aspect of the forgiveness theme in the book. The entire forgiveness theme also takes a look at forgiving ones-self as well as the ailments of unforgiveness.

Or it may speak to more than one of the characters.

In
The Perfect Match,
both Ellie and Pastor Dan are dealing with their frustration at being unable to control circumstances. Pastor Dan is afraid of getting involved with someone whom he could lose, Ellie believes that if she is “good” enough, she can keep bad things from happening. Watching Joe and Mona lose their child speaks to the frailty of that belief, yet seeing them adopt three orphaned children shows them both that God protects and provides in amazing ways. It speaks in two different ways to the theme.

Finally, a layer might add an ancillary thought that builds on the main theme.

In
Nothing but Trouble
, PJ Sugar is asked to take care of her nephew, Davy. Davy feels abandoned, and lashes out at PJ, afraid of her. It isn’t until she takes him swimming, staying with him as he goes into the deep waters that they bond. PJ meanwhile feels as though she is a misfit, and unloved. That incident, which is similar to one she had with her mother as a child, starts to unlock the idea that perhaps she needs to start looking at her relationship with her mother differently. Maybe her mother also stuck with her, believed in her over the years, and that she loves her. The Davy layer is the spark that ignites PJ’s revelation of the theme that God loves her.

A relevant and simple Story Layer will widen your plot and deepen your theme.

I admit that I love the television series
ER
and
Grey’s Anatomy
. Because, as we all know, they are really big, long soap operas.
Grey’s
is, essentially, the on-again, off-again, hopefully on-again romance of Dr. Derek McDreamy and Dr. Meredith Grey. Inside all this romance are the daily (read: episodic) events of a hospital in Seattle.

What makes
Grey’s
interesting are the running monologues of the lead heroine, the thematic nuances she puts into the story, usually centered around the events of the episode, but also alluding to her current state of relationship with Derek. One could say that the episode theme relates to the overall story arc of the series.

Episodes in a soap-opera show like Grey’s Anatomy act as Subplots to the main story.
They match the Subplot definition:
Short but concise stories that reveal theme and, taken alone, would stand on their own merit.

Let’s take one of my favorites episodes: The Bomb in the Body.
(Also has Kyle Chandler, the
Friday Night Lights
guy (formerly
Early Edition
) guest starring, and I just love him.)

The Subplot starts with the inciting incident—a man comes in with a hole in his stomach. A paramedic is putting pressure against the bleeding—
inside his body
. The conflict is if she takes her hand out, he’ll bleed to death. So, the doctors take them up to surgery. The stakes are raised when his wife arrives and reveals that the man was playing with a bazooka—
There is an unexploded bomb in his body
. The paramedic freaks out, pulls her hand from his body, wherein Dr. Grey takes her place.

Of course, Dr. Grey is doomed, and the rest of the show is her wishing that she could turn back time and rethink where she is right now.

Meanwhile, in the
big
plot, Derek and Dr. Grey have had an affair, and she’s in love with him. Unfortunately, she didn’t know he was married until just a few weeks prior when Derek’s
wife
(Cue the dramatic background music, please!) showed up.

Derrick wants a divorce . . . he thinks. But, maybe not, so he decides to give his marriage another chance. Meredith’s heart is broken. She wishes she could turn back time and rethink her life. See the parallel?

Of course, they get the bomb out of the body, and sadly, as cute Kyle walks away with it, the bomb blows up. He’s vaporized. And Meredith is left with blood all over her, a casualty of another person’s error in judgment. Of course, the patient who wreaked all this havoc, lives.

Again, see the parallel to the main story arc?

A great Subplot is about mirroring the theme of the main plot.
It can either enhance it—e.g., show what could happen if one choice is made, or put it in relief—show what will happen if that choice
isn’t
made. The Subplot can be a testing ground for “what if.”

I’ve had a lot of fun with recent Subplots. The biggest Subplot I ever used was the Subplot within a Subplot I put into
Taming Rafe
—a love story written by one of the characters (John) that reveals the feelings the character has for a woman he’s never declared his love to (Lolly), written via the romance of the characters in
his
book, a book that the POV characters in
Taming Rafe
all read. (Okay, did that make sense? Basically, it’s a story within a story.) A Subplot widens the story and increases the stakes on many different fronts so that the reader is invested not just in the main storyline, but all of them.

In
Finding Stefanie,
I used the young romance of a former gang-banger to reveal how a little faith in someone can change a person’s entire life. We not only care about Gideon and Libby, but I use the theme to show the hero how his life might be affected if he allows himself to have faith in Stefanie.

As you’re developing your Subplot first ask: What lesson will the characters in my main plot learn?
Is there a smaller lesson, or a piece of that lesson I can illuminate through the Subplot? Remember, the Subplot doesn’t have to be directly connected to the main plot to be effective—yes, it should affect the main plot in some way, but it also stands on its own.

Then look at your peripheral plotting web and ask:
Who is the best person to illustrate that story, either through a bad choice or a good choice?

Remember, also, a Subplot has to have all the elements of a story: Inciting Incident, conflict, Black Moment, Epiphany and a climatic ending.

When do you start the Subplot?

A good Subplot starts after the main plot is established. Usually, I begin the Subplot after I’ve introduced the main characters and their conflict, often about three chapters in. Then, to keep it flowing, I usually put in one Subplot scene or POV per every four to five main POVs. That way I keep the Subplot flowing without overwhelming the main plot. Finally, I tie up the Subplot at least three chapters before the main story ends.

Creating a Subplot for your book is much like creating a main plot—you must figure out your character, and their fear and dreams and goals. However, you only have to stick to the main elements. Don’t worry about the emotional journey, or even the unlayering—keep it simple, but focused on illuminating the main theme of the plot.

How do you decide between a Subplot or a Story Layer?

The answer lies in both the plot scope and the story length. Do you need more action and depth to your main story? If your story is not high action, or the plot not complicated, or even if you have a highly technical plot, you may need a Subplot to deep your story.

If your story is already filled with twists and turns, with a large cast, and a technical plot, then a Story Layer is a better fit. You’ll want to accentuate the main plot instead of draw attention from it and engage the reader in another.

Another consideration is word count. Do you have enough room in the actual word count to build in a Subplot? A mass market book, like Heartsong or Steeple Hill Love Inspired, or even any of the other mass market lines, might not have enough room in their word count to allow for a full-out Subplot. More than that (check with your editors), many of the mass market lines prefer a simple hero-heroine structure.

However, if you have a trade-sized book with 90-100k word count, you probably have room to build in a solid but tight Subplot.

Whether you use a Subplot or a layer, incorporating one or the other will widen your plot and help you create a book that makes an impact on your reader.

Widen your Plot:

• Consider the kind of book you are writing—is it better suited for a Subplot or a layer?
  
• What is the theme of your story?
  
• What would you like to accentuate, add to, or spark in relationship to that theme?
  
• Look into your character’s periphery. Who could you use to create a Story Layer or Subplot?
  
• If you are creating a Story Layer, name one key scene you will use to accentuate that layer.
  
• If you are creating a story Subplot, plot out the mini-story arc:
  
  • Inciting Incident
    
  • Obstacle/Conflict
    
  • Black Moment
    
  • Epiphany (Lesson Learned)
    
  • Happy ending/Application by the POV characters (Main plot)
    

How to use Secondary Characters for maximum effect

I love football. From August to February, our family is glued to Sunday afternoon football (and Monday, and Thursday, and the occasional Saturday.) Football is a true team sport. Everyone must be playing their positions in order for the team to score or defend. My sons play football, and we often talk about how they can play in their position, how a touchdown for one is a touchdown for all.

Sure, the QB is the main character. The wide receivers and running backs are principal players. Tackles and guards and ends are secondary players, although equally important to the entire picture.

A good story is set up like a football game. (Maybe that’s why I like it!) You have the Main Character, the principal characters who push the plot forward, and then you have the defenders—those secondary players who deliver information, or add resonance to the layer, or even provide the Subplot.

A Secondary Character doesn’t have to just be a place marker, the guy who serves coffee or the waitress at the café, or the nosy neighbor. A Secondary Character can widen the plot even further by giving them a Voice of Reason . . . or Passion.

The Voice of Reason or Passion

The Voice of Passion lives in my house. She’s dressed like my teenage daughter (on any given day that might be a pair of jeans, topped with a skirt, with a tank top under a short-sleeved sweatshirt, and a pair of what my husband calls, her “Wonder Woman” arm protectors.)

Now, to be fair, my daughter has long moments of reason, where sanity prevails. Moments when I am able to convince her that no, her brothers aren’t trying to drive her crazy, even though they insist on leaving the bathroom . . . well, you know. In these moments, I glimpse the woman that she will be, and know that truth does make it way inside.

And then there are the moments when passion takes over. When, despite her best efforts, life is simply too much. In these moments, she must play her music at the top of the allowed decibel levels and, to put it into
Grey’s Anatomy Speak
, she has to dance it out. In these moments, that inner wild thing must be heard and set free. Only then can she breathe deeply, and eventually find reason again.