The Importance of Plot and Subplot
Keeping your audience hooked when writing for novels, films, and blog posts.
Plot supplies the general direction of your story, but the subplot keeps your audience hooked. How does that work? Let get to the specifics of plot vs. subplot and how they help each other. We are assuming that your story type is dramatic.
Disclaimer: If you feel these techniques won’t work for blog-style posts you must read this through till the end!!
Plot:
The plot is the main storyline from beginning to end. The exploits of your hero and villain in a 3 act structure connect to your story’s theme/purpose and give the reason why an audience stays engaged. Your audience wants to see the outcome of the drama.
Subplot:
This is a smaller secondary plots that keeps the story moving. The subplot adds obstacles in the way of your main character and conflict. Obstacles require motivation and action to be overcome, while conflict creates drama and suspense. The subplot provides forward motion without which the story would be dead and motionless.
When you read a 3–4 line synopsis on the inside cover of a book or an IMDB description, that is your plot. Remember, we have at least 250–400 pages in a novel to fill or 1/2–2 hours of screen time in a film. Subplots keeps…
