October Content Update: Subplots Within Plots (Patreon)

I'm not a fan of the word "subplot". To me, the term has always implied a certain unbridgeable divide between the "main progression" of a narrative and those parts which lay outside of it. With that distinction comes a danger of seeing anything not part of the "critical path" (the one which leads the protagonist from their beginning to their final confrontation) as something to be disconnected from the main themes of the narrative, to be allowed a certain degree of narrative license, or worse - to be phoned in entirely - all of which would end up detracting from the quality of the narrative as a whole. Thus, I don't so much like to think about the distinction between main and subplots as a dichotomy, so much as a continuum, where even going off the well-travelled way of the critical story path leads to elements which don't distract from the main narrative themes, but reinforce them, giving more emotional weight to the characters' actions, and providing context which can only serve to allow the audience to better inhabit the protagonist's world.

In a way, even the main plot of most good stories is made up of subplots. Sure, there's a long-term goal which is supposed to set up the broad arc of the narrative, but to achieve that goal and to keep the audience's attention, the narrative provides intermediate goals, ones which gives the protagonist immediate challenges and gives them immediate motivations. As a result of concluding or advancing these "stages" of a "main" plot, the protagonist and the audience gain insight into the setting which might help contextualise the conflict or the stakes they're facing overall, or provide them with tools or allies to help them in achieving their long-term goal, or alter the protagonist in a way which brings them closer to the state they need to be when that final confrontation occurs, for better or worse. All these things keep the audience engaged and provides a meaningful sense of advancement to the story, without skipping too quickly to the end or disconnecting the audience from the fictional perspective they're supposed to be inhabiting.

There are even narratives where these intermediate stories are the main point of the story in the first place, because the long-term goal of that narrative is not to prepare a protagonist for a final confrontation, but to show off a given setting or the aspects of a certain character for the audience. By using these intermediate story stages as individual, self-contained narratives about a certain theme or character trait, a creator can build a portrait of a place or a time or a person without resorting to direct exposition - and they can do it in a way which keeps the audience engaged. While most narratives need a main plot thread to tie all the intermediate stories together, those which exist as a study of a character or a setting or a theme can use those intermediate stories to keep the audience entertained (or at least engaged) while keeping any overarching "main" plot in the background or non-existent altogether.

Such stories - character studies, or travelogues, or what ever they might be called – serve as probably the most obvious demonstration of what I mean when I say the main plot of a story is a chain of subplots. Each of these intermediate stories might one link in the chain of the “critical” path, but it also offers more immediate change, more immediate goals, and generally elements which the audience can engage with on smaller-scale terms than the main plot. At the same time, it still alters the state of the setting, either by directly changing the circumstances of the world, or by changing the protagonist's - or the audience's - perspective on that world. These aren't just the elements of a good intermediate story within a main plot, but also the elements of a good subplot, one which serves to strengthen, rather than distract from the impact of the main narrative arc.

This is kind of a difficult thing to define beyond those rather nebulous terms. It's probably easier in this case to understand what it means by giving examples of bad subplots. 

Take, for example, the often-maligned "superfluous romance subplot" in a lot of media which don't have romance as the main function of the main plot. This isn't a crack at the romance genre as a whole, a lot of people love to experience romance plots for very good reasons. However, because romance is seen as such a commonly appealing aspect of a story, it's the sort of subplot which most often gets added into a non-romance genre narrative. This can be done well, in a way where the arc of the romance itself serves to change the way the protagonist or the audience approach the main course of the plot. In other cases, however, it can be added in without really integrating it into the rest of the narrative, which means it doesn't affect the main conflict in any meaningful way or form. If the audience already identifies with the protagonist, and is already invested in that protagonist's goals, adding a subplot which doesn't serve to help the protagonist in their goals, affect how they see their antagonist or the world around them in a way which is relevant to their goals, or change them in a way to better (or perhaps worse) tackle the challenges between them and their goals will make that subplot look like a distraction from the "real" action, which means the audience won't see this new subplot as more of a good thing, but something they don't care about which they have to go through to get to something they do care about - an obstacle to their enjoyment.

Another common example comes in certain types of sidequests in open-world games: particularly the kind which involve repeating the same basic set of tasks over and over again without variation and without providing any rewards which deepen or alter the connection between the player character and the setting or "main story quests". This is a slightly better example, in the sense that these sidequests often do at least provide experience or new equipment (or the means to craft or purchase new equipment) which in turn makes their player characters better equipped to face the challenges of the main story - but relying too much on this connection can also lead to a bad reaction from the players. If players are required to engage in sidequests which they don't particularly enjoy and don't connect to the core advertised experience of the game solely to gain the power needed to progress the main story or engage in that core experience, then those sidequests too, will feel like obstacles. If your entire game is intended to offer the fantasy of being a legendary hero destined to fight a world-imperiling evil, then being required to collect bear claws for a local hunter will start to seem like a pointless distraction the tenth time the player's asked to do it.

These are not inherently bad subplots, what makes them bad is their disconnection from the purpose of the main plot elements - which is to say the ones the audience is most emotionally invested in. Thus, the way to "salvage" these subplots is to tie them in to the themes and material of the main plot in a way which makes the audience believe that advancing these subplots will advance the main plot as well. This means that the emotional investment the audience already has in the main plot will become shared by the subplot and the subplot’s storytelling will deepen the audience’s investment in the main plot. If the protagonist's romantic counterpart proves to be a valuable ally in the narrative's main conflict, or provides insight into the nature of that conflict which changes the way which the protagonist engages in it, or even simply provides an explanation to the audience which makes the protagonist's actions more clearer, then the audience will come to see that formerly meaningless romantic subplot as something which adds depth and dynamism to the main plot.

Games have even more tools with which to tie subplots to the core experience. Players aren't just following a protagonist around, but inhabiting their existence. They aren't just being shown a story, but given a chance to live the entire fictional experience of a different person with different roles in a different society. This means that in a way, there are two key centres of emotional investment in a game: that of the main storyline, and that of the core fantasy of the protagonist's role, be that the role of a legendary swordmaster, an action hero, a high-ranking military commander, a special forces operator, or a crime lord. While the main plot and this core fantasy are obviously meant to reinforce each other (the fantasy providing the circumstances for the main plot) sidequests can serve to reinforce both. 

Say you're writing a game which puts you in the role of a mercenary in a low fantasy setting. Say this role gives you a central conflict - for example, revenge against an employer who reneged on your contract and chose to betray you instead. With these initial points of reference you could create a sideplot like a more typical mercenary contract, one which not only demonstrates the everyday life of a mercenary, but also might reward you with allies or tools which will prove helpful when you finally face down your player character's antagonist. With the former, you integrate this sideplot into the game's core fantasy (being a mercenary), while also making it a reinforcing element of the game's main plot (gather enough power to confront and take down your enemy).

You'll notice that in both these cases, these subplots could easily be the “intermediate stage” of a main plot as well. Ultimately, I think that's how a subplot should be - a romance which gives the protagonist the knowledge or the state of mind to overcome their obstacles, or an adventure to secure the player character the power they need to face the game's final challenge - a part of the story which seems just as important and just as consequential as the main plot, to the degree that subplot and main plot blur together. 

Of course, what this actually entails relies on the medium, tone, and the specifics of the story you want to tell. As always, I can really only speak in general guidelines if I want to cover the whole broad range of narrative design. In the end, a guide or tutorial might offer some help in making a story work, but that story itself still has to come from the mind of its creator.