I’m on two panels this year at Killer Nashville’s 13th Annual International Writers’ Conference that runs from August 23rd to August 26th. My first panel is this Friday on Writing Effective Subplots. My second is this coming Sunday on The Differences in Men and Women Sleuths. In preparation for the first panel on subplots, I thought I’d use the subject for this August Make Mine Mystery post.
I love subplots in books for a million reasons. Subplots have their own story arc but take up less of everything: action, impact, significant events. Many intertwine with the main plot, but they don’t have to. They can be a sub-story of interest with a beginning, middle, and end and they can be short.
In my books (one published and one completed but in editing stage), I use a main subplot that knits in and out of my main story line. In my first book, Just Another Termination, the subplot is an unsolved double homicide 25 years earlier. In my second book, A Promotion to Die For, yet to be published, I use an unusual and dangerous situation my lead character experienced 30 years earlier. In both books, the subplot runs parallel with the main plot and comes together at the end with a bang.
Do any of you, readers and/or writers, want to add information about subplots? I love the subject and I’m definitely interested.
