How to Dodge the Subplot Trap

EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Historical fiction writers often ask: “Can I just make stuff up?” In this episode, Zena Dell Lowe explains the balance between staying true to history and using creative license to craft compelling stories. She covers examples from fiction and media adaptations, giving you actionable insights to write stories that feel authentic while keeping readers engaged.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] If you have multiple storylines in your story, you're going to have multiple climaxes and then you still have to have your clima. Climax. You can have this storyline, have a climax, and even a resolution, and still have to satisfy it here for this.

[00:00:19] Storyline and then here again for this storyline. And so you have to figure out which storyline ultimately then becomes most important, and which one kind of brings it all together, or which one it's hinging on. It's a tricky thing to balance that because you can't always bring it together at the same time.

[00:00:37] Sometimes those other ones are gonna resolve sooner. So I talked about this in the course, how you have a hierarchy if you will, you know, first you've gotta get across the moat.

[00:00:48] Then you've gotta fight off all of the minions. Then you gotta scale the walls of the castle. Now you've got the more personal fight with the king's guard. Then you get inside and you've got as personal guard. You gotta get past them. And then finally you can fight the king and save the princess. Or whatever.

[00:01:04] And that's the climax. Climax. So it goes in this hierarchy of order of how you have to have the climax come down. But the truth of the matter is if you have multiple storylines, you're sort of having to organize it in the same way. So I'm thinking of the Red Rising Series. And I've mentioned this book series multiple times. I absolutely love it. I think it's phenomenally written sci-fi fantasy and the latter three books. So he has his first three trilogy and then 10 years later he's got his.

[00:01:35] Second trilogy, and in that book, you know, that's definitely multiple narrators. You've got at least four main characters that you are telling the story through. So one of those characters ends up having almost, I wanna say it's actually pretty early on in the second book where his story is resolved because he dies.

[00:02:00] Like, you know, it's like the last thing and then the story continues on with other characters. But it works because of where it's placed in the overall structure and because all of those other characters, ultimately their stories do fit into the overall narrative. So you're still having to make choices based on the most important, what is the most important climax, and here's how you kind of test that.

[00:02:25] Is there a climax that once you have that happen, everything that comes after that seems anti-climactic? Then that should be the one that you hold off on the longest and the other one, does it have to be the main, does it have to be the main character at the very end?

[00:02:38] Yes, I think so. Absolutely. Your main character should be the main storyline that you're the most invested in. Typically speaking, it will be anti-climactic if you have your main characters climax and then you have a minor character. And just for practical reasons, it's doesn't look like it's gonna work that way.

[00:02:56] So I don't know. Okay. Well there's, you know what, generally. This is a general rule of thumb, but there's always exceptions. And what's the acid test? Does it work? So write it the way you have it in mind, Leslie. And then we'll see later if it works. And if it doesn't, I'm almost positive. I'll have some suggestions as to what you could maybe do to switch up the order or make it work a little better.

[00:03:21] But hopefully that will work. It might. the real point. That when you have multiple characters, you're gonna have to have multiple climaxes. They're not always gonna hit at the same time. So you still have to make a decision of hierarchy which ones should happen first. And generally speaking, you're looking at the storylines that add tension, suspense, trouble to your main character storyline.

[00:03:47] How is it going to play into whatever happens to them 

[00:03:51]