Week 2, Day 12

Do you feel like you've run out of things to say?  You've written down every idea that's been mulling around in your head and now your creativity feels depleted?

Time for sub-plots.

A sub-plot includes storylines that include the goals and actions of your supporting characters.  Here's an example from "A Place for Pamela".

There are four supporting characters in my book:  Pamela's mother, father, brother and sister.  Their goals and actions have direct and indirect effects on Pamela's life, oftentimes to the detriment and demise of Pamela.

Father (Coach) - His name is Coach because that's what everyone's called him since he began his high school football coaching career twenty years ago.  Even his family calls him Coach.  He is the reason the family moved - to further his career and give him the opportunity to make his dream come true - to take the high school football team to the state championship and win the coveted trophy.  His day-to-day actions further the storyline and his self-absorbed decisions affect Pamela.

Mother (Maggie) - She is thrilled to be living in this newly-built community with its country club, golf links, social parties and fund-raising activities.  She immediately becomes preoccupied with the upcoming election for the Country Club Association and petitions to be the new president.

Jake (Brother) - Jake is a senior.  He is good-looking, charismatic and athletic.  Jake enjoys the prestige of his father being the new head coach and the perks that come with being his son - namely, he is the starting quarterback.  The house is always the hub of activity in the community where he and his friends gather to talk sports, eat pizza and play video games.

Maralee (Sister) - Maralee is a junior. She also inherited the family's blonde hair and blue eyes and her mother's contagious smile.  Maralee is thrilled to be the focus of Jake's teammates, and spends more time at parties and social events than at home.

Pamela, of course, is affected by her family's lives and decisions.  In their haste to assimilate into the new community, Pamela is ignored.  The family assumes Pamela is just as happy as they are and ignore her pleas for help.  She falls into the wrong crowd and develops an addition to shoplifting.  The adrenaline rush that stealing provides Pamela helps to take away the loneliness and sadness in her life, even if just for a few minutes. 

Now that I have written these sub-plot outlines, I have new chapters I can write.  Each of them will help to reinforce and validate Pamela's problem, which is what I must do as a writer to make her problem plausible.

Take a few minutes and create your sub-plots.  You won't have to worry about coming up with enough words to meet your 50,000 goal.

TTFN