In your average novel - and by that I mean average in length - how many sub plots do you think is reasonable? How many is too many?

The reason I ask is in my novel during my protagonist's fight to go from A to B I have a sub plot that involves him letting go of one life and embracing a new one. However, I've become aware that this sub plot has manifest itself into three seperate sub plots (sub sub plots if you like). Does that seem like too many?

I think it's important to ask yourself why you have the sub plot(s) - is it slight of hand, so you can distract the reader from an otherwise A-Z plot, or is it to add humour to the proceedings - I'm all for humour. In answer to your question I would suggest having one of each, ie. Two, but I confess that is a guesstimate.

I'm not sure I'd even altogether regard what you describe as a sub-plot. To me sub-plot is a whole separate series of events, probably involved some different characters, which you could almost pull out an stand on its own, though obviously in the novel they're interwoven. But Naomi's right - it sounds as if the answer is in what the different strands are doing (or not doing) for the whole, rather than a head-count.

Emma

I don't think you can apply arithmetic in this area. No number of anything is right in a novel. The only thing that's right is what works both for the author and for the reader (or a particular type of reader).

I'm not quite sure what you mean by sub-plot here. If your character's letting go of one life and embracing a new one is something quite separate from the main story, i.e. it's like a loop that takes you away from the plot then later on drops you back where you were originally, there is a danger that it is more of a diversion than a sub-plot. I would say that the rule of thumb here would be to have as few diversions as possible (to avoid frustrating the reader) unless the diversion in some way contributes something important and meaningful to the conduct of the main plot.

If, on the other hand, what is happening is that the character's letting go of one life and embracing a new one is something that is happening to him/her as a result of what is going on in the main plot, that's quite another matter. It's more of a parallel plot (or, if you like, a different strand of the main plot) and this can be much more interesting. Indeed, a plot with only one strand risks ending up as an uninteresting sequence of events. So in a story of military conflict, the main plot might chart the main character's progress through the course of events of the conflict, but at the same time there might be developments in his love life (at a distance at home or wherever he happens to be) and also, as a third strand, developments in his thinking, e.g. disillusionment over what he thought he was fighting for. Both these strands might involve some temporary divergence from the main strand but should always be related to it. Each strand should affect and contribute to the others.

You could of course have two main plots! But, even here, I think that they need to be interwoven or interact with one another in some way. Interact rather than interrupt is probably the watchword.

If a sub-plot represents a fundamental departure from the main plot, one needs to ask: does it belong in the novel?

That's my take on it anyway.

Chris

If, on the other hand, what is happening is that the character's letting go of one life and embracing a new one is something that is happening to him/her as a result of what is going on in the main plot, that's quite another matter.

That's it exactly.

The MC realises as the events take place (the plot) that he needs to make certain changes in his life. It's the kind of, 'if I get out of this alive I'll never do X, Y and Z again'. So it is related to the plot.

I had these 'sub plots' in to a) stop the main plot for advancing too quickly and b) to give the read a bigger insight into the MC.

this sub plot has manifest itself into three seperate sub plots

Do you mean the plot has split into three alternative 'universes'? ie. If he takes X road this happens; if he takes Y road that happens; and if he takes Z road the other happens - and you are following/exploring all 3 senarios?


- NaomiM

Dr Q, what you describe doesn't sound to me like a sub-plot at all, as it is part of the central journey which your main charcater is making in the course of your book. To me, a sub-plot tends not to concern the main character(s) at all, but minor characters. But maybe that is just a disagreement about what to calll a thing, not about its place in the novel - or any answer to your question of 'how many'.

I fear the answer to that may be like the length of a piece of strng - it is so dependent on the book and what it is trying to do. If it were a straightforward, say, murder mystery, or romance, then the reader isn't going to want too many distractions from that cenral driving thread. But if it's something more 'messy - about a group of people and the muddle of their lives - then more strands of sub-plot, higher in the mix, might be appropriate.

Rosy