: Re: The Art of creating Subplots What are the ways of creating Subplots in fantasy genre that really catch the reader's attention? Should there be a conflict in the subplots? Please explain.

@Kevin153

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A subplot is basically another story included inside your main story, one that is simpler and less detailed than your main storyline. It does need some conflict in order to be interesting, but this tends to be both less complicated and more easily resolved than the conflicts in the main plot. There can be many reasons and ways to deploy subplots, but the two main types of subplot are ones that illuminate the main plot, and ones that interact with the main plot. I'll use the 2001 movie Monsoon Wedding as an example, it uses both effectively.

REFLECTIVE - To illuminate (echo and/or contrast with) the main plot: This kind of subplot is largely separate --in a causal sense --from the main plot. It might even be a story or a anecdote told within the main plot. However, it has aspects that illuminate some feature of the main story, by both echoing it and contrasting with it. For example, in Monsoon Wedding the main plot is about a woman falling in love with a fiance she barely knows, just prior to a lavish arranged marriage. But there is a memorable subplot about the wedding planner falling in love with the family's maid. The echoes are clear, both are love stories, culminating in a double wedding at the end. But there are also contrasts. One couple is rich, the other is poor. One love affair is arranged, the other is spontaneous, and so forth. The existence of the subplot deepens the emotional content of the movie --the love of the second couple is purer and less complicated than that of the first couple.
FUNCTIONAL - To interact with (advance or complicate) the main plot: The main overall plot of most movies and books could be summarized in a few paragraphs --they aren't that distant from the fairy tales and myths that compose the primal materials of storytelling. It's the functional subplots that give the story its unique shape and structure. For instance, in Monsoon Wedding, the family throwing the wedding must make a stark moral choice around rejecting the much needed financial support of a wealthy family member, who has secretly abused a young member of the family. This choice becomes a major functional complication in how the movie is going to resolve -- it has real consequences for the family, either way.

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