LTWF: Story Threads and Resonance
Listen: if there’s one thing that every engrossing, well-built novel needs, it’s subplots. Or, as I prefer to call them: story layers.
“Oh no,” you argue. “I don’t need any layers. My plot just doesn’t have room for that.”
I beg to differ.
Every story can benefit from a subplot–even just a few tiny threads that twine together and meet up at the end. Honestly, you don’t need to add much, yet that little layer will add MAJOR depth to your story.
Why? Because layers give your story resonance.
What do I mean by resonance?
Think back on those really satisfying endings. Those “AHA!” moments in a story when the final twist is revealed and the carefully laid–yet hidden!–clues are suddenly so obvious. All those connections you had missed were right before your nose the whole time!
You smack your head, smiling wide, and say, “I so should have seen that coming! But I didn’t! HOW COOL.”
Or perhaps you’ve just read a murder mystery. You reach the whodunit-unmasking, and you finally realize how obvious the killer was all along.
Or maybe you’ve just finished a romance, and in that last chapter, you finally see how blind the heroine was being–and how obvious the hero’s true feelings were all along (Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride & Prejudice, anyone?).
Keep in mind, though: your resonating moment doesn’t have to be at the end. It can be a betrayal mid-novel, the sudden return of a thought-to-be-dead character in book 7, or even the simple realization that all that queasiness in your MC’s gut was actually the result of her one night stand on page 1 (oops!).
Consider when Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth in the middle of Pride & Prejudice, and we suddenly see all of his seemingly rude actions from a completely different angle.
A scene will resonate when it reveals the final, critical piece in a picture.
The jigsaw puzzle is now complete, and that last piece is what makes the image discernible.
One of my ALL TIME FAVORITE resonating moments comes from Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. There’s a prophecy introduced at the book’s start, and this prophecy is constantly brought up throughout the rest of the book’s 1000+ pages. You assume, like the characters, that the prophecy isn’t that important and refers to the obvious XYZ, but then…KAPOW. The climax and ending occur, leaving you breathless and in awe of how unexpected (yet obvious!) the prophecy’s true meaning is.
Now, not all subplots (or layers) connect tightly with the main plot. A thread won’t always overlap and then finally weave together at the end. BUT, in order to enhance your story (rather than hurt it), the subplot must at least relate to the primary story.
For example, you don’t want a subplot about the MC being the fastest pizza delivery boy if your novel is about the zombie apocalypse…UNLESS that fast delivery is what saves the MC from a horde of zombies in the climax. Make sense?
So now it’s your turn. If you’ve ever been told your story just didn’t have the needed depth or was missing…something… Then, I challenge you to pull out your WIP (or an old shelved story) and find a place to add something more.
Here are some ways to enhance your story’s resonance:
- Connect your characters.
- Perhaps your MC and the villain aren’t just middle school rivals–maybe you can add in a new layer: they’re parents are also rivals.
- Or maybe two secondary characters have a secret connection that’s hinted at throughout…but not revealed until the book’s end.
- REMEMBER: Whatever connection you have, it needs to have consequences. If you find out that the MC’s mom used to date the bad guy (a lá Veronica Mars), then we need to know why that matters.
- Add in a tiny new plot thread or build layers onto the external plot you already have.
- Make that “throwaway” line on page 12–the random song lyric on the radio or speaker on TV–become a critical clue in the mystery. Add in a few more things like this.
- Or make a curious/odd thing–like all the how-to books in his car that the MC interprets as proof he’s an alien from outer space–a misleading addition. (Nope, it turns out he isn’t an alien, he’s just hoping to get be an Eagle Scout.)
- Bring things full circle.
- End the story where you start it–physically speaking. Like, if the book opens in a church, end it there.
- Make the enemy the friend or vice versa. Let the character’s attitudes toward someone make a complete switch…and then, if you want to get really sneaky, bring them right back to their starting point.
In Something Strange and Deadly, I added layers by connecting every single character. Secret histories, shady pasts, nurtured hatreds–these are all there, drawing invisible lines between each person.
When the book opens, the MC doesn’t know that all the people in her life have nasty secrets, but by the end, she figures out the connections…and is able to discovers the villain’s true identity because of it.
The key is to leave the story just a wee bit foggy until the very end (or whenever you want the “reveal” moment to occur).
What do you think? How do you add resonance to your story? Or what kind of layers do you suggest building?