Don't Neglect Your Subplots (They Really Do Add Spice To Your Story)

Subplots are one of those things a lot of writers love to try their hands at, but not all writers are good at them. They're sort of like getting perfect icing on a cupcake; it's amazing when you get it just right, but if you mess it up then it's going to be really obvious.

Now, if you're going to include subplots in your story, I'd recommend keeping some of the following advice in mind... as well as avoiding some of the bigger mistakes that can ruin your special addition to the overarching plot!

Because it's very easy to scare your subplots, and they fall flatter than a soufflé when that happens.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

What Is A Subplot?

Subplots, or B Plots, are secondary storylines that are going on during the main story you're telling. For example, in Lord of The Rings, the main plot is Frodo's quest to take the ring to Mount Doom and destroy it. The major B plots are Aragorn's struggles to stop the rampaging armies of evil, and Mary and Pippin going off on their own, separate adventures. The reason these subplots work so well is that they all affect the main storyline in some way, they mirror the overall themes of the story, and they weave together neatly in the end.

Those are the things you want out of a subplot. It doesn't necessarily have to be a long-running, immersive thing that takes up a great deal of page space, but it needs to act as part of the ongoing narrative in some way, shape or form, and the subplot needs to be resolved the same way the main plot does (though not necessarily at the same time).

For folks who need another example of a subplot, one of my favorites that I've written is in my book Painted Cats. The main plot is that our Maine Coon bruiser Leo has been asked to find a missing cat named Mischief... but the subplot is that her kitten Trouble has sort of landed on Leo's doorstep. So while he is trying to find what happened to Mischief, Leo also has to help teach Trouble how to be a cat... particularly when it comes to fighting in New York back alleys. This subplot weaves back into the narrative when what Leo teaches Trouble helps him defend himself, and leads to a domino falling in the main plot. And, in the event I write more novels, this minor subplot is going to shape Trouble as a character, helping him grow into a protagonist in his own right, and possibly headlining his own series.

Seriously, grab a copy of this book if you haven't!

However, those are two examples of subplots that do work... what does it look like when a subplot doesn't work? Well, I'm glad you asked, because this reaches back to the early days of my career when I was editing for a small romance company. The company, author, and book shall not be named.

With that said, the main plot was that our protagonist was an Arabian noblewoman in a previous life, and her lover had been cursed into a piece of jewelry. A thousand years later the modern reincarnation of this woman finds the ring, and frees her lover from his metallic prison. The two of them must then confront the immortal sorcerer who laid this curse upon them in the first place, destroying him once and for all!

That's the A Plot of the book. The B Plot... well, it's about our protagonist's bestie.

So, from page 2 of this novel, we know that our protagonist's bestie is on the outs with her man. He seems to have cheated on her with a waitress, and now they're broken up. Her whole plot is trying to move on, and to find a new man. Her ex shows up 3 times throughout the book, and every time he does he is belligerent, unhelpful, and a general asshole all around. He never does anything to help out with the A Plot, nor does he do anything to contradict the view we've been given of him. There's never a scene where he shows up in his car to pick up the protagonist when she needed something, or an explanation that no, he didn't sleep with that waitress, but our protagonist's friend just won't believe him, and he's trying to prove that he didn't do anything wrong.

And at the end of the novel, said bestie and her ex are now together again... and this is supposed to be seen as a positive resolution even though he's still a massive dickhead who has been nothing but unkind to everyone around him, and did apparently cheat on his girlfriend who just took him back. No lesson was learned, no actual plot was affected, and it's a real sour note on what is an otherwise happy ending to the story.

The whole subplot was, in other words, pointless. The ex could have been removed from every scene he was in, and just never been mentioned, and nothing would have changed except the book became less unbearable to read. His ex taking him back means that she didn't learn anything, and neither of them grew or changed... and given the fact that said best friend just witnessed literal magic, a man reborn from over a thousand years ago after breaking an ancient curse, and the knowledge that our protagonist tried to find her lost love in every one of her dozens of lifetimes, the proper plot resolution should have been for the bestie to kick her ex to the curb, take back her power, and make it known that she won't accept anything less than this kind of love in her life.

And then maybe she meets a sweet, young EMT who comes to the scene of the sorcerer fight or something. The point is, though, that this is an example of a subplot that wasn't fun, wasn't a story in its own right, and added nothing to the book... which are precisely the sorts of subplots you need to trim off of your manuscript before you send it to your editors.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

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And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

There Are No Bad Ideas... Only Bad Executions

A phrase that I've heard repeated several times throughout various writing pages and groups is there are no bad ideas, only bad executions. This is something I wholeheartedly support as an author, and it's a topic I'd like to hold forth about a bit this week since it's something I've run into time and time again over my career.

Even if it is done mostly as a personal challenge.

Never tell a writer they can't combine two or more genres together... because we WILL try.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

You Can Do Anything You Set Your Mind To...

Writing is a craft, and if you have the chops and experience with it, you can tell all kinds of tales if you really set your mind to it. If you want to do a mash-up of the Trojan War with a super-advanced sci-fi setting where all the great heroes are replaced by mech pilots, you can do that. If you want to write a whimsical story full of fae nobles pulling pranks that has the tone of Game of Thrones, you can do that too (shout out to Max On Writing, Cursed Problems in Writing for this example). Or if you want to write a book about a hard-nosed alleycat solving mysteries in a world of furry street beasts with the tone (and brutality) of a classic noir novel, you could check out my very own hardboiled cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats.

Seriously, go give it a look!

If you go back through the catalog of fiction, you will find all sorts of ideas that seem ludicrous, absurd, or like they simply wouldn't go together. However, it's not a matter of whether you can combine these particular flavors of story; the question is whether you're skilled enough to pull off a particular storytelling recipe.

On the one hand, you should embrace the idea that nothing is out of bounds... on the other hand, though, it's important to examine your skill set, your experience, and your talents. Because while anyone could cook a particular dish with the right skills and know-how, not just anyone has those resources, which means you need to take a moment to ask whether you're really up to the task.

And if you're not, then you may need to work yourself up to it.

With That Said, Not Everything Appeals To Every Palate

While I stand by everything I've said so far in this week's update, I feel it's important to add in something of a caveat. Because it's possible to write a perfect blending of two distinct styles, or genres, or story archetypes that create a new, unique reading experience that no one has read before. It's possible to tell a story in a way that is executed with skill and finesse, and which hits all the right notes. And after you've pulled off that hat trick, your audience will either walk away, or boo you, because what you gave them is not what they want.

Because at the end of the day, fiction is like food in another way... just because you can doesn't mean that's what the market wants.

You might be able to make amazing Asian/French fusion food that boasts a unique menu of flavors that are something your customers' palates have never experienced before... but if they came here expecting your restaurant to be one thing or the other, but they get both, that isn't going to go over well. Sure, some people might keep an open mind and try it, but a lot of people are going to walk out the door before they do much more than glance at the menu.

If you're going to be doing this professionally, it's not just about what you're capable of as a writer; it's about satisfying people's demand. So keep in mind that you might make the best plant-based vegan steak available... but if there's no one interested in that, it isn't going to matter how perfectly done and juicy it is.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Books, Burnout, and The Power of Encouraging Words

While 2024 has already been a slog, that trend didn't start with the new year. I've honestly been going 10+ hours a day since Fall 2023 trying to stay on top of my deadlines, and to get fresh stuff out there for all my current and future readers to check out, and it has been a huge strain on me as a creator. That's the nature of the game, but those hours take a toll on you, and you have to start making decisions about where your time and attention are going to be spent when you're looking at your bills.

That's the reason I haven't started a new novel yet. I love writing them, but most folks who know me and my work know me as a TTRPG writer, or maybe a short story/audio creator. With funds as tight as they are it's hard to justify pouring another year of work into a book that only folks who see me at conventions will read... but it doesn't take much to get that fire lit one more time.

All I need, apparently, is seeing someone excited about one of my silly cat mysteries, and my brain is off to the races!

A little encouragement goes a LONG way...

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

The Hard Boiled Cat, and A Steampunk Expo

For those who didn't see my updates (as the algorithm is a fickle thing), I spent the past weekend at the Chicago Steampunk Expo. It was my first time at this particular event, and it was a lot of work to figure out the new hotel space, come up with fresh booth set up, and to deal with all the bumps in the road that come with figuring out an event you've never worked before. However, I got it done, and I even managed to sell a couple of books while I was there.

I'd expected to sell copies of my new TTRPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, but by the end of the event, I'd only managed to move a single copy... however, I sold all the copies I'd brought of my Hard Boiled Cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats. That's not saying much, as I only had a few copies of each, but something happened that I wanted to recount.

Also, get your copy if you haven't yet!

During setup I and Alice Liddell had a lovely boothmate, J.L. Barnes (whom you should definitely check out) who makes lovely artwork of adorable animals having small adventures. And once the two of us got our booths set up and introduced ourselves, she picked up my book, looked it over, and then handed me cash for it. The dealer's hall hadn't even opened to the public yet, and I'd already moved a copy of Leo's debut novel.

And she wasn't the only one. Practically everyone who came to the booth that expressed an interest in books took one look at Leo's novels before they asked for a pitch. Almost everyone who heard the pitch grabbed copies, and I didn't have any more by early afternoon of day two. And for folks who don't vend at cons, that's pretty unusual... most folks who buy books wait till the last day before swooping in and making their final selections, particularly for indie authors.

It wasn't just the sales, though those were very nice. It was the interactions I had with those readers. It was the looks on people's faces when they heard there was a gangland noir series about a Maine Coon heavy who gets mixed up with the raccoon Mafia, who has to make deals with New York subway rats, and who has to protect a kitten whose mama goes missing while teaching him how to be a proper cat.

Real talk, readers, I'd been burnt out as a novelist. With our loss of first Eric Flint, and then his publishing company, and my books spending a year in limbo before they got back onto the market having lost all of their momentum, I was exhausted. A novel generally takes a year of time for me to get down, and with everything arrayed as an uphill battle, I was prepared to just keep writing blogs, TTRPGs, short stories, and audio dramas for the foreseeable future, reserving more novels for a time when either my books grew a large enough audience to justify that kind of work, or I could afford to get back to such a large project.

I didn't realize how burnt out I was until complete strangers told me they thought my book was really fun and creative, then handed me money for it... because apparently that's all it took to light my pilot again!

Chapter One: A Mouse, and My Cheese Burger

Now, I'm not going to immediately break ground on a new novel tonight. I've got too many balls in the air, and too many projects with deadlines to take up yet more space I don't have. However, I wanted to remind folks that if you're tired, and everything feels like a pointless slog, then you're probably way more burnt out than you think. So if you're down on your work, and you feel like you're just shouting into the void, talk to someone who isn't familiar with your stories. Someone who isn't part of your regular audience, and who hasn't heard your pitch before.

You'll likely find their reaction is far more excited, and that can be the fuel you need to get back to the grindstone!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Is Audio Fiction Breathing New Life Into Short Stories?

I've said this several times over the years on this blog, but selling short stories is a Herculean task. Whether it's doing digital marketing for titles I've been involved with, or hand-selling books at a convention, it is hard as hell to find people who are willing to check out these books. One of the only successes I've had in this regard is From A Cat's View: An Anthology of Stories Told By Cats, but it's sort of the exception that proves the rule (since everyone loves cats).

However, while my personal experience is that fewer and fewer people are interested in sitting down and reading short fiction, it seems like more and more people are actively seeking short audio stories... which is an interesting opportunity for folks who enjoy creating short stories, but who may be telling them in the wrong format to get the numbers they need.

Because who doesn't want to hear a good story?

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Listeners Instead of Readers?

Several years ago I put out a short story collection titled The Rejects, which was a gathering of all the short stories I'd written that I felt were quality pieces of work, but which had never gotten picked up by an anthology open call. While I've personally sold several dozen copies by hand, and moved a fair number digitally, the book has only managed to garner 7 reviews (positive reviews, but only 7 of them). It's got a handful of fans who've told me they've enjoyed it, but it hasn't made that much of a splash.

Now consider the audio version of Dead Man's Bluff, one of the stories found in the collection that I've dramatized, which wound up over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files YouTube channel.

Alternatively, consider the below story, Suffer The Children. A dark, modern fantasy tale of an Old Testament bruiser in the City of Angel, Malachi is on a quest to save a child from the fires of Moloch, and to send a message to the brazen bull's followers that there are rules even in a place as corrupt as Los Angeles. While not quite as popular as the weird Western, the two of them combined have amassed hundreds of views (and a few thousand views back when they were hosted on a different platform).

 

Now, it should be mentioned that the audio versions of these stories are free to listen to, while the book itself costs money to buy. However, even with all the giveaways I've done for the collection, I've never had that many people take me up on getting a free copy of the stories. I've shared the links to both in the same venues, and I've put the same marketing behind both of them, and overall people seem far more willing to check out the audio than they are the text version of my short stories.

Why People Listen Instead of Read

Reading a book, whether it's short stories or novels, is an activity that requires one to put their full attention into things. Whether you're sitting on a couch, on your lunch break, or tucked into a spot on a train or a bus, reading a book is something you actively do, and it takes your eyes and hands to do it. However, most people who listen to audio books do so while they're actively working on something else. Whether it's walking on the treadmill, going for a jog, cleaning up around the house, painting miniatures, doing data entry at work, driving somewhere... situations where someone cannot actually use their hands to hold a book, or their eyes to scroll the page.

While some listeners will still prefer novels for these scenarios, there seem to be quite a lot of listeners out there who are looking for something bite-sized to get them through a particular activity. Sometimes listeners just want tales of a particular genre, sometimes they want a series they can pick up at any point and enjoy (such as the various SCP podcasts and freak-of-the-week horror casts where one can come in on nearly any episode), and sometimes they want a full narrative series that plays out in multiple seasons following the same characters through their adventures.  However, whatever format of story folks seem to prefer, and whatever genre it is they like, short fiction seems to be far more enjoyed by the listening crowd than the reading one.

Does that mean you can't still sell short stories in their traditional print format? No, of course not. However, consider the fact that the original short story of mine The Final Lamentation got a few hundred reads, while the audio drama of the story is at 169K views at time of writing.

Something to think about.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (ongoing audio drama series on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!