Create subplots which bear no relation to the main story


Meanwhile, the ant whose escape from the sugar bowl had been witnessed by Mary at the pre-wedding dinner was struggling to return the sugar he had collected to his colony. Everywhere he turned, his path was blocked by puddles, the same puddles which had previously dampened the hem of Lisa’s wedding dress, although of course the ant didn’t know anything about that, being not only peripheral to proceedings and not an official guest at the function, but an ant.
Elsewhere, the builder who had been subcontracted to remodel the stables of the stately home in which Lisa’s wedding was taking place was preparing to tuck into a well-earned packed lunch. Being on the other side of the estate from the wedding party, he was unaware that the ham he had in his sandwiches was roughly the same colour as the centre of the chicken breasts currently being served to the wedding guests and would remain unaware of the events unfolding in the dining hall even as several aunts hurled and retched into the dahlias.

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like Douglas Adams to me, except his side-plots are intentionally unrelated to a humorous effect.

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  2. Sounds like Dan Brown, but then again so does every other post here, heh.

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  3. the second example is incorrect. poorly cooked meat, and the resulting gastric uprisings, is ALWAYS the subplot of a banquet-style wedding reception.

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  4. I actually love this style of writing,... then again I love my boyfriend, and he's pretty irrelevant and useless.

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  5. Wow. I'm impressed at the range of readings. Who'd have thought the same piece of writing could be like a beat writer, Douglas Adams, Dan Brown and Tanya's boyfriend, all at once?

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  6. Could it be the aunts read this post?

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  7. But isn't this how every TV show is written, with a main plot and an irrelevant subplot?

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  8. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?
    --Snoopy

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  9. I LIEK YOURE BLAUGH.

    Although, on this particular entry, I have to disagree. I think this device can be used to great effect, whether or not the plots are related. To be honest, I'm just defending the fact that a mosquito has a heart attack and dies in my latest story...

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  10. Wow, I was also reminded of Douglas Adams.

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  11. The use of male pronouns is incorrect, surely. If the ant is collecting sugar for its colony, wouldn't it be an infertile female like all worker ants?

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  12. Dammit. My lack of entomological research is exposed!

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  13. Ah, the Pynchon technique.

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