I've been having trouble of coming up with subplots for my "long" story. The main plot of the story is that a new MLB expansion team in the year of 2010 and their goal is to make the playoffs, just like every MLB team's goals are. But I've having trouble of coming up with subplots for some of the players OFF the field, not just on the field. I already have two or three, but I would like one or two more. Here's what I have so far: -The starting catcher hooks up with a girl for a one-night stand, then they fall in love and a week later, the girl get raped (by some random guy, might be significant to the story, not sure yet) and the catcher got all worried/pissed off/stuff like that. -The starting second baseman is deaf, so he has to overcome that (How do i write this??) -the closer of the team has to overcome the death of his sister, which happened just three years ago (2007) Anybody has any ideas? I'm generally open to anything. Thanks!!
Find or create conflicts, internal or external. Conflicts or obstacles are the foundation of plots and subplots.
those ideas plus two more would be very OTT, I mean you have a deaf catcher...a teen who falls in love in a single week and someone who lost their sister and is still distraught three years later... I'm not sure about everyone else, but generaly I think that one big story (other than the playoffs) that includes almost everyone interlocking with something small is better. For example off the top of my head, the team has just won a big game, they all go downtown all happy and possibly drunk and they witness a murder. Some are very paranoid now, others are shamed because they were so drunk they said some really bad jokes about it and perhaps some knew both the murderer and the victim. They have to join together to overcome it and end up winning the final.
