How Many (If Any) Sub-Plots Does Your Romance Novel Need?

When I describe the key elements of a romance novel, I always break them down into three things:

1. the romance arc, aka the book's love story between the two characters, made up of specific beats (key scenes) that every book in the genre contains

   
   

2. the character development arc, aka each main character's journey of development. Usually, this journey involves them working toward a goal and working through emotional wounds

   
   

3. the sub-plot, aka the secondary story whose beats intersect with the romance and character development arcs and add complexity to the novel

The first two are essential to every romance novel; even the shortest romances have complete (if abbreviated) romance arcs and at least some character development.

The third, however, is usually a feature in longer romance novels of more than 10,000 words.

And they become particularly important when you write very long romances of 90-150,000 words, and you need more than just the romance and character development to fill out the story and keep readers invested.

With more contemporary romances skewing longer (I've seen more 400+ page Kindle bestsellers this year than any other year I've worked in publishing), it's also never been more important to understand the role that sub-plots have in the romance genre, and where to draw the line between "just enough" and "too many."

If you’ve ever wondered where the Goldilocks of sub-plots is, that “just right” number for your book, this article will tell you how to figure it out.

But before we get into specifics, let’s first look at the different types of sub-plots.

The three types of romance sub-plots

I break these down into three different types:

-the set-up sub-plot. This sub-plot provides not only the story set-up or hook (the short, catchy situation that describes how the characters get together, e.g., "road trip romance," "stranded on a desert island," “reality show romance,” "stuck in a snowstorm," "fighting on opposite sides of a war") but a secondary plot that can be explored throughout the novel. A road trip romance, for example, might include beats like:

• Characters agree to go on a road trip (because their best friend’s brother suggested they save on gas and drive to Memphis together)

• Characters prepare for road trip (characters argue over road trip snacks and realize they both prefer only the red gummy bears, and that their music tastes are totally disparate, but that talking about music makes them realize they have other things in common)

• Road trip mishap #1 occurs (the car breaks down just outside a small town whose garage just closed)

• Consequence of road trip mishap occurs (the characters are forced to share a bed in the town’s one creepy motel)

-the sub-genre sub-plot. If you’re writing in a hybrid sub-genre of romance, like romantic suspense, romantic cozy mystery, romantasy, romansci-fi (no, I did not make that up, but damn do I wish I did), or horroromance, the sub-plot is more of a co-plot, often taking up as much as or even more (in the case of romantic cozy mystery and some romantic suspense) word count as the romance plot.

-the character development sub-plot. You might be thinking, um, Emily, you listed character development as one of the key elements of the romance novel! And now you’re saying it can also be a sub-plot? How the heck does that work?

Some character development arcs focus on healing a character’s emotional wound. These are the type I reference above, in the three elements. But other character development arcs are more complex, with the character not only having emotional wounds to work through, but also a specific goal to achieve. And it’s this second type of character development that I’m talking about as a sub-plot.

You’ll often see this type of sub-plot in college and sports romances, but this type of sub-plot used to be the norm in romance, back when we were more concerned with characters who had concrete goals and motivations, like Gwen Hayes suggests in her foundational text, Romancing the Beat.

And while a strong character development sub-plot based around a goal is definitely still the case in some sub-genres, and often in category romances, more and more romances today feature characters who are at crossroads, or don’t really know what they want, so their character development journey isn’t robust enough to split into both an arc and a sub-plot.

It's also important to note that even when a character development sub-plot is about a goal, it isn’t really. It's about the journey (yes, I just cringed writing that, but you get the picture, right?).

So now that we’ve gone over the 3 types of sub-plots, it’s time to discuss which sub-plots, if any, you should include in your romance novel.

How many sub-plots to include in your romance novel

The answer is actually really simple: however many you can completely intertwine with the romance and, ideally, character development arcs.

Note the phrase “completely intertwine.” That’s key here, because a sub-plot that isn’t intertwined won't instigate or react to romance beats or affect character development, so it will feel separate to the story, rather than a part of it, and could distract or confuse readers.

That’s why, when asking how many sub-plots to include in a story, my advice is always less is more.

A great set-up sub-plot, for example, is enough for most full-length romance novels between 50,000 and 80,000 words, especially those in the general Contemporary and Historical sub-genres.

Romance novels in the "coming of age/era" sub-genres of romance like College, Young Adult, New Adult, and Mid-Life and Later in Life, benefit from a character development sub-plot to emphasize the characters' evolution, which is a core part of those sub-genres.

And sub-genre sub-plots are, of course, important if you're writing in a hybrid genre, and often go well with a related set-up sub-plot or character development plot.

You might be hoping I'm going to continue listening through every romance sub-genre and giving guidelines on the best sub-plots for them. But that would result in a blog post that is approximately 7 gillion words long, so instead, I'm going to give you a hard and fast rule: no more than one sub-plot per every 20,000 words, and never exceed 6. I have yet to read a book, even 150,000 words or more, that includes more than 5 sub-plots at a time and does it well.

Why? It's too much to juggle for the writer, even if they're a plotting expert; a book with more than 5 sub-plots won't also have room to adequately explore tropes, setting, or world-building, all of which are essential to a good romance novel and reading experience.

So there are your hard and fast sub-plot rules:

-less is more

-make sure your sub-plots are completely intertwined with your other romance elements

-stick with 1 sub-plot per 20,000 words

-never exceed six

Memorize them, tattoo them on your hand, or stick them on a Post-It you keep on your preferred writing device. Stick with them, and you're on your way to a well-plotted romance novel.

Until next time, happy reading and writing!