Action Scenes and Subplots to Mix and Match

Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman

While watching Bosch, I discerned that the episodes consist of a number of scenes that are rearranged in each installment (or most installments) of the series. These scenes include what might be called

• Detective Hieronymus (“Harry”) Bosch is subjected to the police captain's animosity
• Bosch finds a sympathetic ear in the police lieutenant
• Bosch engages in partner time
• Bosch investigates
• Busch enjoys girlfriend time
• Bosch calls or visits his ex-wife
• Bosch calls or visits his teenage daughter
• Bosch receives a call from the killer he's hunting

As the scenes are mixed and remixed, the story of the particular case he is working at the moment progresses. This is the backbone that unifies the scenes and subplots throughout the season.

For the sake of variety, a subplot may occur for a period of time: Bosch is tried; the police chief enlists Bosch's aid; the killer visits his mother; Bosch is haunted by his past.

This same approach can be taken with other genres. Simply describe eight or so staple scenes to mix and match during the progress of a particular event (the season's story) and add four or five subplots of various duration; then, as the unifying story unfolds, add the current mix of scenes and subplots.

Here's how a Western might be developed.

Scenes:

• A woman is endangered.
• The woman escapes or is rescued.
• The good guy (sheriff, bounty hunter, cowboy, gambler) hunts the bad guy (killer, kidnapper, horse thief, gunfighter), either by himself or as a member of a posse.
• A showdown occurs between the good guy and the bad guy.
• Corrupt politicians or officials take over a town.
• A bad guy escapes custody or jail.
• A reward is offered for the return, dead or alive, of an outlaw.
• An apparent friend turns out to be an enemy.
• A wronged party seeks revenge.
• A vagabond seeks to put down roots.
  
  

  

Subplots

• A man is tried.
• A group of rivals or enemies resist the hero and his friends.
• A rift between the hero and a family member is mended.
• The hero struggles to make his own way in the world.
• The hero leaves one woman for another.

With these eight or ten scenes and four or five subplots, the writer has enough material for a whole series of novels; all that is necessary, now, is to scramble the order of the scenes in each book and develop the subplot to its conclusion, over several books, before introducing a new subplot.

Since Chillers and Thrillers is a blog about the theory and practice of horror, let's add a formula for this genre.

Scenes

• A horrible foundational event or experience happens to the villain, shaping him or her.
• Encountering someone who reminds him or her of the horrible foundational event or experience that shaped him or her, the villain kills this person.
• Encountering others who also remind him or her of the horrible foundational event or experience that shaped him or her, the villain kills this person.
• The secret of the villain's past is discovered.
• The villain is hunted by an expert.
• The villain's secret is revealed.
• The hero and the expert (if they differ) use their knowledge of the villain to eliminate him or her as a threat.
• The status quo returns.
  
  

Subplots

• A new kid in town or school adjusts to his or her change in setting and circumstances.
• The new kid is bullied or ostracized.
• The new kid is befriended.
• The new kid and his friend or friends battle the villain.
• A dysfunctional parent struggles to raise his or her family.