Subplot 002

Okay, so Alex has a girlfriend, and his friend that wants him to work on this case happens to be a female.

There's an obvious "love triangle" subplot that suggests itself immediately.

Now, there are some storylines that are definitively "hack-y", granted.  However, I personally believe that a writer is just as much a hack for not exploring "obvious" or potentially cliched storylines when they seem inherent to the characters and world of the story.

It's my observation that what makes writing feel "hack-y" isn't the storyline one explores, but HOW it is explored.

So I felt that I would be remiss if I didn't at least explore the love-triangle possibilities inherent in the current set-up of my story.

Who knows?  Maybe I would find something fresh and original!

NOTE: I just want to point out the logic in my scene-numbering system.  At this moment I was hopeful that maybe, possibly, exploring the love-triangle might yield material that was good enough to take the place of what sucked about Subplot 001.  If that happened, I might mix Sc B1 with Sc A5 and follow that with Sc B3, and on until I had a piece-meal subplot outline that, when I turned it all into novel pages, would interweave with the mystery scenes as though each scene grew from the one before and into the one that follows.  (This is part of the magic of the Outline -- you can Frankenstein it together however you need to, but when you turn it into pages, it feels organic!)

***

Subplot 002

Sc B1 - ALEX likes working with TIFFANI because she's a great investigator.

Sc B2 - LEELA is jealous of ALEX working with Tiffani.

Sc B3 - ALEX tells LEELA that Tiffani won't be doing much on the case.

Sc B4 - TIFFANI invites ALEX to review the evidence at her place because she's got all the equipment.

Sc B5 - ALEX invites LEELA to the evidence review.  Surprisingly, she agrees.

Sc B6 - LEELA keeps interrupting the evidence review and being rude to TIFFANI.  ALEX makes an excuse to take LEELA home.

Sc B7 - ALEX breaks up with LEELA.

Sc B8 - ALEX is enjoying not having to deal with Leela's drama.

Sc B9 - AELX'S MOM calls ALEX, demanding to know why he would pick ghost hunting over his girlfriend.  He's lucky (in Mom's opinion) to have had a gf who would put up with ghost and goblins and little green men.

Sc B10 - ALEX apologizes to LEELA and tries to make it right.  But she doesn't want to get back with him just yet.  She needs more time to think.

Sc B11 - TIFFANI sympathizes with ALEX's problem.  Her boyfriend broke up with her over how much time she spends on investigating.

Sc B12 - After the case, ALEX and TIFFANI have dinner, as friends.

***

...and I believe you will agree that I DID NOT find a new path through this tried, old subplot.

First of all, I still hate Leela.

Her behavior is more juvenile than high school, it's downright junior high!  I know a lot of amazing women, and some of them have a certain addiction to the drama (as do many of the men I know), but I don't believe any of them are quite THIS immature.

Besides, I don't want to write immature women!  I don't care how many may exist in today's culture, I don't want to create a character that drama-queens can look to and go, "See!  She acts just like me, so what's the problem?"  I would prefer to write women more like my friends, women who serve as an example of something to strive for, not a reassurance when one falls short.

We all hear stories about friends of friends worse wives/girlfriends are just a nightmare.  But those girls don't remain that way for their entire life.  Life knocks us down and rams us into brick walls until we take the hint and grow up a little bit.  And most of the women I actually interact with are the type of women a dude WANTS to have in his life!

So it is becoming clear to me that Leela needs to fucking GO.  She's a bad design, she doesn't depict real women.  She feels like the type of woman a teenage boy creates, not the type of women a MAN associates with, much less creates!

Still, if you look at all the empty spaces I have in Outline 002, you will agree that it might not be a bad idea to keep looking for a subplot to help fill some of those spaces up...