“Writing isn’t dry, so talking about it shouldn’t be either,” says author Cab Tran. On Saturday, May 24, Fremont Area Writers will host a free interactive Zoom talk by Tran, who promises an engaging conversation about when and how to use subplots to enhance the main plot.
According to Tran, writers have misconceptions about subplots because most of them gain their understanding of plot from watching movies and television shows like HBO prestige dramas. From this, they come to believe that all stories—if they are any good—need intricate subplots.
‘All you need is something to write with, like a pen, piece of chalk, or even the nub of a burnt stick, and something to write on, like paper, or if you don’t have paper, on walls and sidewalks as we did when we were children.’
Cab Tran
Using examples from books and movies, Tran will focus on answering the questions every writer should ask themselves before diving headfirst into the deep end of the subplot pool: Do I need a subplot? If the answer is yes, then the follow-up questions are Why? and How many are too many?
Tran was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States with his parents as part of the Vietnamese diaspora. As a child, he loved reading. Writing his own stories seemed like the next logical step. His frugal mother, he says, approved of the pastime because it kept him up in his room and out of her way, and it was an inexpensive hobby, at least until he reached junior high and started begging for a word processor.
Tran sees writing as a very democratic activity. “All you need is something to write with, like a pen, piece of chalk, or even the nub of a burnt stick, and something to write on, like paper, or if you don’t have paper, on walls and sidewalks as we did when we were children. This means you can be a dirt-poor boy from a favela in Rio or a shantytown in Saigon or a girl from a farmhouse in Iowa and become a writer.”
Tran holds an MFA from the University of Michigan. His short fiction has appeared in Vagabond: Bulgaria’s English Monthly, The Oleander Review, and Black Warrior Review. He is the co-editor and translator of the anthology The Colors of April: Fiction on the Vietnam War’s Legacy 50 Years Later (Three Rooms Press), by and about the Vietnamese diaspora in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Fremont Area Writers is one of 21 branches of the California Writers Club. It meets on Zoom at 2–4pm on the fourth Saturday of each month. The meetings are free and open to the public. Participants do not need to live in Fremont to attend.
Cab Tran
Saturday, May 24
2 – 4pm
Request Zoom link from Scott Davidson: sc**************@***oo.com
