What Are A and B Stories and How to Connect Them
There’s a lot of confusion out there about what an A Story is and what a B Story is. These terms get thrown around in both screenwriting and novel writing, but what do they mean? What’s a B Story character? What’s the difference between the B Story and a subplot?
This article will explain not only that but also how to use A and B Stories in your writing and how to connect the A Story and the B Story to create a cohesive plot.
What Is an A Story
In the simplest terms, the A Story is the external story. It’s your main character’s external goals or wants and the things they are doing to achieve those goals.
For Harry in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the A Story is all about him entering the wizarding world, going to Hogwarts, and learning magic. As he does this, he discovers there’s more going on at Hogwarts, and he and his friends eventually learn about the sorcerer’s stone and Voldemort.
In Mulan, the A Story revolves around the protagonist joining the army to protect her father. As part of the A Story, Mulan impersonates a man and trains to become a soldier.
The A Story always involves the tangible elements of the story. Usually, it can be identified as the premise of a story: six outcasts must complete one impossible heist (Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo), two writers of different genres strike a deal to write books in each other’s genres (Beach Read by Emily Henry), two magicians must duel in a battle of imagination and will (The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern).
What Is a B Story
If the A Story is the external conflict, then naturally, the B Story is the internal one. It’s the main character’s arc, the lesson that they learn by the last page, the theme.
In the first Harry Potter book, Harry learns to accept himself as “the boy who lived.” He comes to terms with himself as a chosen one.
Mulan’s internal conflict is about her struggle with who she is and who society thinks she should be. She was taught that she’d bring honor to her family by becoming a wife and mother, but she doesn’t fit into that mold. By the end of the story, she learns there’s more to her than that and she brings honor to her family by defeating Shan Yu.
B Stories are usually more subtle, but they are just as important as A Stories. Really, they make up the heart of the stories we love. We love to see heroes that change and grow, and that’s what the B Story does for our heroes.
The B Story Character
So how do characters grow through the B Story? Well, there’s one (or more than one) character that’s crucial to the main character learning the B Story’s lesson. The B Story character!
This character is introduced in Act 2, usually in the form of a mentor, friend, or love interest. They go on the main character’s journey with them and help them to learn the theme.
Sometimes they are someone who already knows the theme as Peeta Mellark does for Katniss in The Hunger Games. Or they might be someone who brings out the theme in the main character. Other times they are like the main character to an extreme, highlighting how the main character could turn out if they don’t learn the theme.
Ron and Hermione are the B Story characters in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. They go on Harry’s journey with him and help him learn to accept himself as “the boy who lived.”
Mushu acts as this character for Mulan when he becomes her mentor in Mulan. He goes with her when she joins the army and helps her survive it. But more importantly, he accepts her for who she is and doesn’t tell her to go back home to become a bride.
B Story vs Subplot
Sometimes the terms B Story and subplot are used interchangeably. Often when this happens, people aren’t referring to the internal story, rather they’re referring to a smaller plot thread that happens alongside the A Story.
For the sake of simplicity, I like to think of the B Story as the internal conflict and a subplot as a secondary strand of the main plot or a side story that intersects with the main plot.
For example, Harry’s rivalry with Malfoy is one subplot in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Another subplot is the competition for the house cup.
One of the subplots in Mulan is Mushu’s plan to get his pedestal back in the family temple. General Shang has another subplot as he tries to be a successful general and make his father proud.
How to Connect Your A and B Stories
You may think the A and B Stories can be unrelated to each other, but great stories have A and B Stories that connect. So how do you as the writer make them connect?
It depends on what stage of the process you’re in. If you’ve already got your story’s premise (aka the A Story), then you can use that to come up with your B Story. In this case, you would want to think about how the A Story might change someone. What kinds of things would someone experiencing the A Story struggle with?
For example, if your premise is that a retired assassin is pulled out of retirement for one last job, that assassin would naturally have some struggles. Perhaps they feel that they’re past their prime and can’t do the job as well as they used to. Their B Story could then be about how they regain confidence in themselves.
But what if you already have your main character and their internal conflict (aka the B Story), but you haven’t figured out the external conflict yet. You can ask yourself, what kind of journey does this character need to go on to face their theme? What kind of obstacles do they need to overcome to learn the lesson you have for them?
Let’s say your story is about a billionaire who earned their fortune through manipulation. They need to learn how to be honest and trustworthy. What would help this character learn these things? Perhaps a reporter discovers how the billionaire earned their fortune and exposes them (or threatens to). The billionaire might then try to save face by going on a humanitarian trip to prove that they’re a good person. Along the way, they could meet characters on this trip who help them learn to actually be a good person.
The B Story should be about something the main character is ignoring or hasn’t come to terms with. It can revolve around a flaw that’s causing their life to be a mess. The A Story brings the B Story into the light, so the character has to face it. They will go about it the wrong way first (but that’s the fun part). Eventually, through the external conflict, the character overcomes whatever they’re struggling with in the internal conflict.
I hope this cleared up any confusion you had about A and B Stories, their characters, subplots, or connecting the A and B Stories. Leave an example of an A Story and B Story that connect well in the comments.
Happy writing!
