Chrissie, no worries about WHEN you post; it's always nice hearing about themes that resonate. I remember a Ghost & Mrs. Muir TV show in the 70s that my mom said was no match for the movies, but if it's as good as You've Got Mail it's gotta be a winner! (And what a fun way of honoring your First Movie Date.)

Michael, that's a very good description of subplots working at their best...they have an effect on the main plot (often via the characters) and yet they're following their own narrative arc. Gotta love Martha Wells!

Moya, what a great job of spotting the common elements among these three stories -- or actually, it'd be appropriate to call them UNcommon elements as well. 🙂 I like how you drilled down to the core of what makes each one unique, and it's so cool that those elements are reflected in your writing as well!

Marie, Louise Penny is a great example of subplots that not only enhance the plot but also serve other useful purposes...I remember her saying in an interview that she chooses three "big" characters for each book, Gamache and two others who'll star in the subplot/s.

In each of them the protagonist steps into a new world, either deliberately and accidentally. The dissonance of the new worlds and how the protagonists deal with that, the physical and moral dangers into which they are drawn, and they way they accrete people who love them, and 'Found' families which replace the unsatisfactory birth families is what I especially love. I also love that each protagonist demonstrates a very high level of competence, once they find their feet in their new environments.

To see who wins free registration to Creating a Plot-Subplot Template, I fed random-dot-org #1-26 and it chose #4, which is Mica Rossi. Congratulations, Mica, and just email me (BookLaurie @ yahoo or gmail) with your address so I can invite you into the GroupsIO class!

Oops, I missed the elements-in-common with Gilmore Girls and Hallmark movies, but this is a VERY good illustration of how we use favorite elements in our own writing...it's easy to envision all these descriptions applying to your books!