Scott,

Rear Window – along with Notorious – are two of my favorite Hitchcock movies. Actually, I never thought of Miss Lonelyheart, The Songwriter, Miss Torso, Sculpting Neighbor, and The Newlyweds as sub-plots – I thought of them more or less as vignettes.

I’ve never read the Cornell Woolrich short story that was the inspiration for John Michael Hayes’ script – it would be interesting to know if any of these ‘secondary’ characters are in the original story.

Keep Writing!

Mike, they're more than vignettes in my view as each one has its own Beginning, Middle and Ending. In fact, Miss Lonelyheart and The Songwriter's end beat interconnects as her last beat is her having a drink up in his apartment as they prepare to listen to his new record.

Check out the movie again and you can track each subplot, each with their own little tie-up during the movie's Denouement.

Exactly what I needed to read. I'm working on developing some fresh subplots for my script.

I'm curious...what are your thoughts on Shia LaBeouf's Disturbia?

Karen, I have a confession: I've not seen Disturbia. I'm familiar with it, know that it's an 'homage' to Rear Window, even know someone who is good friends with one of the movie's screenwriters -- Christopher Landon. What did you think of Disturbia? Or better yet, Rear Window?

By the way, everyone be sure to check out Karen's (SolShine7) blog Reel Artsy (http://reelartsy.blogspot.com/).

Scott,

I wasn't disagreeing with your statement merely musing that, lo these many years, I thought of them only as vignettes, never realizing that they were sub-plots.

Keep Writing!

Mike, it occurs to me that it could be helpful for a writer to identify all of their story's character vignettes to determine if they are 'big' enough to sustain a subplot and/or whether what they contribute to the plotline might justify building them out to become an actual subplot.