Do You Need Plot or Do I Need To Pay More Attention?

Hi friends,

This question came to me as I was speaking to a client and her editor on zoom the other day. We were talking about her new book, which we'd all read, and this was an editorial brainstorming call. This doesn't happen with all books I work with–every editorial process is different–but it definitely highlighted something I've recently realized while reading draft manuscripts.

My most common editorial note, to clients and myself, is some variation of you need more plot, or you need a through line to carry the reader through the narrative, or we need more at stake for the main character so the reader has something to root for along the way. This happens often enough that I've begun to ask myself is it me? or is everyone else making the same mistake in their books? (Note: this also includes me as a writer. I'm not immune.)

The answer is: BOTH! Let me explain.

When I'm reading a client's manuscript and realize I've gotten lost in the weeds, that I kinda can't tell where it's going or what the characters want or what the overall book is working toward, I stop and make note of that. I flip back some pages to find the last plot milestone, the meet cute, the reveal, the character revelation. I take notes and highlight important bits. I go back the synopsis, if there is one. I make a little mental map of what I know so far and what I think the author thinks I know so far. And often, when I find myself in this place, a little confused, a little distracted, prone to glance at my phone just to see, I know other readers will likely find themselves in this place, too. That's when they might put the book down. That's when an editor might say I just don't have the vision for this one or I liked it but didn't love it. My whole job, when it comes to being an editorial agent, is to make it very, very, very hard for an editor to say no to a book. Not to make it perfect, not to make it printer-ready, but just hard to stop reading. And if I, a professional reader, find my mind wandering, they probably will, too.

The fix I often come up with for these dips in the narrative is plot and stakes. What are the characters physically doing that the reader wants to know more about? What question is the character asking and that the reader wants the answer to as well? Where is everyone going and do we want to follow? These questions have active answers. The main character needs to find the magical chalice to stop the evil monster from eating her parents. The MC needs go on the road trip with their grandma to finally find out the family secrets and also to see if the relationship with their love interest will survive the distance. The teen has to find their new identity when they drop out of the special preforming arts high school and go to a "regular" school. These people are DOING things DIRECTLY related to the stakes in the overall novel.

But, like, what if I'm wrong? What if the episodic novel where the MC meets interesting people on the road trip and just gets to the destination is enough? Maybe the writing is so beautiful readers will read this author's grocery lists. Maybe it's the friends we made along the way. Maybe the plot and stakes can be small and inconsequential and the reader still loves it. Maybe those things actually are on the page and I need to look harder for them as a reader.

I mean, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I always could be wrong. Books like these can absolutely work and I've read all kinds that can be described like this. It's not illegal to write a book like this. It's not impossible to get a book like this published. Not every book needs a blockbuster hook.

But it's harder. My experience has told me that the harder it is for me to describe to someone what the book is about, using nouns and verbs, the harder it is for me to sell it. This includes my own work, and is a big reason why I think the adult novel I tried to sell five years ago didn't work. Lesson learned. You probably have found yourself in this same predicament. You read a "quiet" book you loved and when you tried to tell your best friend about it, you found it hard to convey to them just how good it was without using abstractions. "It's so good!" you say. Ok, how?

(Keep reading. There's a #pubtip below)