Tuesday Writing Tips: Plots - Putting it to the Test

You have come up with a fantastic idea for a plot, but will it be of interest to anyone else?

This is one of those deep-seated anxieties many authors face. One way of testing the validity of your proposed project is to run it through a series of questions. It’s tempting ignore this point, but:

Are enough people interested in the subject?

Can you provide a fresh perspective?

Has the story been done to death?

Are your characters people or a list of cliches?

You will have heard it said that there’s no such thing as an original plot, but your job is to make your story unique in a way that captures the imagination of your readers. Think talking animals is a stretch too far? George Orwell did it in Animal Farm, and so did Richard Adams in Watership Down, not to mention Beatrix Potter’s much loved menagerie.

It might be that you’ve spotted a gap in the market. Great - but how many potential readers are waiting for your book on Amazonian arthropods? What is it that will make them want to pick up your book let alone part with their readies and their time to read it? But then again, talking rabbits, pigs - even ants - have found themselves on the shelves and the big screen…

Sometimes the market (agents, publishers, readers) aren’t ready for your book; sometimes a fresh voice and a unique perspective is a risk too far. And sometimes, just sometimes. you’re ahead of the game, a trend-setter, a go-getter. It’s a risk, but nothing is set in stone, and the publishing industry - risk-averse as it is - is constantly evolving. When a small, furry-footed halfling set out along an unknown road, who knew where it might lead?

Even when a story treads a well-worn path, there might be diversions that make it new. We know the outcome of Captain Scott’s disastrous expedition to the Antarctic, but might the story be told from a different perspective - that of his diary, for example? Or the pen or pencil that wrote it?

Whatever you decide to do, there is one thing you need to be sure of: that your characters - whatever or whoever they might be - must engage your readers’ interest. Next time, I’ll be looking at just that topic in Taking Stock: Avoiding Cliched Characters