Readers Don’t Care About Your Story – and Here’s Why
Plus, some news from me!
Once I had an author reach out to me about doing some editing work with her. I sent her a quote and described how I felt I could help her, and she wrote back to me:
‘Will you explain how to make the changes I need to make, or will it be advice like “raise the stakes” without telling me how to do it?’
Which was, for me, an insight into how it feels to be an author receiving an editorial letter – working out what needs to change is hard, but actually making the changes… that’s something else entirely.
There is a fine line to tread as an editor between giving vague advice like “up the tension here!” and being too prescriptive. At the end of the day, it’s the author’s book, and whilst your editor should point out parts of your manuscript that aren’t working as well as they might, or things that could be strengthened, it is you who is going to have to go away and fix your book. I can’t write it for you.
But – and this is a big but! – editing notes shouldn’t leave you flummoxed. Nine times out of ten when I send an author notes they reply with something like, ‘I knew this part wasn’t working, but I didn’t know why,’ or ‘I’m glad you said that because as soon as you did I knew exactly what you meant’. So if I give vague advice like ‘raise the stakes’, I’m not really doing my job. Nine times out of ten the author already knows there’s a problem (even if they can’t quite put that into words).
I hope I have never sent vague notes before – or if I have I hope it has always been clear to authors that they can come back and ask questions or talk things through until they’re clear on what exactly the problem is and how they might fix it (and I say ‘might fix it’ because I will very often suggest things, but the author will go away and do something even better). But if you are not in a position to get professional editorial feedback at this point, or if you want to make your book the best it possibly can be before you do, then here is an explanation of what it means when your book needs higher stakes, and how you might raise them.
Your protagonist should want something. It might be a really measurable thing – a gold medal, to get to the moon, to sit on the throne – or something less tangible – to protect their daughter, to find true love, to find themselves. It doesn’t really matter what it is. What matters is that they care about it. As a reader, we don’t need to understand why they want it, or even agree that it’s a thing worth wanting – but we need to understand both that they really, really want it, and that they will do pretty much anything to get it. If your protagonist doesn’t want anything, or they don’t really care about what they want, then your story doesn’t matter.
There should be consequences if they don’t get what they want. If they don’t win the competition this time, but there’s one next year, does it really matter? If they don’t win the competition this time, but this is their last chance because if they don’t win now then they lose their sponsors and so won’t be able to train full-time anymore – then suddenly it matters a lot more.
There should be a time element. Maybe there’s a time limit to find the missing submarine before they run out of air. Maybe your heroine needs to get married before she’s 25 or she’ll lose her inheritance. Or perhaps it’s not a time limit but just incredibly bad timing: your character is newly elected prime minister, and on their very first day there’s a terror attack they need to lead the country through.
The stakes should be layered. Some of it should be personal to your protagonist – we want to see that this matters to them in particular. But some of it should be bigger. Your protagonist needs to find a someone who’s holding their daughter prisoner – but can’t involve the police lest the villain lets off a bomb that will devastate an entire city. You can think about these as internal and external stakes too: something should matter to your protagonist on a personal level; something should be much bigger than and outside them.
The stakes should escalate, and the tension should increase throughout. Your heroine wants to find love – and now she needs a date for her ex’s wedding. She wants to replace the outgoing CEO – and now her main opponent is someone who wants to destroy the company from within. You might do this in a Fawlty Towers kind of way – the more your protagonist tries to get what they want, the worse things get – or it might be external forces that are making things worse, but if things don’t escalate then your plot will feel flat.
Want to make sure readers care about your novel? Here are some more posts to help:
And onto some news! For the past year I’ve been working as a freelance editor and book coach, helping authors and publishers get manuscripts into shape. I’m still doing that, but from September I’ll also be joining The Ampersand Agency as a literary agent, and so alongside my editing work, I’ll be building a list of authors and (hopefully!) selling their manuscripts to publishers.
This Substack won’t change: I’ll still share writing and editing tips here. I hope, though, that I’ll be able to share more insight from my agenting work, to add to my decade plus of experience in Big Five publishers. So if you have any questions about how literary agencies work, what agents are looking for, or how to shape a query package, please do ask away in the comments – I’m always open to suggestions and requests for new posts.
Ways to Work With Me
If you’re currently looking for an agent and would like to submit to me at The Ampersand Agency, you can find the agency submissions guidelines here, and my manuscript wishlist on my website.
If you’re looking for an editor you can contact me via my website, or book a query-package review or coaching call immediately.
Thank you so much for reading, commenting, liking and sharing. As always, please do let me know in the comments if there’s anything in particular you’d like me to write about – or head to the chat to talk about your current projects, ask questions, and get advice!
Happy writing!
Abi
Having an editor who knows how to help elevate a writer’s work is priceless, and depressingly rare. Too many confuse vague cheerleading with actual guidance.
Great advice, Abigail, thank you. I like the way you broke down the important writing devices used "to raise your game" you didn't just say, "Raise your game!" But you pointed us in the right direction to know "which tree we should be barking at".