A really smart publisher once told me her litmus test for knowing whether an author of a story knew why they were writing it. She said, “When I ask someone to tell me what their book is about, I typically get two types of answers. One author begins to describe their plot; the sequence of events from their outline. It usually takes about five minutes and is so full of information that I’m unable to keep up. The second author takes fifteen seconds. They’re the ones who succinctly describe the relatable human theme that their book is exploring, which also points to why people should read it.”
It was a big penny-drop moment for me. I was once the first author, but since this conversation, I strive to be the latter. For example, here’s my story, Queen Celine in two different versions.
Queen Celine is a story about a little girl who lives an ordinary life, except for when she goes to the beach. At the beach, she becomes a ‘ruler’ of a rockpool kingdom. She loves it dearly, so, she builds a wall to protect it from ever changing. But, after a little while, she realises that the residents are unhappy because everything is beginning to stagnate. In her distress, she looks out to the other rockpools and sees that there is happiness and joy there. The only difference between their rockpools and hers is the wall. So, with the help of her kingdom, she knocks down the wall. New life floods her stagnating kingdom and regenerates it with healthy life. She doesn’t want anyone else to make the same mistake as her, so she leaves a message for future rulers of this place that they should always welcome all.
Long, and boring. Even for me reading my own writing. But here’s the same story, described in a different way.
Queen Celine is about viewing change and diversity as something to embrace, rather than something to fear and avoid.
Describe your idea, or refine it
I not only use the second, more concise way of describing my idea for books I’ve written now, but I use it to test whether the idea I might have just had, the one that isn’t written yet, is worth writing at all. If I can’t find what that relatable human need is, then I need to work harder because until I have that, my story is just a sequence of events, and not about anything at all.