Explore Your Premise
Want to impress agents, publishers, and contest judges? Explore your premise—and only your premise.
Fiction, memoir, poetry, children's books, middle grade, art books, graphic novels…almost any book will fail when it wanders away from its premise. Why does it happen so often? And what are signs to look out for?
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
I see thousands of books and manuscripts a year, and about 85% of them have the same problem:
They include too much stuff.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen a strong premise get lost under an avalanche of subplots, characters, genre identities, themes, settings, time periods, and background.
An eleventh-century Viking princess is taken back to the early Roman Empire. Wow, I've never heard of a time-travel story where someone from the past goes even further into the past! Genius!
…but the rising action has so many subplots that the main plot is buried. The deeper interest of the premise is never explored, and the climax has to do with a different character.
A witch who is also a lawyer must choose between her friends and a dashing new love interest. I love contemporary romance/magic crossovers! I can't wait to read this book!
…but soon after the inciting incident, the book becomes about an ancient artifact that leads the lawyer and her friends to uncover secrets that could turn deadly. Dang, I guess that's cool, too, but I was really looking forward to the first story?
Agents, publishers, and contest judges know this pain so well. It's what I think of when authors tell me how competitive the market is, when I've just read their manuscript, and it left its premise behind. If an author can choose a good premise and write a book only about that, they will sail past 85% of the competition.
But it can be incredibly hard for emerging authors to stick to their premise.
I have two theories about why. Maybe authors have so many ideas that when they finally start writing, it all pours out together. Once it's on the page it's too hard—whether emotionally or craft-wise—to discern what belongs to the premise, and what doesn't.
Or maybe authors can't trust that one premise is enough. For a book to be unique, memorable, valuable, it must include as wide a variety of things as possible. That's the way to hold interest…right?
These explanations are understandable. The first is a result of passion, intellect, and imagination that have yet to be guided by experience. The second arises from a desire to stand out, leading authors to prioritize the perceived value of "originality" over the quality that agents, publishers, and contest judges are actually looking for: immersivity.
Regardless of the cause, I really want more of these amazing premises to be explored rather than abandoned. So I'm here to outline the most common sources of distraction in each of our eight North Street Book Prize categories.
Does your book have "too much" of any of the following…to the point where it's no longer supporting the book's exploration of the premise? If so, prune back and let your premise take its rightful place.
Genre Fiction
Too many subplots. These side narratives seem to exist for their own sake rather than supporting the main plot. This can make the rising action feel episodic, lacking the rising tension that leads to a climax.
Too many characters. Every event that happens in the book comes with one or two new characters that the reader must remember. Alternatively, secondary characters' storylines grow to where they're competing with, rather than supporting, the main characters' arcs.
Too many genres. Either there are so many genre identities that it's impossible for the reader to form expectations, or the genre identities are not mixed well enough to be immersive, so the reader feels like they must keep switching gears.
Too much worldbuilding. The worldbuilding expands to where it's clearly being valued for its own sake. The rising action gets bogged down in details. Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter adds, "Too many kinds of magic or futuristic tech in genre fiction starts to feel like the world has too few constraints for meaningful suspense."
Too much background on character or plot. The classic, "but in order to tell you that, I first have to tell you this." In many cases, readers can appreciate the plot or character perfectly well without the extra information, and it only slows things down. Background should be given in cases where it provides essential support to the main plot or character arc.
Too many books in one. The author tries to fit two or three complete narrative arcs in the book, but really, they should each have their own book. This is often the consequence of any of the above conditions. It can also be a pacing issue when the exposition, rising action, or falling action are stretched past their usefulness.
Mainstream/Literary Fiction
In addition to the issues discussed above, authors of Mainstream/Literary Fiction should watch out for:
Too many points of view. The narrative shifts character perspective so many times that it's unclear whose motivations are driving the story, or how all of these characters relate back to the main plotline.
Too many styles. The narration switches literary styles without a clear reason why.
Too much of the first-person narrator. Whether they are chatty, abrasive, or simply observant, they keep telling us things that don't end up building up the main plot or themes. Too much philosophizing/editorializing. This can be related to "too much of the first-person narrator" but also occurs in the third person. The narration is "talking" about so many things that don't end up connecting back to the main plot, themes, or character development.
Collection is too long. The book includes too many short stories (or essays, or poems…) A collection might also feel too long, even if it's not, when pieces are included that don't contribute to the collection's sense of unity.
Middle Grade Fiction
The top issue specific to this genre is:
Too many adults. The main and secondary characters should nearly all be aged 8-12, the group it's marketed to. Giving adults, or even older teens, too much page-time can contribute to a sense of shifting diction, genre, and target audience.
Creative Nonfiction & Memoir
Too many subplots, too many characters, too many genres, too much background on character or plot, too long—see Genre Fiction above.
Too much of the first-person narrator, too much philosophizing, collection too long—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Scope too wide. The time period and range of ideas exceed what is needed to explore the premise. For example, a doctor writes a memoir of their years working in Intensive Care, but the narrative starts with an account of their grandparents' lives, how their parents met, and what their childhood, teenage, and young adult years were like. This can happen when an author loses sight of the differences between memoir and autobiography.
Poetry
Collection too long—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Poems are mismatched. The topics, tones, imagery, and word choice of the poems vary too much to give the collection a sense of unity or forward movement. For example, we see many "Collected Works of…" books in the North Street Book Prize that bring together a large body of poems with various subjects. It's harder for such catch-all collections to feel immersive or establish a sense of authority.
Children's Picture Book
The top issue specific to this genre is:
Too many incidents. A well-written picture book will typically explore only one kind of episode at a time. Think of the Clifford series—in one book, it will be Halloween, in another, the first day of school, in another, Clifford's first trip to the dentist.
Many unsuccessful contest entries are multi-episode—"Clifford" experiences Halloween, the first day of school, and his first trip to the dentist all in one book. As Jendi points out, "a picture book is too short for exposition or transitions" of the kind that would be needed for such major plot shifts, making everything feel squished together.
Graphic Novel & Memoir
Too many subplots, too many characters, too many genres—see Genre Fiction above.
Too much of the first-person narrator, too much philosophizing/editorializing—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Scope too wide—see Creative Nonfiction & Memoir above.
Art Book
Collection too long—see Mainstream/Literary Fiction above.
Presentation too chaotic. Some art books include a lot of images with, as Jendi describes, "no logic to the order in which they're presented," making them feel "random and overstuffed." More editing is needed to let the core concepts show.
Too many styles. I've seen art books in the contest that put together 4-10 different styles of visual expression. Sometimes these submitters are young artists who are still exploring where they might want to go in the future and include everything good that they've done regardless of continuity. But an art book is not the same as a portfolio. I want to be immersed in the potentialities of just one of those styles.
What to do next?
Book creators work so hard. I understand the reluctance to cut back. Responses I've heard include, "I need to express these things," "that aspect means a lot to me," "these ideas are important," "beta readers like that part," "but that character is so good," "I've been working on this for such a long time"—all relatable reactions.
But, if a book is destined to be anything other than a tool for personal processing or personal expression, exploration of the premise must take priority. Not everything can, or should, be expressed in a single volume. There's a reason authors write more than one book. But don't "kill your darlings." Re-home your darlings.
Did a secondary character you love take over your rising action? Maybe they need their own book. Working on a memoir about your early thirties, but can't stop writing about your teens? Excerpt that part. With a few alterations it will make a fine essay. Have a picture book that's three books in one? That's a series. Poetry collection of 200 poems? More like two poetry collections of 50-70 poems each, minus the ones that didn't match. Those can become the seeds of their own collections.
Trust me—your premise is good. Follow it through from exposition, to inciting incident, to rising action, to climax, to falling action, to resolution. The competition is tough, but you'll advance to the top of the heap—and be respected and remembered by the agents, publishers, and contest judges evaluating your book.
Categories: Advice for Writers
