What’s The Difference Between A Commercial And A Literary Plot?
What’s the difference between a commercial and a literary plot? Discover how story goals, character journeys, and endings shape your novel.
There aren’t many authors (who actually sell books) who can get away without plotting. Bestselling authors, like Stephen King, who say they don’t plot, don’t realise they actually do it without realising it. They have an innate plotting talent. They just need less help than the rest of us.
I have noticed that even talented literary authors, who obviously don’t plot, have a shorter shelf life and fewer readers than writers who do plot.
My greatest wish as a reader is that more literary writers would learn to plot. Can you imagine the incredible books we would have to read? Some literary authors do this. Kate Atkinson writes beautifully, and her books have plots.
What’s The Difference Between A Commercial And A Literary Plot?
What is a literary plot?
- Generally, literary plots are full of isolated characters without a clear goal.
- They are slow and full of ambiguities.
- The author concentrates on the inner journeys of the characters, who are often passive, and their psychological setbacks.
- The endings are often inconclusive and they mostly don’t end happily.
The bottom line? There are fewer book sales and the author makes less money, unless they win a literary prize.
What is a commercial plot?
- Generally, commercial plots are driven by characters with a well-defined story goal.
- There is lots of action and the author deals with the interior and exterior worlds of the characters.
- There are physical and emotional setbacks.
- The endings generally suit the genre of the story.
The bottom line? More of these books are sold and the author makes more money. There is next to no chance of winning a highbrow literary prize.
I think the way forward for modern writers is to marry the two.
- If you write literary fiction, spend some time on plotting and add some pace.
- If you write commercial fiction, make your characters more complex and add small twists to the endings of your stories.
Can You Combine Commercial And Literary Plotting?
You don’t have to choose between a commercial and a literary plot. You can use the strengths of both to tell a better story. Give your characters clear goals and obstacles to overcome, but also explore their inner lives, relationships, and motivations. Build a plot that keeps readers interested, and give them characters who stay with them long after they finish reading.
Examples Of Literary Authors Who Plot
- In Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, Ursula tries to survive the dangers she encounters in her repeated lives. Eventually, she develops a more specific goal: to kill Hitler before he can unleash the Second World War.
- In The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Tony wants to understand a mysterious bequest that forces him to revisit his past. As he investigates, he must confront memories and events that challenge his understanding of himself and his relationships.
- In Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Kathy and Tommy want to prove they are truly in love so they can obtain a deferral from the organ donation programme and have more time together.
The Last Word
The best of both worlds may be the way forward. Give your characters clear goals, build in setbacks, and create complex characters whose journeys keep readers turning the pages. Happy writing.
by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson
More posts from Amanda:
- 7 Secrets To Writing Happy Characters Without Boring Your Audience
- What Is A Phobia? How To Write Characters With Phobias
- 3 Simple Ways To Make Your Hero Fight Back
- 7 Reasons To Write The Ending Of Your Novel First
- How To Make Readers Care About An Amoral Protagonist
- Why Revenge Is A Brilliant Plot For First-Time Writers
- The 5 Top Tips For Turning Memories Into A Memoir
- How To Write A Locked-Room Mystery: The Secret To The Impossible Crime
- 10 Ways To Get Out Of A Writing Rut
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0 thoughts on “What’s The Difference Between A Commercial And A Literary Plot?”
Just recently, I came across the following Q & A, which, whether you agree with it or not — and her name, I know, is either toxic or life-affirming — you will almost certainly find as provocative and thought-provoking as I did.
It’s an off-the-cuff answer which the novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand gave at a live lecture, circa 1975, in response to an audience member’s question:
Q: How do you distinguish between literature and popular writing?
Ayn Rand: Today, whether what you write is literature is determined by membership in the right literary clique, and by being so inarticulate that each person can read what he wants into your book. But let’s omit the nonsense, and speak of serious literary distinctions.
The difference between literature and popular writing is the seriousness of the approach. Literature has a serious, interesting theme, taking up philosophical, ethical, political, and psychological issues. Literature says something of a serious nature about human life. That’s the best definition.
Popular literature is more superficial: no serious ideas or themes; at best, good plots. Plots are an important element of literature, but often even the plots in popular literature are not too original. Popular literature can offer you light entertainment without touching on serious themes. Today, however, popular literature is much better than “serious literature,” from every aspect I just mentioned. Popular literature, specifically detective stories [i.e. pulp (editor’s note)] are much more serious and better written than what passes for serious literature. When I say “today’s popular literature,” however, I mean Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers — writers from the period between the two world wars. They made a high art out of popular literature. Incidentally, the detective story obviously needs the conviction of a rational universe, because it assumes that the detective must solve the case, and that justice will triumph. You couldn’t ask for a better or more serious base; and no serious writers today — present company excepted — hold these ideas. [End]
Anent that same subject, fellow emigre writer Vladimir Nabokov — whose sister Elena, incidentally, was Ayn Rand’s childhood friend (Ayn Rand’s real name was Alissa Rosenbaum) — said:
“A good book shouldn’t make you think. It should make you shiver.”
And Herman Melville:
“To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme.”