Kiki

these are not the same thing.

plot is what happens. story question is what it MEANS. and genre fiction... maybe more than any other category, needs both, because readers come in with expectations and if you only satisfy the plot, they'll finish the book and feel weirdly empty and not know why.

let's break it down.

plot question: will katniss survive the hunger games?

story question: can a system that forces children to kill each other produce a person capable of genuine rebellion, or does it just make better weapons?

you need the first one to keep people turning pages at 2am. you need the second one for the book to mean something when they put it down.

here's where writers go wrong. they spend months engineering a watertight plot, the twists, the reversals, the ticking clock, the satisfying ending, and then wonder why their beta readers say things like "i liked it but i didn't love it" or "something felt missing."

what's missing is the story question. the thing the whole plot is actually ABOUT.

and the frustrating thing is you probably have one. you just haven't named it yet.

how to find yours

finish this sentence about your own work: my plot is about X, but my story is really about ________.

a heist novel: the plot is about stealing a priceless artefact. the story is really about whether loyalty is possible between people who've learned to survive by betraying everyone.

a fantasy epic: the plot is about defeating the dark lord. the story is really about whether power corrupts the people who fight it just as much as the people who wield it.

a romance: the plot is about two people getting together. the story is really about whether someone who's built their whole identity around not needing anyone can let themselves be known.

see how the plot is the vehicle and the story question is the destination?

why genre fiction specifically needs this

because genre readers are SMART. they've read a hundred heists, a hundred chosen one narratives, a hundred slow-burn romances. the plot mechanics aren't enough to surprise them anymore. what keeps them coming back... what makes them press a book into someone else's hands and say READ THIS... is that the story said something they hadn't heard said quite that way before.

the plot gets them in the door. the story question is why they stay.

the test

once you've named your story question, check your ending against it. a satisfying ending doesn't just resolve the plot. it answers the question.

katniss survives (plot). and she's broken in ways the Capitol made her, which means the answer to the story question is: yes, the system produces weapons, and the tragedy is that the rebellion needs her to be one (story).

if your ending resolves the plot but doesn't answer the question, or worse, forgets the question entirely, that's the empty feeling your readers can't name.

name your question. then make sure everything in your story is, in some way, asking it.

— rin t. ✨

For every writer currently staring at a blinking cursor:

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ep3 now: wait did kinger go into his wife's mindscape? did caine accidentally rip him out of there before he could get through to her? did he see just how much she was in pain and then could do nothing about it? or was the touch just that, a simple touch before he lost her forever? he wasn't glitching as queenie was teleported to the cellar, is the glitch only a defense mechanism from an abstraction that's afraid it's being attacked? kaufmo hits ragatha when he leaves the room and she doesn't glitch, it's only after he directly starts attacking her that she glitches. was pomni only glitching because of those last few moments, when jax got flashbanged and suddenly lost consciousness and felt attacked? did queenie abstract because she figured out they were digital copies? and mOST IMPORTANTLY. we see on their oldest daughter's facebook page that she's already a college graduate and junior software developer. meaning that she's over the age of 20. meaning that she had been born by the time kinger and queenie woke up in the circus. did queenie abstract when she realized she was never going to see her daughter(s) again??????

ep6 now: jax was absolutely lowkey triggered by ragatha implying she was corrupting pomni and seeing ribbit's door but she was still happy and looking fondly at pomni afterwards, i think the hug is what actually caused that crashout. it was the final straw, the fact that her first reaction was to push her away, and you can tell she's furious at herself for it, that she's mad that that's still what she thought to do after what happened the last time. immediately she knows she needs to cut pomni off or she is going to die, or she is GOING to kill her. pomni points the gun at her and she's thinking finally, finally, i can get out of this so easy. but she won't pull the trigger. why won't she pull the trigger? just kill her. it's like she doesn't realize she'd almost killed her just a few moments ago. it's like she doesn't realize she kills everyone that gets near her.

"oh so the trans character kills herself??? this show is transphobic" JESUS CHRIST YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE. Jax repressed himself to the point of abstraction, then Pomni finds a way to reach him even through his broken mental state, and the gang puts him in a safe and comfortable blanket fort where s/he can relax and get his senses back in order without hurting himself or others. The other abstractions get to be seen being happy and at peace. No it's not IDEAL but it's basically like having a mental break that just needs some care and attention instead of Cellar. We do not see any Abstractions get fixed but the episode does leave it open-ended as to how much they will one day be able to be reached, and the characters have eternity to figure it out. Jax finally opens up to Pomni in that headspace and it's far from impossible she can still talk to him in this state.

it's also not like Jax is the only trans/queer character. Zooble is nonbinary/genderqueer and makes it through the entire show, is given emotional depth and weight to their own dysphoria and character struggles, and then gets to end the show with their human self opening a successful (implied) queer bar and their digital self having epic gay sex!! (entire theater cheered and clapped at that btw)

like. look me in the eyes. do you think that a trans woman show creator would write a trans woman character just to kill her out of malice?? like do you think she was maybe trying to say something with the abstractions and Jax's repression and the fact there is still hope and time for him and his human self?? are we operating on this level of media literacy or are we just looking for things to get mad at

The 7 Deadly Sins