Does it matter if my story doesn't have a fixed plot?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm writing a story about my life during the year 2000. When I was 10 I did write stories about whatever was going on in my life, and luckily I kept the book I wrote them in and I'm now rewriting them (using the literary skills I have now that I didn't have so much as a kid). I'm writing it as a diary-type, similar to the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books (but without pictures).

I'm nearly halfway through writing my story but I've just realised that my story doesn't really have a fixed plot, only just a bunch of stuff that happens to me. So I'm not sure how my story will end. Do all stories have to have a fixed plot? Will publishers accept my story if it doesn't have a fixed plot?

You are relating what are called "anecdotes."

You are writing in "diary" form.

It's more like a biography than a work of fiction. There doesn't need to be a "plot," even though (I assume) that the work is fictional.

"The Color Purple" consisted of letters that the main character, Celie, wrote to "God." This genre is called "epistolary" writing.

The first English novels, like "Pamela" and "Clarissa," were done in the "letter writing" style.

I was going to end it with the Y2K celebration...but the story is set in the year 2000 already and it's too late to change it now. I'm writing it in one of my favourite books that I had bought from a stationary store.

I suppose I could still end it with the new years eve into 2001, but I don't remember that new year. Y2K was the best new years eve ever. I was 9 years old, and was spending it with my whole family at my grandmother's house. She was brilliant at entertaining, and it was so great. Also it was so exciting.
(Little did we know that 20 years later the whole world would be battling a coronavirus pandemic).

So what if you don’t remember it!

Make it up!

You’re producing a fictional work.

I suppose I could, but it'd still be better if I could have ended the story with Y2K. That way I could have mentioned it a few times in the earlier parts of the story, like "everyone's talking about the millennium" and "I'm looking forward to the big party at my grandmother's house for the millennium party." Celebrating the year 2001 isn't something you talk about the previous year, because it isn't 'special' like Y2K.

Many great works of fiction are without plot or have a very thin plot.

If plot isn't the focus, then would you like it to be? I would suggest emphasizing character interactions, character development (if there is any), narrative tone, prose, themes, motifs, and emotion.

There's plenty to work with even without a real plot.

The label you are looking for is "Slice-of-Life", which describes the depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment.  In literary parlance, it is the narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary or random sequence of events in a character's life is presented, often lacking plot development, conflict and exposition, as well as often having an open ending.