Dear O'Abby: My agent says the real-life truth in my book isn't believable

Dear O’Abby,

I’ve just had a weird response from my agent.  At least, I think it’s weird, which is why I’m coming to you.  My new book was inspired by a lecture I went to and a specific situation the speaker mentioned in her talk.  The entire plot sprang from this single, real-life story she told about her personal experience.

My agent loves the new book, but isn’t convinced that readers will believe a certain part of the story – the part that was inspired by this woman’s lecture.

What do I do in this situation?  My agent has asked me to do a rewrite where I take this element out, but I’m not sure I want to do that, given this is where the story started and is kind of the point of the whole book.

Do you have any advice?

Truly,

Bemused

Dear Bemused,

Unfortunately I understand where you’re coming from all too well.  The same thing happened to me when I wrote Stumped.  When I was querying, agents kept telling me how much they loved the voice and the characters and the themes, but they weren’t convinced about one thing a character did. Which was the one thing I’d taken directly from a real-life situation.  And then, after I was agented, my agent brought up the same thing.  Yet I still resisted. 

Until I didn’t.

And you know what?  The book got better.  My protagonist had more agency over his destiny and the change opened up new possibilities for where he could go.

I do still miss that part of the story because I feel like I lost one of the things I was trying to say with the book, but maybe that book wasn’t the place to try and say it.

So my suggestion is, try to make the change.  If you hate the result, you still have the original sitting there (please don’t save over your other draft – I’ve done that and while it’s possible to get the old draft back, it’s not worth the panic and self-flagellation when you realize what you’ve done).  You might be surprised by how much more potential your story and characters can have without that element.

Even if something did happen in real life, sometimes it just won’t work in the context of a book.  There’s a reason they say truth is stranger than fiction.  Or it could be, it’s just this book where it doesn’t work.  Perhaps you’ve created such compelling, realistic characters that whatever your plot point is, doesn’t ring true with them.  Try something else now you know these characters better than you did when you started writing.  You might be surprised by how they react…

And remember, even if that one element is now out of your book, it still sparked the idea that led you to write it.

Hope this helps!

X O’Abby