When I was querying agents and publishers, I found this distinction incredibly helpful, if only because deciding what to highlight in a query letter can feel impossible. Understanding whether your novel is plot driven or character driven makes the job much easier.
Here’s why:
Plot-Driven Novels:
If your novel is plot driven, a query that spends too much time describing your characters’ personalities or emotional landscape—while skimming past the actual events—will miss the mark. Agents or editors need to see the engine that moves the story.
In a plot-driven query, focus on:
- The major events that kick the story into motion
- The conflicts and obstacles tightening the tension
- The twists and complications that raise the stakes
- The choices your protagonist must make—and the consequences that follow
Your goal is to show an agent the big picture of what happens and why it matters. The emotional beats can be there, but the plot itself should be front and center.
Character Driven novels:
In character-driven novels, the story unfolds because of who your characters are—what they want, what they fear, and how they change. For this kind of book, your query must make the agent care about the people on the page.
In a character-driven query, highlight:
- Your protagonist’s core want or need
- The internal or external forces standing in their way
- The emotional stakes tied to their journey
- The voice, attitude, or worldview that makes them feel alive
Agents and editors should feel a spark of connection—curiosity, empathy, recognition—that compels them to want to spend 300 pages with these characters. Make them care.
As one agent put it:
“I see too many queries that miss the mark between character vs. plot, and all I usually see is an incredibly thin plot populated with flat, dry characters. Little wonder I send out a rejection letter.
In short, define your story. Is it plot or character driven? If it’s plot driven, concentrate on the movement of events that drive and define the story, and be mindful of sticking to the big picture. If it’s character driven, let me see, feel, empathize, and understand your characters because it’s the difference between ‘send me pages,’ and ‘no thanks.’”
Her point is worth underlining: most agents are reading only one thing at first—the query letter. That letter has to carry all the weight. It has to show them exactly what kind of book you’ve written, and it has to do it with clarity, confidence, and just enough voice to make them want more.
Most agents initially want to see only the query letter and nothing more. That letter practically has to sing–and let it sing the right song!
Thank you for visiting. Linda K. Sienkiewicz is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry and essays.
Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026, from Regal House Publishing: When love letters from a despondent stranger land in her lap, an anxious overthinker becomes convinced she’s the cure, and sets off to save him, and herself, blissfully armed with nothing but magical thinking.
Connect with Linda on social media via LinkTree. Check out Linda’s Books.
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