Pitches at Bookends, Round Six

Jessica Faust at Bookends is still slowly but surely critiquing her way through the submitted pitches. A lot of the mistakes are the same as in previous rounds, but her critiques are still very worth reading. Today's quote from the critiques is:

A lot going on here and very confusing. I think this is the hardest thing about complicated plots, it’s hard to tell what’s important and what’s not. Even I have that trouble when pitching to editors. It can also be a sign that maybe the book itself is confusing or not tight enough. You need to ask yourself what’s the point? What’s the conflict? ....what is the real journey? What is the real issue for [the heroine]?

As in, if your book is complex, figure out what the overall problem your hero(ine) needs to solve is and focus on that rather than talk about all the problems she faces.