“I just care about the story. Either it’s a good plot or it isn’t. And if it’s not a good plot, the best writing isn’t going to help. And if it is, the worst writing isn’t going to hurt it.”
The quote above represents just the third direct mention of “plot” in the novel and this is arguably the most important occurrence of them all. Evan Parker is a student in a writing class being taught by published novelist Jake Bonner and the student’s perspective is not necessarily one shared by Bonner. Bonner is committed to the alternative opinion that literary craftsmanship has the power to transform an ordinary plot into a compelling story. The more compelling significance of this quote, however, is actually the manner in which Bonner views it at first as an audacious demonstration of typical student overconfidence.
“In 2013, while ‘teaching’ at Ripley College, Jacob ‘Finch’ Bonner encountered a student named Evan Parker who shared with him a novel he was writing. Parker died unexpectedly later that year, after which Bonner produced the novel called Crib with no acknowledgment of its true author. We call on Macmillan Publishers to confirm its commitment to original writing by authors of integrity, and to retract this fraudulent work.”
The novel is also an exploration of plagiarism and the ownership of ideas. This message is sent anonymously to Bonner. This quote is essentially a capsule summary of the plot of The Plot. Some backstory is necessary to provide context. Bonner’s career as a published author took flight quickly and impressively. Unfortunately, it crashed back to earth just as quickly. The fact that Bonner is forced to make a living as an instructor in the art of writing just at the time that Evan Parker enrolls as a student is a testament to the then-current state of his literary ambitions. By the time Bonner steals that idea and writes his way back to the bestseller list, however, Parker is already dead. Stealing ownership of an idea for a story conceived by a dead man rather than any actual manuscript written by Parker would seem to raise certain legal questions dealing with the particulars of plagiarism.
"The conventional wisdom was that they were alike, mother and daughter: both smart, both feisty, both highly intent on not spending their lives in Earlville, New York, and incidentally so physically similar—narrow and tall, with thin dark hair and a definite tendency to slouch—that Samantha struggled to see Dan Weybridge anywhere at all in the girl."
One very interesting narrative decision the author makes is to occasionally insert excerpts from the novel which Bonner completes as a result of stealing Evan Parker’s idea. This addition serves to make the story which Bonner’s literary craftmanship produced from the bare bones of Parker’s plot outline into a story-within-the-story. Bonner’s realization of a story based on Parker’s plot centers upon a young woman named Samantha.
