I love a well-conceived "what if" scenario, and none of these books lack that. But more importantly, I love a novel that's rich with fabric of life. That's where multiple plots come into play. Very rarely will a movie capture this as well as a novel can.

A one-plot wonder is a boring read. It's a boring write. It's not realistic. And, it's a hard sell. All your eggs are in one basket. If editor isn't enthralled with that sole plot, you aren't published. If reviewer isn't enthralled with that sole plot, he pans you. If potential reader isn't enthralled with that sole plot, he doesn't buy your book. Or if he does, maybe you don't get any repeat business from him. You don't get mine.

Plus, we should be setting bar a bit higher for ourselves anyway. We entertain, but we also enlighten and educate. Or at very least, provide needed escape. But it's hard to escape to a one-plot wonder. I keep taking coffee breaks between chapters.

I single out no writing medium with this. All are guilty. Come on, Terminator 2 has more subplots than many successful books these days. And it's not just "these days," incidentally. The title I reviewed early in this article is from 1979. Published, successful, well-written, flat.

Craftsmanship is fine. Craftsmanship is wonderful to behold. Craftsmanship is a necessity. But, it's not enough.

Do you want to build a horse barn that never leaks or do you want to build a two-story A-frame home that survives five hurricanes undamaged? My carpenter did latter and I can't do former. But if I had ability to build a leak-proof barn, I certainly wouldn't limit myself to barns. I'd try to build houses.

I'm not talking about weighty tomes. Times change, readers change, and most people don't read them any more. What was once considered gripping is now considered boring.

But one-plot wonders also bore readers. They read it, enjoy it moderately, then go look for something else to do. There's little satisfaction at end. Rarely big "wow" that probably made you start writing in first place.

I'm talking about shooting for five stars instead of two or three. I'm talking about richness of story, raising standard, writing your absolute best instead of settling for adequate.

I risk oversimplification here, but I'm seeing far too many one-plot wonders. People are buying them, too. But it's time for us, authors, to quit writing them.

Michael LaRocca's website at http://freereads.topcities.com was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. He published two novels in 2002 and has two more scheduled for publication in 2004. He also works as an editor for an e-publisher. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter Mad About Books.

But I digress. "I" is subjective and "me" is objective. Since these pronouns are objects of preposition "for" they must be objective case. Thus it should be "for you and me" and rhyme is shot.

WAKE UP CLASS!

Goofball: Pretend "you" isn't even there. Let's look at what remains. "'til stars fall from sky for I." Wrong! You know in your heart of hearts that this is wrong. Trust your instincts. You really want to say "'til stars fall from sky for (you and) me." So, say it!

If Jim Morrison is in fact dead, he's not rolling over in his grave because I corrected his grammar. No doubt he knew rule but chose to break it. And that's fine. We can break rules whenever we want. We be authors. But, if we have no clear reason for breaking rules, or we just don't know rules, we be looking stupid. And that, friends and neighbors, inhibits understanding. We never want to do that. Writing is telepathy. From my head to your head. Let's keep impediments to a minimum.