Second Intensive with Leasa Adams

This woman was darling. Knew her stuff. She's an editor, a good one and of course she knows her stuff. Though I gathered from her comments, that there is rigidity in the editorial establishment. INflexible to what will work, what will not, they look at the manuscripts they see as formulaic. But then they know what works and what doesn't.
The workshop was about plot. The format for the intensive was again: terrible. Three hours, again too many people-probably 25, and the expectation for each of us to give a premise for our story and then for Ms. Abrams and the class participants to jump in and tell us if our plot worked--all in five minutes. But, Ms. Abrams announced right at the beginning that she was not a school teacher and didn't know how to manage the masses. IN her previous class, not everyone had their ideas reviewed. Unless we managed our time well, not everyone would have a chance. What do YOU think happened?
And honestly, how can you tell a person if their plot is working or not in 5 minutes. WEll, some people took 20 minutes. Three people left the class. I wanted to join them but felt if I was the fourth, well that was just too rude.
Never mind that the first guy who went had a chip on his shoulder because he wanted to believe that his 20 year old protagonist was the perfect age for children's literature. He'd had three teenage readers, not relatives, read his manuscript and they thought the age was just right. He basically engaged Ms. Abrams in an antagonistic fashion. She handled him well, but my oh my, another greatly horrific start. When the argument was over, he basically admitted that he wanted and expected the fight.
The only way that this format was helpful was that when the leader and participants asked me questions about my plot, I wasn't confident and sure-which spoke to me that I didn't have my plot down solid. So in that way it was invaluable. I'm a firm believer that every situation can be turned into value.

Questions or Plot checklist-from the editor
1. What does your character want? Must be specific, concrete answer-watch for abstractions like happiness, or to fin in etc.
2. Will your readers know what the obstacles are for your main character within the early pages of the novel? Can you list them clearly?
3. do these stakes resonate with your readers--taking into account gender and age level of target audience?
4. If your story is fantasy/science fiction rather than reality-based, can you still pinpoint what makes the stakes feel relatable to kids in our world?
5.Does every single scene serve a clear plot/character development purpose that you can easily summarize?
6. I there any kind of time pressure for the character to solve her or his conflicts?
7. Does your character have choices as part of the building conflicts that affect the trajectory of the story?
8. Is all of the action character-driven? Do the characters' motivations always make sense and feel consistent?
9. Will readers understand why your character is making the choices he/she makes?
10 Will the payoffs satisfy?