Does the novel have a PLOT?

Over the last few weeks I've swopped writing for reading.

While I have read McDermid's Tony Hill and Carole Jordan series beginning to end I have not been writing at all. I've done a lot of work on statistics and sort of have a handle on how I'm doing but no writing at all. 

Until this week, that is. Then I began with a heroine called Rose who journeys to a tiny village in Northumberland (- write about what you know!) to stay with rellies. I intend that she should (somehow) time shift, or time travel, but with chapter one done I suddenly remembered a piece I read sometimes last year - namely:

Does the novel have a plot? Without a plot, received wisdom claims it is difficult to keep a reader interested. A plot must involve a protagonist with a worthy story goal. 

Well, the honest answer is no, there is, as yet, no plot. Nor is there a goal, worthy or not and I haven't reached an inciting incident yet. You know - that thing that turns the protagonist’s life upside down in a negative way.

All this suggests that I am on a hiding to nothing as my Dad used to say. I knew what he meant, but I never looked at the peculiar way he expressed the thought. Just as it occurred to me yesterday that from age 7 to 23 I lived in Sydenham Road and never twigged that all the streets around me - Hampton, Osborne, Kensington, Marlborough, and others - were all famous buildings or locations. 

I shall keep writing - descriptive bits and locations, but I must lay down a plot line  in the next week or two or I fear I shall lose interest and go back to reading. 

I wonder when the next Hill-Jordan book is due?
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