The Writing Technique Literary Agents Love (And You’ve Never Heard Of)

How “theorizing” creates natural interiority that makes agents fall in love with your manuscript

Featuring insights from Jessica Sinsheimer (Context Literary Agency), Julie Kingsley (Manuscript Academy), and Nour Sallam (Caldwell Agency)

During our recent Manuscript Academy live critique session, literary agent Nour Sallam from Caldwell Agency said something that made every writer in the room lean forward:

“Theorizing is my favorite type of interiority because it says so much about the character.”

If you’ve never heard the term “theorizing” in a writing context, you’re not alone. But according to two literary agents who review hundreds of queries and manuscripts monthly, this simple technique is one of the most powerful tools writers have for creating compelling character voice.

And voice, as you know, is one of the most common reasons agents say yes. 

What Is “Theorizing” in Fiction Writing?

Theorizing is when your character wonders, hopes, fears, or speculates about what’s happening or what might happen next. They say things like “I hope Y happens, and soon” Or “I’m really worried X will happen.”

Instead of telling readers what your character thinks or feels, theorizing shows their thought process in real time. It reveals:

• What the character values and fears
• Their personality and worldview
• The stakes from their unique perspective
• Natural interiority that doesn’t feel forced or explanatory

“Where your brain goes when you’re creating theories of what’s supposed to happen tells us everything,” Nour explained during the session.

Examples of Theorizing That Work

Instead of writing: “Sarah heard a noise downstairs. She was scared.”

Try theorizing: “Sarah heard a noise downstairs. Was it just the cat knocking over the recycling again? Or had her ex-boyfriend finally made good on his threats?”

Instead of: “Marcus wanted the promotion badly.”

Try theorizing: “Maybe if Marcus stayed late enough, worked visibly enough, the VP would finally notice him. Or maybe he’d just end up divorced and still stuck in the same position he’d held for five years.”

The difference is immediate. Theorizing doesn’t just tell us what characters think—it shows us how they think, what keeps them up at night, and what lens they use to view the world.

Why Literary Agents Love Theorizing

It Reveals Character Without Info-Dumping

One of the most common manuscript problems agents see is forced interiority—those clunky passages where writers explicitly explain what their characters are thinking and feeling.

“It’s easier for your reader to remember a feeling and an image than a bulletpointed list,” Jessica Sinsheimer noted during the critique session.

Theorizing solves this problem elegantly. Instead of telling readers “Sarah was a pessimist who always expected the worst,” you show her theorizing the worst case scenario. The characterization happens naturally.

It Creates Immediate Stakes

When characters theorize, they’re not just observing—they’re invested. We think about their stakes. It increases tension.

They’re trying to predict outcomes, weighing options, hoping for specific results.

“Is it this person breaking in to steal the TV? Or is it that other person coming for revenge?”

That single line of theorizing creates stakes. We now know:

• Something valuable might be stolen (practical stakes)
• Someone might be seeking revenge (emotional stakes)
• The character has enemies (backstory)
• The character is trying to assess threat level (personality)

All from one sentence of speculation.

It Maintains Narrative Momentum

Information dumps slow pacing, even when beautifully written. Space on the page feels like time in the story.

Theorizing keeps readers in the present moment while efficiently revealing backstory, motivation, and character. Your protagonist can wonder about the past while moving through the present, maintaining forward momentum while providing necessary context.

It Feels Authentic

Real people theorize constantly. We speculate, we worry, we hope, we catastrophize, we imagine best-case scenarios. (In face, we imagined the hate mail we might get for writing this article.) It’s how human consciousness actually works.

When your characters theorize, they feel more real because they’re behaving the way real minds behave—constantly trying to predict, understand, and prepare for what’s coming.

How to Use Theorizing in Your Writing

In Query Letters

Yes, theorizing works in queries too! Instead of listing plot points, let your protagonist’s speculation reveal the stakes:

Before: “Emma must decide whether to take the job or stay with her family.”

After: “What if the New York job is Emma’s last chance at the life she’s always wanted—and what if choosing it means her mother dies alone?”

The theorizing (“What if…”) immediately creates emotional resonance while revealing character values.

In Opening Pages

First pages need to ground readers quickly in who, where, when, and what. Theorizing can accomplish this while maintaining intrigue.

In Dialogue

Theorizing doesn’t just work in internal monologue. Characters can theorize out loud, creating natural-sounding dialogue that reveals relationships and conflict:

“Do you think she’s avoiding us?” Maya asked.

“I think she’s avoiding you,” Jordan corrected. “I think she found out you told her mother about the engagement.”

Across Genres

The agents reviewed queries across romance, fantasy, YA, thriller, memoir, and more during the session. Theorizing worked in every single genre:

Romance: “Maybe if she kissed him now, she could forget about the way he’d looked at her sister at dinner.”

Fantasy: “The runes could mean a warning—or an invitation. In the old texts, the symbols had been interchangeable.”

Thriller: “If the blood was his, the killer had been injured. If it wasn’t, someone else had been in this room.”

YA: “Was Mr. Patterson trying to fail her on purpose, or did he genuinely not remember promising her an extension?”

What Theorizing Reveals About Your Character

Good theorizing is always character-specific. Different characters would theorize differently about the same situation:

The same noise downstairs, three different characters:

Anxious protagonist: “Was someone breaking in? Should she call 911 now or wait until she was sure? What if it was just the wind and she looked paranoid again?”

Cynical protagonist: “Of course someone was breaking in. The window had been broken for weeks and the landlord hadn’t fixed it. This was exactly what she’d been expecting.”

Optimistic protagonist: “Maybe it was her roommate coming home early with takeout. Hopefully Thai food. She’d been craving pad thai all day.”

Each version theorizes about the same event, but the speculation reveals completely different personalities, worldviews, and priorities.

Common Theorizing Mistakes to Avoid

Overexplaining After the Theory

Don’t theorize and then explain the theory:

Wrong: “Was he cheating on her? She worried constantly that he might be seeing someone else.”

Right: “Was he cheating on her? That would explain the late-night texts, the sudden ‘work trips,’ the way he’d stopped saying ‘I love you’ without prompting.”

Let the theory stand on its own or support it with evidence, not redundant explanation.

Making All Theories Come True

If your character constantly theorizes and is always correct, it feels contrived. Sometimes they should be wrong, jump to conclusions, or catastrophize unnecessarily. This creates both humor and realism.

Theorizing About Things the Character Wouldn’t Actually Wonder About

Your theorizing should fit the character’s knowledge, concerns, and personality. A nine-year-old probably isn’t theorizing about mortgage rates. A character who’s never shown interest in astronomy probably isn’t theorizing about planetary orbits.

“Voice is everything,” Julie Kingsley emphasized during the middle grade query review. “Authentic kid perspectives are immediately recognizable.”

The same applies to theorizing—it must be authentic to that specific character.

What Else Literary Agents Look For

While theorizing was a standout technique from the session, the agents emphasized several other elements that make manuscripts stand out:

Specificity Over Generality

“Your query real estate is so limited,” Jessica explained. “We can’t remember vague details or sort through confusion at that speed.”

Agents read queries in 30-60 seconds. They read first pages looking for immediate grounding. Specific details (“third-grade teacher”) stick in their minds far better than generic descriptions.

Emotions Over Plot

“It’s easier for your reader to remember a feeling and an image than a bulletpointed list,” Jessica noted.

This applies to both queries and manuscripts. Readers connect with emotion first and plot second. Your theorizing should reveal emotional stakes, not just logistical ones.

Natural Dialogue

“Dialogue reveals character while maintaining momentum,” the agents agreed.

Characters can theorize out loud through natural-sounding conversation, revealing their thought processes while moving the scene forward.

Clear Grounding

Readers need to know who, where, when, and what—especially on the first page. Theorizing can help accomplish this.

The Agent Mindset: What They’re Really Looking For

Perhaps the most encouraging insight from the session was learning how agents actually approach submissions.

“We are English majors who want to get an A+ on the pop quiz of your book,” Jessica explained.

Agents aren’t looking for reasons to reject. They’re looking for that A-worthy manuscript—the one that makes them think about it during dinner, keeps them reading past bedtime, makes them reach for their phone to call an editor friend.

“I usually approach queries and first pages with a lot of caution,” Nour admitted. “I didn’t feel that today.”

Every submission at the session was “significantly above the average agent inbox quality,” according to both Jessica and Nour. The gap between good and great is often surprisingly small—sometimes just a matter of using techniques like theorizing to reveal character more naturally.

Agent “Yes Mode” Is Real

Jessica introduced a concept she calls “yes mode”—when agents see something great, they’re more likely to see greatness in subsequent queries that day due to confirmation bias and elevated excitement.

This is especially true in January when agents return from break feeling refreshed and excited about building their lists. But theorizing can trigger yes mode any time of year because it’s one of those techniques that immediately signals strong craft.

When an agent reads a query or first page with excellent theorizing, they think: “This writer understands how to reveal character. They get interiority. They know how to create stakes efficiently.”

That’s the kind of reaction that leads to manuscript requests.

Implementing Theorizing in Your Current Work

If you’re revising a manuscript or drafting a query, here’s how to add theorizing:

Step 1: Identify moments where you’re currently telling emotions Look for sentences like “She was worried” or “He wondered if he’d made a mistake.”

Step 2: Convert telling into speculation Instead of “She was worried,” try “What if they’d already left without her?”

Step 3: Make theories character-specific What would this specific character theorize about in this situation? What are their unique fears, hopes, and blind spots?

Step 4: Vary your theories Some should be dire predictions, some hopeful speculation, some practical problem-solving. Real minds don’t theorize in just one mode.

Step 5: Let some theories be wrong Characters who correctly predict everything feel implausible. Let them jump to wrong conclusions, catastrophize unnecessarily, or miss obvious explanations.

The Courage to Keep Revising

“It’s brave to put yourself out there,” Jessica told the writers at the session. “Thank you for sharing your work with us.”

Adding theorizing to your manuscript is part of that ongoing bravery—the willingness to keep learning, keep revising, keep pushing your craft forward.

“Just because we have feedback doesn’t mean your work is bad,” Jessica emphasized. “These critiques are designed to help you reach your full potential.”

Nour’s final assessment reinforced this encouraging message: “I am very, very impressed, like shockingly impressed. I usually approach queries and first pages with a lot of caution. I didn’t feel that today.”

Your Next Steps

The gap between good and great is often surprisingly small. Sometimes it’s just a matter of:

• More theorizing here to reveal character naturally
• Stronger emotional specificity there
• Clearer grounding in another spot

Your job isn’t to be perfect. It’s to be specific, emotional, grounded, and brave enough to keep revising until you find the agent who sees excellence in your work.

Start by reviewing your first chapter. Where are you telling emotions instead of showing theorizing? Where could character speculation reveal stakes more efficiently than exposition?

As the session wrapped up with wishes to “stay warm and enjoy soup season,” the overwhelming feeling wasn’t discouragement but possibility. These writers were close—sometimes just a few technique tweaks away from the queries and pages that will land them representation.

And the same is true for you.

Want more insights from literary agents? Join us for upcoming Manuscript Academy events including #10Queries where agents review queries at true inbox speed, and Publishing Help Desk where you can get answers to questions you can’t Google.

Special thanks to Jessica Sinsheimer (Context Literary Agency), Julie Kingsley (Manuscript Academy), and Nour Sallam (Caldwell Agency) for sharing their expertise on what makes manuscripts stand out.