I'm still talking about how to make your piece more literary. Think through what drives the literary novels you've read. I mentioned this a couple of years ago, but it is such an important topic that it ought to be revisited. A good novel is driven by something, or it just meanders and can fall apart. According to Orson Scott Card, the most common narratives are driven by character, plot, question, or milieu. The writer must continue that drive until the end of the story and satisfy reader expectation with that story, or it is incomplete. A reader will not be satisfied. Your story bus is stalled and stuck in the mud.
When a writer begins a story, he/she makes a contract with the reader. If the reader starts a Sherlock Holmes book or other mystery narrative, the reader knows to expect a question-driven plot wherein a story is not finished until the primary question is answered: who done it? If this question is not answered, the story is incomplete. If Sherlock lives happily ever after with a newly-found significant other but never finds the murderer, the reader will feel gypped. When a reader sits down to read a Jane Austen book, the reader expects a character-driven story. If Lizzy solves a mystery, thereby answering a question, but never solves her dissatisfaction inside through marrying Darcy, the reader will feel unfulfilled. When a reader sits down to a Alexandre Dumas adventure story, the darkness in the world around the character must be taken care of, or d'Artagnan or Edmond Dantes is not done with his story. This kind of story is plot-driven. When a reader sits down to a milieu-driven story, such as Gulliver's Travels, the reader is merely along for the ride, excited to learn everything there is to know about that world. The characters are tour guides to such a universe. The reader subconsciously expects the question, the issue with the character, the problem with the world, or full disclosure about the rules and features of this particular world when they sit down to read, or the story will feel incomplete.
Know your story and genre. What kind of story are you telling? Genres are automatically associated with one of these drives. Mysteries, are by nature, question-driven, though other stories can be as well. You can tell a historical or fantasy mystery story in which a dragon and a prince set out to solve a mystery, but just know some readers will find that unnerving or strange. If you are telling a fantasy, science fiction, or adventure story, most often, you will need to introduce something wrong with the world, a darkness that has crept in and needs to be fought off, a false king that has been taken over, a curse on the characters, etc. You can also tell a fantasy story that is character-driven. This happens frequently. Fantasy can also be milieu. Lord of the Rings makes the land of Middle Earth the main character, while the characters are just types. However, milieu is the most difficult to pull off as the lone driver. Unless your land is particularly exciting, a tour-guide story line is likely to grow thin fast.
The Harry Potter series is one that manages to juggle all of these drives. The reader no sooner gets an answer to a question or mystery than Rowling presents another. Harry starts out lonely and looking for family, dissatisfied in his own skin, and ends up finding a place to belong and making his own family. There's also a darkness in the world that must be resolved before his story is complete. And readers are endlessly fascinated by the Wizarding world.
It may be an interesting challenge to employ all the drives. But if you have at least one that is done well, your reader will be content. What drives your story? Do you complete your contract?
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