Is a Simple Plot bad?

Not bad as in actual quality of the story, just like, generally seen as lazy or something.
A current story has a plot that's literally just 'two master thieves fall in love and have a daughter at the end' and that's it. Remarkably this story also features a downright microscopic cast (compared to what I normally write) of 9 characters, and two of those are minor characters without a name who never appear later in the story.

I dunno, I think I just needed a brain bleach plot to work on that had a very clear cut beginning/middle/end bit.
This story is one of my first story ideas where I've had the 'whole' idea (as in, the plot comes to me as a whole story rather than just ya know, random scenes) and it's done so multiple times over the years.

 

That's not a plot, it's just a situation or an idea for a story.

Stephen King often works just from a situation sort of like that, though you'd need to work in some kind of conflict.

In Attack of the Copula Spiders Douglas Glover talks about getting story structure in at a sentence level, using what he calls but construction. It goes like this—something is happening, but something prevents or threatens it. That's what seems to be missing from your idea above. Without the but it isn't really a story, there's no conflict. The but is the opposing force that the protagonist must struggle against.

And this but construction should exist at multiple levels. If you describe the entire story in one sentence like you did above, there should be a big but. Same for each chapter, each scene, and on and on, in a fractal pattern. Scenes, sequences of scenes, acts, and then the story itself all hinge on but construction, that's what gives them their power.

So try to become a but man.

 

Wait, I remember this story idea, you talked about it before. There's more to it, you do have some conflict, just didn't mention it above. Your plot is more like 2 master thieves start off opposed to each other, both going for the same prize (IIRC), but then they fall in love and have a child.

In fact it probably has a lot of smaller buts along the way—one of the thieves is trying to steal (MacGuffin) but the other shows up and foils the plan etc.

Put this way it starts to sound like a plot, or at least an idea for one. To become a real plot you'd need to work out the particulars in detail—inciting incident, some turning points, rising action (increasing conflict), all leading up inevitably to a big climax. And as often happens after one of those, along comes baby, the cliff-hangar to set up the next story.

 

To be fair, that's just the premise, not the plot. The premise is the idea, and the plot is what happens to get in the way of that right?
I'm trying to come up with some other plot elements beside that, I just don't want it to get too complicated so I lose track.
Like it has a conflict and everything before the actual falling in love part, it's just a small scale conflict that's resolved by the end.
The main conflict is just, tiny in comparison to my larger story settings/arcs. There's also a part two of it included involving their daughter and the conflict of that is well, simple.

Do keep in mind that this is a story for an eventual Pixar like animation, not a full movie, more like those dialogue less shorts they show at the beginning of the film. I just thought it might be fun to write it in novel format first.
The animation will be a series of shorter segments that tell a larger plot

Yes, they do in fact try to steal something, that's actually the source of conflict that (initially) prevents the falling in love part. Heck, their personalities are so opposite that they annoy eachother even when not using their thief persona.
I wouldn't call it a 'short' story but it's not exactly a long one. I hope to end the thing in 9 chapters, and usually I shoot for a little over 15-20 K words per chapter. So it's kind of in the middle compared to what I normally write, which is usually 12 + chapters.

I'm trying to come up with side plots to make things more interesting to the reader, beyond the main conflict, but I'd like to keep it simple if I can.

 

Sort of, but a premise needs to incorporate the motivation behind the story or the emotional drive for it. Usually a premise reads like single-minded desire for financial success destroys any chance at good relationship and family. It actually includes the but construction, stated here as 'destroys'.

Stating it this way forces you to think about the conflict and the emotional core of the story. That's why I call what you wrote above just a situation. It isn't really a premise.

This is what story structure is for. Exactly.

By working out your ideas in the form of a premise and then a 3-act (or some number) structure you ensure it will all work and you won't end up writing something dull or meandering.

 

I'm having trouble seeing an elegant transposition between novel or novella and animated short. I think a short story would have the appropriately cinched belt.

 

I think since the story ends with the child being born, that needs to be the answer to some question posed by the story itself. As an example, something could be said early on when the thieves are in opposition but talk to each other when they encounter each other on a job, and one might say "we're both so good, in totally different ways. Imagine if we could combine all out best traits. That would make an unstoppable super-thief!" The other might respond "Or a total slack-ass loser asshole." And then at the end it happens, because a child is a combination of traits of both parents. Of course the question is, does the child get their best traits or their worst? That could be answered in the later stories. In fact the first one could end with just the knowledge that the woman is pregnant, leaving the rest hanging so readers want to pick up the next story to find out.

So this would give a premise something like Does combining the DNA of the world's greatest thieves result in a super-thief, or the opposite? The OR is an implied but. Once you've got a clearly-stated premise like that that includes the emotional core and motivation of the story, you use it to keep your writing on track. Make sure each chapter or scene relates directly to the premise somehow.

 

Or the child might be just a coda to the actual story, which could be more about will they fall in love or end up killing each other? <— That isn't a very good premise, just threw it out real fast. You need to work out a gripping one and let it be the core of the story. And you might not really understand the premise until you're actually writing the story, maybe not until the second or third draft. Let it be malleable.

 

It might be a funny twist if, after competing to steal a greedy monarch’s crown jewel, they fall in love and have a daughter. The daughter eventually catches the eye of the crown prince and as a wedding gift, she offers him the jewel, not knowing that it was stolen. The prince would have to make a choice...justice for the thieves or to choose love and hide the jewel from his father..

 

Yeah I do mean 20,000 but generally I wind up with around 15 K any less feels too 'short' and any more feels too 'long'. The number of chapters is what makes this story shorter than most of my stuff, rather than the words within.
I think I chose the wrong word (I sometimes confuse premise with plot, because of how similar they are narratively) but it's a relief to know my premise isn't 'bad' per say.

I understand that statement and that exact reaction was expected heh, honestly the 'novella' version is simply being written to get the story on 'paper' (not literally) so it stops 'bugging' me so I can focus on other writing projects.
When I get around to animating it I'll probably shorten it into a screenplay. I'm writing it in novel format first because it's the form of writing I'm most comfortable with.

@Xoic Excellent points in both posts, I actually really like those ideas, I was initially planning to have the second part be part of the main story. But I think leaving the answer to that question will get people interested in reading the continuation.
I was already starting to lean in on some world building elements to provide motivation for both characters to get together with someone. The reasons are initially vein but as they talk it's revealed that they technically have less personal reasons to find someone.