Plotting or characters? It’s an age-old argument. Which is more important? Does the plot trigger character development or do the characters drive the plot? Is there a difference? I’ve often told my clients that you can have the greatest plot in the world, but if you can’t connect to or empathize or in other ways feel or at least in some way achieve a connection with the book’s characters, it won’t really matter how great it is.
A book can have conflict in regard to plot: the character is trying to overcome an obstacle or achievable goal. However, without the desire to do so, which must come from the character, those obstacles, goals, or achievements are meaningless. Of course, both are important, and this debate is certainly not new with either novice or experienced and published writers.
Which comes first?
There’s something to be said for character-driven tales as well as plot-driven tales. Can you distinguish the difference? Most plot-driven storylines focus on some type of action or event that propels a character to make a certain number of decisions. Each of these cases can be described in some of our favorite movies.
Case in point: the Indiana Jones type movie. Indy is constantly reacting to situations or events without delving too deeply into what motivates him other than a general background of his love for archaeology, finding treasures, and of course, preserving them. A plot-driven storyline.
Character-driven storylines focus on a specific character’s response to something that also provokes a decision, but maybe more internalized and in-depth. Case in point: A Forest Gump type movie.
Authors often struggle with achieving a balance between the two. Of course you want to have some sort of an external or internal force driving your character that propels them to do something. At the same time, it’s very important to invoke some kind of emotion in your reader, whether it’s affection or hatred.
So the next time you sit down to write, ask yourself this question: is the character driving the plot or is the plot driving the character?