Being a Better Writer: Character Versus Plot · 8:57pm Nov 10th, 2014
Character Versus Plot: What's Driving Your Story?
Today we're going to talk about a lesser-considered aspect of storytelling and writing. I've bandied about with a few different introductions to the concept and summarily discarded all of them, so instead I'm just going to jump right in and tackle things.
Effectively—and understand that I am for the purposes of today's concept, grossly simplifying—every story out there, written, told, or seen, rides a sliding scale into one of two categories: They're either a character-driven piece or a plot-driven piece. That's it. These are your options, and understanding which your story is going to be, as well as more importantly, how to achieve this, will play a part in determining the success of your work.
Okay, some of you are nodding, some of you are confused, a few are wondering where I'm going with this. So let's look into this one a little more deeply.
We'll start with the underlying concept behind these two options: All stories are driven by something. Now, when I say that a story is driven by something, I don't mean the antagonist, or the inciting incident, or even the growth of the character. What I'm referring to by driven is the events or actions by which the story is pulled forward.
Bilbo leaving Frodo the ring, for example, is something that pulls the story forward. Harry receiving a letter from Hogwarts. Vin being noticed by Kelsier. A story is, in it's purest, simplified form, a collection of events. But something inside the story must happen in order for these events to occur. Cause and effect.
What I'm discussing today is the method by which the story moves forward. Is it character-derived, or plot-derived?
I see a few of you are still scratching your heads. The simplest, easiest way to describe this idea is to ask what causes the story to continue forward. Is it the characters? Or is it some force outside of the characters? Is the story moving forward because of my characters actions and choices, or is it moving forward because it needed to move forward so something happened?
Both types of story exist (and, as one would expect, most stories are a blend of both, weighted in one direction or the other). Thriller novels, for example, tend to be driven more often by their plots than by their characters. Events that move the story forward are "Acts of God" or other higher powers which exist for the sole purpose of dragging the characters along from scene to scene. The writer wants a car chase to happen? So he funnels the story towards that end, placing the characters in a situation where there is only one possible answer—car chase.
Stories that focus more on character, however, take a different route. Rather than plot-based forces pulling the story forward, these are stories in which the characters choices are what move things along. Rather than outside occurrences forcing a character to engage in a car chase, this will be a story where the character is given valid options and then chooses to engage in the car chase.
Now, I'm certain a lot of you are simply nodding and thinking to yourselves "Well of course, that makes sense." And yes, it does. But now we need to consider this question: Which one are you writing?
Because to tell the truth, while your works will undoubtedly have both aspects included in them, each story you write is going to gravitate towards one type or the other, and understanding and acknowledging this in advance will make your work much easier.
For example, take my work on Colony. Colony is a much less character driven work than my last few stories, and it took me a while to realize it (downside of pantsing the story). Much of the major events that control the story are driven not by the characters choices (with a few exceptions), but rather by outside, plot-driven forces. None of the character's ever wanted to go to the colony world of Pisces, for example. Instead, they're press ganged into it by a powerful megacorportation who, while offering them a substantial monetary reward for carrying out their task, really doesn't give them much in the way of a choice. The other options are so unappealing that it's very clear to the characters and the reader that the only recourse is to accept the job and head for Pisces.
There are other events like this in Colony. But for Colony as a story, that's all right, because the focus isn't the character driven elements, it's how the characters react to being thrown into these situation, and the situations themselves.
Another example of a plot driving: Everyone's favorite, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry never chooses to be a wizard and start receiving letters from Hogwarts. The letters simply start arriving one day. And then, characters with power outside of Harry's control determine the reaction (taking the letters away, nailing the letterbox shut, and fleeing to a cabin on an island). Much of the driving force of The Sorcerer's Stone for the first "act," in fact, is not character based at all. Harry is pretty much dragged along up until the setting has been introduced, at which point he starts making conscious choices of his own (befriending Ron, for instance, or helping take down a troll).
Come to think of it, The Sorcerer's Stone is probably a pretty good example of the two types and how to juggle them, as the first half of the story is mostly Harry being dragged from point to point, while only after he acclimates to the new setting does he really start making choices that move the story forward.
Knowing which particular style your story is going to serve as the primary driving force of your story before you start will do wonders for how your story turns out. For instance, if you want to write a deep, character focused drama with introspective characters coming to grips with their own lives ... and then create a story that is entirely driven by the plot and not by that character, the entire theme and objective of your work will be weakened. Likewise, if you want to write a rollicking action story that never stops, but choose to have much of the story driven by the characters, you're putting a lot of weight on those characters to make the choices that will continually keep the action-ball rolling. Sure, it can be done, but it's not easy, especially if those characters start trying to make decisions that would pull away the action-adventure focus.
What does this mean for you? Well, that you need to make a choice before you get too far into any work about exactly which driving force you want to be in control of your story, and then think ahead to how that's going to change your story. Can you count on your characters to make certain decisions to move the story in the right direction? Or will you need an exterior force, a plot moment, to take control and move things forward? How will it change your story to have such a force interacting with your characters? Will it put the reader's focus in the wrong area? Will it detract from the theme or moral of your work? A story in which the theme or moral is that we always have a choice, for example, would be rendered ironic by a story in which everything was driven entirely by the plot rather than the characters.
Conscious acknowledgment of what drives our story can be a powerful tool in forming a strong narrative and focus for the reader. For example, look at the storyline of Bioshock. One of Bioshock's greatest storytelling powers was it's insistence that the character was the one making the decisions, that the character was driving the story. Only when you reached the twist did you learn that everything the character had gone through was in fact, not a character decision, but the plot dragging the character along and convincing him that their choices were their own when they were not. Bioshock's creators built up a powerful narrative based on what observers perceived was a character-driven story, and then brutally tore that construct away at a critical moment while showing the player how willing they had been to believe that it was all character rather than something orchestrated by others. Bioshock ended up being recommended in Time magazine partially because of how well its story juggled these two concepts.
But that's pretty advanced use of such a tool, so don't expect to do something like that right away. In fact, don't expect to need to. What you should expect is to understand what drives the story of your own works. When you sit down at a keyboard or with a pen, ask yourself: What is going to drive this story? Are my characters subject to the whims of the plot? Do they choose their own path? How will this affect the story I have in mind? Will it make it less exciting? More exciting? Should I consider changing my focus between the two in order to strengthen an aspect or theme of my work?
As with many things, either of these alone will not make or break your work. However, a firm understanding of how they work and what they can do for you will, with time, be part of the polish that grants your work an extra shine of quality.
Good luck with your writing, and I'll see you all next week.
Hm... didn't go into why you should choose either one as much as I might have liked, but it was good. ^.^
(IE, it gives a great idea of if a story is character or plot driven... but doesn't do as good of a job of answering 'why do I care which one it is?')
2587372
Perhaps I should do a follow up?
I wonder... are the actions of the villain that affect the protagonist character-drivers or plot-drivers? Does the narrative become character driven when it involves characters whose perspective we see?
2587500
Wouldn't hurt!
I feel you did a good job with this.
I typically write plot-driven stories, since it gives the feel of a greater power at work, and that no matter how hard the protagonist struggles, the antagonist (or higher power) forces their hand or limits their options. With me, this creates a visible and tangible struggle against the Fates.
I want to try and figure out how The Wire, my favorite TV show, treats this. It would seem like it's a character-driven piece, and yet there is an external force that directs events in the form of the American institutions and systems that are struggled against in vain. Several of the characters' actions are made to defy the way things work (or don't work) in Baltimore, and it's about as effective as King Lear shouting down a storm.
I'm going to assume you haven't seen the show, which is a shame. I'd like to hear your take on this.
2588347
I figured I'd answer this one in a comment rather than than a follow-up post, since it's a more specific question.
Anyway, as far as why you should care which one it is, from a readers standpoint, unless you're looking for a particular type of story, you probably won't mind. If you just want a well-written story, than either kind of story will serve you just fine. Great stories of both driving forces have been written.
As a writer, however, what picking one or the other determines effectively how much say your characters have in the plot of the story. A plot driven story is very much going to lend itself to reactive characters, IE as explained above, characters who aren't as much making choices as they are simply going with the flow. This means that as a function of the story, the characters are a less gripping element, as the individual characters and their traits and skills will not be presented as strongly to the reader. In the car chase example, for instance, in a plot-driven story it doesn't matter if our hero is the everyman office worker or a highly skilled government agent—the car chase is going to happen regardless. No matter what, the plot will force the character into this scenario. It could be likened to a game where events will play out the same regardless of the player's interaction. It doesn't matter if they take ten minutes walking from cover point to cover point as they move down a hallway or if they sprint, or even if they walk while spinning in a circle—events will always play out the same way. Characters take a back seat to the events. This can be especially common in thrillers (as I said) because they're usually about the spectacle of the plot, not the character. That's why the lone, defenseless character always wanders alone into the danger zone; even if they acknowledge it's a terrible idea, plot events have arisen that give them no other option. Plot-driven stories and events are designed to tug the story to a destination or conclusion and pull the characters along for the ride as much as the reader.
A character-driven story, on the other hand, will place the character at the forefront. The massive plot, the overarching action ... These now become less-important to the drive of the story than the characters journey and choices to get there. Here, the choice of who our characters are matters, and the focal point shifts somewhat. It's not that the character is going to get into a car chase, its that they're forced to make that decision, and that character decision is the driving force, not the act of the car chase itself. These stories rely on the character to bring the reader to the conclusion, not the events.
A last real-world example (shrouded in spoiler tags because MAJOR spoilers for the end of the second Way of Kings book, Words of Radiance):
In the climax of Words of Radiance, the reader is treated to an important moment for the character of Kaladin in which he makes a very important choice, and then, as a result, ends up battling a master assassin in a gravity-flipping scenario. Now, because Kaladin's story is a character-driven one, the crux of the entire event isn't the fight, but rather the choice Kaladin must make beforehand. The fight is almost a reward.
Had Kaladin's tale been plot driven rather than character, that choice wouldn't have been important. In fact, it probably wouldn't have come up at all. Instead, the fight simply would have started and Kaladin would have been thrust into it, rather than needed to make a choice that would place him in the fight in the first place. His decision between multiple options in the original story was what drove the events—had his choice been anything else, the story would have gone in a very different direction.
Making it plot driven, however, would mean taking away the focus on the choice that the entire book had built up to. Either the choice never would have been given in the first place, or it would have been presented in a "no-brainer" manner and simply written off in a line or two, as the focus would be the massive, gravity-twisting fight, not the nonexistent choice that led to it. The focus is in different areas, and the book would read very differently if that were the case.
2588706
I prefer character-driven stories with a few plot events myself, as primarily plot-driven stories can often fall into the trap of making the characters mostly inconsequential to the story itself. Action and fighting the odds are great, but to me they fall flat when nothing the characters really do has a choice unless the plot allows it.
2589024
I've not seen it, as you correctly surmised, so I can't offer a solid opinion one way or the other. That said, presenting one's self as a one type of story or the other while pulling a reveal that it is the other (such as Bioshock did) can be a powerful narrative tool. Neither type of story is wrong, it's just a sense of focus that may help or hinder the overall theme, plot, or even just determine what kind of readers you attract.
2587897
It really depends on the villain. Are they a force? A two-dimensional stand-in that only gets lip service as to motivation and objective? Then yeah, I'd say they're a plot driven force. Most villains generally come off as this, perhaps only switching (if they ever do) to character driven partway through (most do not). This is because most of the time a villain, even if they're given a single perspective scene or chapter, tends to act more like a force to move the plot than a character. For example, in Colony I have several "interlude" scenes from the perspective of an antagonist who serves as a plot-driver. Would I say his actions in the story are character-driven? No, because despite his reasons, these segments are presented only to offer subtext and set up more driving forces for the story's plot. He appears, gives some orders that will have a few effects on the main characters, drops some foreshadowing, and then it's back to the main characters. i could change his gender, his vocalisms ... any number of things, and it still wouldn't change at all the purpose: to show up and drop some story-moving events on the heroes.
Now, you can have a character driven villain, or a villain who's actions against the hero are character driven. A good, recent example that jumps to mind for this is in the TV show Arrow. While the villain of the first season was very much a plot-driven story (big bad, yadda yadda, moves the plot for "reasons"), the second season took a different approach and made their villain a character driven force (as he was a character that had been around since the very beginning of the show). The result was that unlike the first season, where the character is effectively reacting to everything and being dragged forward by the plot events of the villain, the second season had a much more character-driven dynamic, where the villain was a character as much as the hero, and his choices would then determine what the hero would do, which would determine what the villain would do, which would determine what the hero would do, etc.
Granted, it's not a perfect example (and Arrow is by no means a perfect show), but I think you get the idea.
2590315
Thanks! ^.^ That sums it up pretty nicely.
And you know... I was thinking of something else... maybe sometime you'd want to do a blog post about it.
Metered prose; what it is, why you might want to try doing it (or when to not do it), how to do it subtly enough that it doesn't come across as a gimmick, and maybe a few tricks on making it easier to write. ^.^
It's something I'd like to get a real grip on before I move on to professional novels, and I'd be interested to see your take on it.
2590315
It's widely regarded in television circles with the same reverence as Citizen Kane, an assessment which I agree with. That sort of reputation can lead to people treating it like a homework assignment rather than entertainment, especially once the comparisons to Dickens come out, but once they start watching they'll soon catch on that it's also pretty funny despite the frank and downbeat subject matter. Other factors that lead to the show being underappreciated are the fact that viewing all of the episodes in order is essentially mandatory (each season is structured less like a collection of episodes and more like a novel) and the fact that there's an abundance of poor black people from the ghetto in the cast, some of whom are played by actual former drug addicts/dealers.
It also manages to handle its gay characters with a subtlety and verisimilitude that you said was lacking in American television. Omar is gay, but that aspect of his character takes a backseat to the fact that he's a robber of drug dealers with a larger-than-life reputation. He has a swagger about him that's memorable enough to make him the show's most popular character, yet subdued enough to fit in with the realistic aesthetic of the show. Aside from one kingpin raising the price on his head when he finds out Omar's gay, and appearances from his successive boyfriends, his orientation is never treated as a big deal when compared with the consequences of his actions and how they affect the community of underclass black people in Baltimore.
There's also another character who's hinted at being gay because he's spotted at a gay bar in one scene. Nothing else in the series indicates Rawls's orientation. I choose to interpret this as a sign that he's long since repressed certain aspects of himself to get to the top, as Rawls is one of the higher-ups in the police department, who got to his lofty position by enforcing the status quo and is most prominently featured punishing a man who tries to do the right thing (though McNulty usually does that for the wrong reasons).
As for where on the plot/character divide it sits, I can't say that The Wire ever pulled off a profound reveal on the scale of Bioshock, though sometimes a similar reaction gets provoked whenever the good guys suffer a crushing defeat. The force that would make it a plot-driven story is "the system" i.e. the way the institutions of America work and resist changing the way things are done due to deep-seated corruption. Character-driven actions in the story can vary from people trying to change the way things are to people punishing deviance and looking out for number one, and the characters in the former category have to make do with whatever small victories they can scrounge up.
2590315 Yes, I see your point...
I'll have to be careful of that. I don't think that has been much of a problem for me though.
Thanks!
2590351
Metered prose? Um ... that's not really my forte. Poetry and other forms of metered writing aren't really something I was ever interested by, so the last I tackled either was in basic-level 200s during college. IE enough for my degree, but nothing past that. Prose by it's very definition is unmetered, as good prose is supposed to follow natural speech rather than a rhythmic style or oration. According to a quick Google, there is a lesser seen Prose Poetry, but I doubt that's what you're getting at. Maybe you just meant meter and verse inside of a prose piece, or something?
2590814
Well, yes, using metered prose within a larger non-metered piece.
I've heard from one author that he sometimes used metered prose for a chapter or part of a chapter.