forum Character-based writing, or plot-based writing?

Started May 02, 2018 by Tabbico

tune

What are they exactly?

Plot driven writing is more your hunger games style story. Everything that happens pulls the plot forward. There’s a more unique premise and a larger overarching idea. Character driven writing is my personal favorite. Think John Green books. The story is less dependent on the main idea and more on the getting to know the protagonist and the relationships they form, and the way they as a person change over time. My ideal book has both significant plot and character progression, but in my opinion a book can live without a lot of plot development but really falls flat without character progression. Basically, if you don’t like who your supposed to be following throughout the story, what’s the point of reading, but if your plot is interesting enough or your charcaters grow enough, you can make the creative decision to let either your plot or characters take the backseat so that the other is the star of the show.

My hope would be a solid 50/50, but if it had to lean one way or another i'd lean toward character (obviously).
but my struggle is that my plot is getting more and more complicated, so it's hard to balance

I think the main thing to do is to show your characters' thoughts and reactions to the situations they're put into whenever possible.There's actually a good video about the hero's journey I recently watched that goes into losing your characters in the plot and how to avoid it, (which you can watch if you're interested). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nOE7tBnYaU

I like to mix both: everything the characters do is to pull the plot forward, but we should get to know the characters while they're doing it. That way, the characters can feel like actual human beings (or, in the case of my story, human-like, because the Evolutions are not human) while the plot marches forward.

Let's put it this way: readers want to relate to your characters, thus they have to be 3-dimensional and relatable. If you've got excellent characters that readers love, you can be forgiven for an iffy plot.
Iffy characters but good plot? Most people don't wanna read a book with characters that don't even resonate with them.

Maybe, show your character's personalities throughout the story, like, their different reactions to something.
Like, one character, upon seeing a bunch of mutilated corpses might scream in horror and run away like a little kid, another might give the team a motivational speech, and another might go on, but quiver and say to him/herself "Okay, okay, the killer's gone, everything's okay…"

I prefer character driven stories, as, in my opinion, a character who is moved by the plot rather than creating it usually comes off as unmotivated. (though I have read very good plot driven stories that have great characters. Overall I would agree with @ArtisticKnifepoint, try to mix both. Like in real life, we make decisions to send us down some paths, and sometimes things happen to us outside of our control.

Additionally, in most stories I've read, a non character driven plot point is required at the beginning to get the story going (this is also called the inciting incident.) usually something bad happens outside of the protagonists control and they have to react to it. (There are exceptions of course, like Bilbo deciding on his own accord to go on an adventure, just, you know, generally.)

Character driven.

Example: I have seen every episode of Sherlock. The first two seasons have plot, the last two don't really have plot progression, per say. The last two seasons have more of a personal building than anything…
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And to be quite frank, I am most dearly infatuated with the entire thing. (And perhaps Benedict Cumberbatch)!

There needs to be some plot though- else it gets boring.

60:40 would be my personal ratio.

@PurplePygmyPies I like the 60:40 rule too.