Plot Versus Character

It’s not an either-or situation, but when I start a new novel, I get tangled up in issues over plot versus character. I tend to spend a lot of time at the beginning of my writing on “what happens next” and ignoring the need to think about what makes my characters who they are. I’m more aware of this problem as I continue to write, but it’s an issue.

This turmoil comes from years of trying to write screenplays for movies, as opposed to television. TV scripts are very character-based. You watch a show every week because you enjoy the characters.

But in movies, the public wants to know, “What’s it about?” So when I wrote screenplays, I spent a lot of time trying to construct tricky or compelling plots, and I usually didn’t think about character until the plot construction was finished. It’s not a bad habit, but worrying so much about plot that you ignore the characters is not very helpful when you’re trying to write a novel.

Building your characters from the ground up, as you start working on a novel, helps you build the plot because right away the characters start telling you things that they would and would not do. I’m seeing this more and more as I slowly change my balance from plot to character. But for me, it’s a slow change, and one that’s hard to make. Don’t make the same mistake I did.