Characters vs Plot

Is the story shaped by the characters, or the other way around? This was a question posed to me recently and it’s an interesting one to think about. Honestly, I think you could ask a group of authors and get a handful of different answers depending on their own personal writing methodology. 

I’ve gone over my own writing process in a previous post. I’ve also made it very clear that I think a reader’s experience is a lot more informed by your characters than your plot many times over in assorted Stories Across Borders episodes. If your audience doesn’t connect to your characters and find them compelling, then it won’t matter how developed your world is or how complex and well-written your plot is. It’s characters that readers care about.

So, naturally, I tend to have a very character-centred process and writing style. You would think that my answer to the above question would be an easy one then and I’d say the characters shape the story. While I don’t think this sentiment is exactly wrong, I don’t think it’s that clear cut either. Not for me at least.

I don’t actually think there is a right or a wrong way to approach this. Every writer has their own process and preferences, just as readers do. So I can only really give my own two cents and explain why I hold my opinions.

For me, I think both of these answers are right. My writing process starts with the base concept and premise and I develop the characters after that before expanding the plot further out from there. This is just the way of doing it that feels natural to me but, if I think about it, there’s reasoning to it.

Characters are people. Whether you’re writing about ordinary humans, sentient animals, aliens or fantasy animals, this basic idea holds true. People with infinitely more expertise on the matter have debated nature versus nurture for decades but, as far as I can tell, the answer there is that people are a combination of both. So, while characters are certainly much simpler than real people, the same should hold true for them too.

In this case, that means a character might have some intrinsic personality traits or quirks just as we do. However, they will also be moulded by the circumstances around them and their experiences. For a story, this means that your setting and lore should interact with your character’s intrinsic traits to create their belief system and feelings about the world. It also means that they will grow and change according to the events that occur during the plot in a way that feels consistent with them as people. A stubborn character facing adversity might continue to push on regardless and slowly get worn down by their own inability to turn back. A more flighty and uncertain character might turn away earlier and then regret that decision for the rest of the story, that regret informing later decisions. Whatever personality a character was born with, the plot of the story will cause them to grow and change. Maybe the change will be positive, maybe not. However, they won’t be exactly the same at the end of the book as they were at the beginning. Of course the story shapes characters.

That being said, people don’t exist in a vacuum. We don’t just experience things in a vacuum. We interact with others and become experiences that, for better or worse, affect their lives. We make choices that change the courses of our own lives and that can have an impact on the world around us in small and barely noticeable ways or in ways that can impact thousands. Consider voting in an election. You play a role in an event that will shape your country for years to come. The same is true for characters. The choices they make change the way the story will play out. When that stubborn character chooses to stand and fight or persevere through the blizzard, there are consequences. They might be worn down, but they do that to themselves by choice. But, in addition, perhaps their determination and drive inspires that less strong-willed and flighty character who ran away before, and next time they face such a decision they stand strong and achieve something great. The choices your protagonist makes can result in characters living or dying, people suffering or being saved and empires rising or falling. Their kindness can change the people around them for the better and their cruelty can make them bitter. Just like how helping someone out can improve their day and ignoring them when you could lend your aid can sour things even further. In this way, it is only natural that your characters shape the narrative as well.

So my answer to the question I posed at the beginning is yes. Both. At the very least, that’s how I choose to look at the stories I write. Writing is art and there aren’t a lot of ways to do art wrong. I think any answer to this question is probably the right one if it works for you and results in you writing at your best. But for me personally, I don’t feel like saying either option on its own is correct. I endeavour to make my characters and my settings feel well-rounded, tangible and real. Even the more out-there ones. And when I look at it like that, I feel like there has to be give and take between the characters and the plot. They inform each other, often in equal measure.

If you have any questions you’d like answered or topics you’d be interested to see me write about or discuss on SAB, feel free to drop me a message over on my Twitter or send me an email.