Character and Plot

As is wont to happen when I read the Gypsy Scholar blog, I find that thoughts become provoked and his post about plot and character (provoked for him by an entry on the interesting Contemporary Nomad blog) is one that provoked this response (though I hope my tone is not too provocative):

I find that when I write short stories (and screenplays) plot tends to come first and the characters serve it. With longer works, characters tend to come first and their personalities drive the plot because it’s the decisions the characters make that ultimately affect what happens to them and how the plot unfolds. For me, the plot changes from what I had intended originally more than the characters.

What you said about leaving out details in the interest of advancing story is very true and important, but the writer still knows those details and they inform the characters’ decisions and actions even if they are never explicitly revealed.

I agree with Jessica’s point about being drawn back by character. As an example, I’ll use To Kill a Mockingbird since it’s the last book I read. I keep turning the pages not because I want to know how the town deals with the trial but because I really like listening to Scout tell the story. I enjoy her voice and her sense of humor.

Perhaps this all sounds flaky as hell, but that’s how it works for me.

Now that school is winding down and summer, which is when I do most of my writing, is fast approaching, my thoughts turn to writing and I find that the character/plot issue is still on my mind.

For me and me alone, since writing is a very individual sport with as many methods as there are writers, character is where it starts and character is what provides the excitement and even the magic of the whole process. At the start of a piece, I usually don’t know the characters very well, but I tend to know them better than I know what will happen to them.

These imaginary people (I won’t call them friends) sort of develop, and I let them talk to one another and to me. We like to talk when we drive. These characters often have stories that are never revealed in the course of a piece of writing.

When I wrote A Place Without a Postcard, I wrote out 30 pages of Sergio (whose dog gives this blog its name) telling his story. I only meant to include a few lines, but I really got into this character’s story just flowing along. I had no idea how much there was to him when I first thought of him.

Once I know the characters I start to get a bead on what happens to them. That’s where the story develops and as the story comes together, I generally have no idea where (or even when) it’s going to end. Sometimes I know how I’d like it to go, but usually it ends up somewhere else.

Oftentimes I overwrite a character. My first drafts are substantially longer than than the final draft and those pages that are cut are often character bits: explorations, flashbacks, asides. All of these become parts of who those characters are and wind up informing their decisions, though they aren’t included in the final draft. Sometimes these deleted scenes, to use the language of DVDs, become separate stories.

Once a first draft is completed the plot may shift, and characters might change, but typically the plot changes more than the characters do. I do, however, frequently fire characters when I realize they are only there to advance the plot and whatever they were there to do suddenly seems uneccessary or can be accomplished more organically by another character.

I sometimes wonder if perhaps this stems from ways of viewing the world. Plot coming first feels to me like destiny. Character coming first feels like free will. I tend to lean towards free will and so the plot in any given piece of writing tends to spring more from the choices a character makes rather than what I need for him or her to do to get to the ending that I originally imagined.

That probably sounds a bit high-minded because in reality I don’t think about this at all when I’m actually writing. Besides the end result should be something in which character and plot and all the other elements that make up a whole and compelling tale flow seamlessly along leaving only chicken-and-the-egg musings such as this post.

Ultimately a writer has to be able to handle both. While in graduate school studying screenwriting, I learned about plot, because that seems to drive the writing process for scripts, but plot doesn’t get me writing. Characters do. Of course once I have a character that intrigues me, that character’s story will keep me going as I discover what exactly it is.

Finally, this brings to mind an analogy that one of my film professors used to use when encouraging students to learn both film and video (back when there was a difference): you’ve got to be able to play the piano with both hands. I think plot and character are like that. Every writer will start from a different place, but for the story to work for the reader, the two must be woven together, each supporting the other.

James Brush

James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.

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