When we sit down to write our stories, there are two forces that tend to drive their direction: the plot and the characters. Some stories delve into the complicated inner worlds of its characters, while others feature a world that is as complex and interesting as the people written into it. So how do we, as writers, decide which aspect will be the one to drive the worlds we build? Well, the better question isn’t whether the characters or the plot drives a story. The question to ask is: what motivates you? Since this question is more difficult to answer, let’s start with discovering the techniques and the two core methods of storytelling: the pros and cons of each aspect, the genres they’re usually associated with, and, above all, how to marry them for the perfect storm to write a story.
Plot-Driven Stories
Plot-Driven stories are typically associated with speculative fiction–think The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings. They are defined as a high-stakes story in which the focus is on the action and development of events. Plot driven stories have a well-structured plot built around external conflict, escalating stakes, detailed action, high concept ideas, and well-placed twists.
A key feature is casualty: the writer isn’t just saying, “This happened and this happened, and then this happened”. There’s a clear relationship between cause and effect. What keeps readers engaged is the sense that one event directly leads to another: “this happened, and then this happened because of it”.
The Role of Characters in Plot-Driven Stories
In these stories, the characters don’t take a backseat, but the focus is more on the ideas and events than on the people themselves. The reader is invested in seeing how the character will escape, prevail, and overcome the challenges the plot sets before them. The characters make quick decisions based on the circumstances, and those decisions, in turn, keep the plot moving.
While these stories are more concerned with what characters do than what they think, the truth is, nothing will kill a plot faster than an uninteresting character.. While their internal world may not be the primary focus, it is still the explanation behind their actions. A story without multi-faceted characters isn’t really a story at all. It’s a sequence of events that just happens to have people watching them happen.
Top Tip: Flawed characters create opportunities for plot. Outline your plot, then craft characters whose flaws, desires and decisions complicate it.
Character-Driven Stories
Now that we have a better sense of what a plot-driven story is, it’s time we delve in character-driven storytelling. These are often associated with literary fiction, so consider titles such as Yellowface, or Normal People as good examples.
The focus here is on character development: their emotions, why a character makes their choices, and their internal conflicts. The hallmarks are: backstory, a clear character arc, a strong point of view, and a consistent sense of character integrity.
The Role of Plot in Character-Driven Stories
These stories are, essentially, character studies; the plot acts as a series of choices that reveal and develop the characters. The plot reveals a character’s internal struggle and their eventual resolution. The events don;’t just happen to them; they actively respond to it, and that response changes them.
Top Tip: Plan out your character arcs first, then build an external plot that challenges, develops, and highlights that arc.
The Intersection
While many writers may lean towards one approach, the truth is, you cannot have one without the other. A plot-driven story will lose complexity if its characters aren’t fully fleshed out; the best works make us care about the people navigating these high-stakes worlds. Balance creates satisfaction. Likewise, interesting characters need something to happen to them. There is no revelation if there aren’t any events that show off these complex arcs.
As mentioned, each technique is associated with a different genre: PD with speculative fiction, and CD with literary fiction. There are plenty of arguments we can get into for which is the ‘best’ or perhaps most ‘intellectual’ genre, but those arguments fall flat in the face of a truly well-written story. You can apply these storytelling techniques to each genre; there’s no limit on what you can do with them, as long as you do them well.
What matters when choosing which technique to use isn’t so much the genre you’re writing in, but which method will most accurately serve your story. Which will get across the events, the developments, and the message best? Ask yourself what sort of stories spark you the most; think about your favourite books and TVshows. Which could you not put down, devouring them all night until the first rays of sunlight crawled through your window? What made them work? Was it the way the characters changed throughout the story, or was it the events that forced them to?
In order to tell a story that you love, first find out what it is that you love about storytelling. Once you do that, the outlining, the characters, and the words will come naturally. And remember: a good story has a clear plot or a strong character. A great story has both.
Tatianna Victoria, Co-Editor-in-Chief
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