Plot and character are integral parts of your novel, but did you know they aren’t actually as separate from each other as you might have thought? Because the reality is, the plot doesn’t happen to your protagonist, it happens through them.
In this blog post, I will tell you a little more about how plot and character are connected to each other and you’ll learn how to write a plot that actually matters.
Related post: How to write a story that works: start with your character – Conflict ideas for stories
The myth of plot-driven vs character-driven stories
Let’s address the elephant in the room: dividing stories into plot-driven and character-driven stories is actually not useful in any way. If you google those terms, you will learn how plot-driven stories are all about stuff that happens and character-driven stories are all about the characters’ inner worlds. Is there really nothing in between and could we possibly find more accurate terms?
The problem is, you can’t write a story where only external stuff happens to your protagonist and they do nothing but react because they have no goals or opinions of their own. Or you could, but it wouldn’t be a very good story. When you look at how stories are structured, the protagonist usually reacts to a big change or problem in the first part of the story and then becomes proactive. The more events and “stuff” you have in your story, the more proactive your protagonist needs to be. A big story needs a big personality.
If you then look at what people mean by “character-driven”, these are slow, contemplative stories where nothing much happens and we only have the protagonist pondering and musing over their life, right? We can’t just read about someone sitting in a chair and thinking, though, because a story needs change. If you’ve got a passive character, you’ll need a lot of external action to have something happen, and that sounds an awful lot like “plot”.
Plot isn’t separate from everything
Your plot is not just a random series of events. Yes, you can describe plot as “a series of events that happens in your story”, but would you really tell me that none of those events depend on, say, setting or characters? I didn’t think so.
I just said that plot isn’t separate from everything, but maybe I should have said that plot isn’t separate from anything. Of course, there can be events in your story that could happen somewhere else to other people because so many of our experiences are universal. The plot as a whole still belongs to one story alone.
Just look at any book you love. Could Pride and Prejudice really happen in another place to other people and stay the same? Many things that happen in the story wouldn’t make sense with different social norms. How many of the characters in The Cruel Prince could you change while keeping the plot the same? You can’t turn Cardan into a high school football hero without changing literally everything else, too, including the plot.
This is why story structure works
Writers who are new to story structure can have the misconception that it’ll make all stories the same. Well, has it? Because it already is everywhere, did you not notice?
The fact that all the story elements affect each other makes stories different despite their similar underlying structure. Yes, your protagonist will need to overcome a problem, but the same problem wouldn’t affect another character the same way. A different problem wouldn’t change your protagonist the same way is this problem.
When you look at your story, think of how everything works together. If they don’t affect each other, you don’t really have a story, just random bits and pieces together. Make them work together.
What’s the relationship between plot and character? Which is more important?
Which end of your shoelace is more important? Which side of the coin is more important?
I know I’m only repeating myself but it does bear repeating: separating plot and character in your story is no use. They need each other and they work together to create a story.
When you start planning a story, it very well may be that you start from a character idea or you’ve only got a few exciting plot events in mind. That’s totally fine and normal. When you continue developing your story, you put your character and plot ideas together and see what kinds of chemical reactions they make happen. These plot questions to ask when writing a novel can help you fill in the gaps.
Your characters’ goals and actions make the story
When you’re still trying to figure out what actually happens in your story, you might need to take a better look at your protagonist.
Your protagonist’s goals drive the story forwards. Whenever something happens, your hero either gets closer to their goal or gets pushed further away from it. They might be doing things wrong or they might be doing things right, but in any case, they’re doing something. They make decisions. They change their minds and evaluate things. It all happens through them.
Your characters also bring meaning to whatever happens. If there’s a noise in the forest and no one hears it, it doesn’t have any meaning. But when someone hears the noise and gets frightened by it, or when someone else finds it comforting, that brings meaning to what happens. No events in your story actually mean anything without characters experiencing and interpreting them.
“I’ve got plot but no characters, what do I do??”
I’ve been asked this a couple of times on Pinterest and honestly I don’t know what to say to that. I’m usually GREAT at solving plotting problems, but I just don’t understand HOW you can have a plot without characters. I should probably talk to one of these people.
Let’s assume that plot is just “stuff that happens”. Okay, who makes all of it happen? Why? Fine, maybe it’s a natural disaster with no person behind it – who does it all happen to?
Like I said earlier, events mean nothing without characters. What is a war without people? A robbery without victims? A love triangle between nobody? How could you possibly have a plot without characters?
So if you’re one of those rare people with plot but no characters, I’m not sure how to help you, but mull over those questions and this post in general to see if you might find you answers.
Your character’s strengths and flaws are what make the story what it is
How do characters affect the plot of a story? In every possible way.
Every story needs the right protagonist. Specific events and themes require specific characters. Because your plot happens through your protagonist, they inevitably have an effect on what ends up happening – their strengths and weaknesses have an effect on everything. A cowardly person will make different choices than a foolhardy person and they will have different lessons to learn. (More about lessons soon.)
You know how every story should have some kind of a big problem? The severity of a problem entirely depends on your character. I recently read I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella and it had an excellent example of an ongoing problem that is essentially ruining the protagonist’s life that is very specific to the character. Fixie Farr struggles with voicing her opinions and standing up to her domineering siblings, which is not something that I personally would struggle with, so I wouldn’t be a suitable protagonist for that specific story if I was a fictional character. (And who’s to say I’m not fictional – I’m definitely magical and otherworldly.)
Would that problem work in a different story? Would being a people pleaser be the most important thing to overcome in an apocalyptic novel? Maybe, or maybe not. Do you see how these things are connected, too?
Wthout a specific character’s specific flaws and ongoing problems, the big problem (i.e. the primary conflict) of a story wouldn’t be such a big problem. Without their flaws, your protagonist wouldn’t continually keep messing things up and making things worse.
Again, think about stories you love and their heroes. If you put yourself in place of the protagonist, what would change? Or how would your two favourite novels or films change if you switched their protagonists?
Story structure explains perfectly how plot and character are connected
I know I keep going on about story structure, but I’m not going to keep any secrets when it comes to writing great stories.
If you need more help with figuring out the big problem in your story, you might find these story structure questions useful or you could read my simple explanation of story structure.
For example, since we just talked about character flaws, the “dark night of the soul” portion of your plot is directly at least partially the result of your protagonist’s flaws. They’ve tried their best but they have inadvertently dug themselves an even deeper hole, and now they must lie in it.
Your story is about what your character learns
Not to be all “maybe the real plot was the lessons we learned along the way”, but your story actually is about what your protagonist learns.
Your protagonist will be doing things the wrong way. They’re going to make mistakes. If you’re not sure how to end a story, you should know it ends when your protagonist has become proactive instead of reactive and they finally learn their lesson after hundreds of pages of trying to solve their problems the wrong way. Learning the lesson ends the story because the lesson is what the story is about.
The lesson doesn’t have to be something deep and philosophical. It could be “you are worth of being loved” but it could also be “credit card debt isn’t the end of the world”. Take a look at your favourite books, movies and TV show episodes and try to find the lessons in each one of them.
Looking for an easy way to plot your story?
Learning about writing is one thing but it’s completely different to actually put all you’ve learned into action. I don’t want you to put off writing your story any longer, which is why I made the novel-writing template that helps you plot your story easily on Google Docs.
Using story structure and everything you just learned about plot and character, the template makes it easy to plan all the necessary events of an engaging story no matter what genre you write in.
Protagonist Crafts is a blog about writing fiction, written by a published author and creative writing teacher. You can find more writing tips and inspiration in the blog and you can get the best author tools at Writer Lifestyle on Etsy.
