Lesson 9: Character Defines Plot, or Vice Versa

Lesson 9: Plot is Character


A few weeks ago we started off with F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote said, "Character is plot. Plot is character." Let's return to that this week and discuss how plots evolve.

Last week's assignment and materials had to do with the nuts and bolts of plot creation - answering the why, where, and how questions. In the exercise we explored the mechanics of a plot's creation. It may have triggered questions in anyone participating; specifically, questions such as, "Where do I start?" or "Where do I go with the plot?"

There are several solutions to this problem, but due to space and time constraints we'll spend this week exploring two polar opposites: plot shaping the characters, and character shaping the plot. As always with writing, there are many other answers to explore, and you're encouraged to do a bit of research on the topic.

We'll discuss the basics of each, some examples from popular stories, the up and down sides of both, and a short discussion of how these plots are built.

Plot Shapes The Character

In this view of plot construction, the characters are acted on by external forces far beyond their immediate control. There are key points at which the main characters' choices are essential to the direction of the action, but 90% of the time, the "good guys" are reacting to the gigantic and relatively disembodied forces of evil.

A prime example of this approach is George Lucas. In Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Willow, and many other films, his scripts are about slightly extraordinary people being caught up in a whirlwind of events that leads them all over the world, or the galaxy. In literature, nearly every fantasy novel written since Tolkien follows this plot creation technique, along with le Carré's spy novels, Clancy's thrillers, most adventure stories — in short, any story in which action and grand sweep is key to the story's effect.

The strength of the technique is that, when the reader has completed the story, she or he knows a great deal about the world in which this takes place, has been through harrowing escapes and thrilling victories, and has seen into the heart of the darkness just as well as any of your characters have. At its best, your reader walks away from this type of plot almost overwhelmed with how grand and powerful it's been to experience it.

However, that is also the down side. It's very, very easy for this type of plot to turn the writing into an extended travelogue (e.g. Eragon) Though some readers eat this up, many don't. Character is endangered when the place and grand clash of cultures and history become the focus. And if your characters aren't strongly defined (without being stereotypes), your reader can't suspend his or her disbelief, and never quite experiences the world and events as you had hoped.

A character-shaping plot is created by first defining the setting to a tremendous degree. Define cultures, define the large sweeps of history up to where the story starts (and sometimes all the way through the story to hundreds of years afterwards), define the political climate the story exists in, the armies and operatives in each culture, define the landscape even to the point of understanding the plate techtonics that shaped the mountain ranges and the major river watersheds. Finally, define cultural conflicts.

Then, once that is done, decide what part of this huge sweep of history sounds interesting. Pick one of the cultural/military conflicts as a centre, starting, or ending point, and build a plot as we discussed last week. Because you will have defined so much of the culture, history, etc of the setting, the plot will naturally centre around these elements. The plot will be experienced by your characters, and your characters will be transformed by the experience.

Character Shapes The Plot

In this view of plot construction, the characters determine the plot. There is almost nothing pushed on the characters from the unknown - every turn and twist is generated by a character your reader knows something about. There is little room for large world events, such as wars and governmental overthrows, etc. 90% of the story is about how the characters interact and how they define their experiences and the experiences of those around them.

Examples of this type of plot creation are Conan Doyle's myteries, the ever-present Jane Austen and so many other Victorian authors, and nearly every writer outside of the fantasy/adventure/thriller genres at present. People are caught up in events created by characters who are at least known of from beginning to end of the story, with rare exceptions of a character suddenly appearing out of nowhere at the end, whose presence has been felt throughout the story.

The strength of this technique is that the reader feels absolutely assured that there is an explanation for everything in the story, that he or she will find out what it is eventually, and that these explanations are fascinating because they're based on deeply defined characters. The events of the story serve as a springboard to spotlight the characters and how they react to the actions of others.

Of course, that is the weakness too: if even one of these characters is a cardboard cutout, the entire story falls flat on its face. Every character mentioned must be a fully rounded, perfectly defined individual. Also, some readers deeply dislike character-based stories because, at the end when the characters have changed tremendously, even to the point of being transformed, it appears to the event-based reader that nothing has in fact happened - the chick-flick effect, for lack of a better term.

A character-shaped plot begins with a definition of at least two characters. We've done this so I suppose I have pre-disposed you to writing this type of story for the exercises. However, for a larger story, define the characters and decide what time period they will live in. If you are creating a world for them, don't create the world first: characters come first, then the world wraps around them. Once the setting is loosely defined, ideas for other characters will come: characters needed to liven the story, or provide counter-balance to a main character.

Once you've defined some of the key characters, examine their characteristics and write a list of possible conflicts that the characters could have with each other. Now pick one as the centre point of your story, and pick as many as you like as tertiary conflicts. At times one or two of your listed conflicts will be clear favourites, but at other times it's a matter of painfully dropping them off one by one until you're left with the one that resonates most for you.

Use this as the centre, end, or start of your plot and start creating. Again, because you've done so much defining of the characters and so little definition of their world, the inter-relationships, struggles, and meetings of these characters will drive your plot far more than the place and time they live in.

Exercise 9: Due before you sleep on Tuesday, 1 July

Length: Two-four pages

1. Use the Character-shaping plot technique to create a plot about a mountain valley caught up in a World War. You don't need to define plate techtonics or watersheds ~:) but do define the culture that lives in the valley and the culture(s) (at least one other) that live(s) outside the valley. Answer questions like: what do they eat? is the society technology/machine based or rural? are they warlike? pacifist? are they artistic or practical-minded people? how did they arrive where they are? You don't need to answer any of these example questions - these are simply ways to go at the problem.

Now, compare the cultures you've created and find conflicts they might have. If the group in the valley invaded it 300 years ago, is there lingering resentment in their neighbours? etc.

Finally, pick a conflict and, in a prose description about a page long (longer is fine if needed), describe the plot that might arise form this conflict. If you've picked it as the end point of your story, how did they arrive at that point? If you've picked it as the start, where will this take the cultures involved?

Note that you haven't created a single character to define this plot. They will be added in where they "need" to be as you define them.

2. Use the Character-shaped plot technique to create a plot about three friends who have just finished their schooling (any schooling, any age). Again, you don't need to go tremendously deep with these characters since this is an exercise, but do define their personalities thoroughly. Now examine these characters and see what conflicts they may have amongst themselves. Do two want the third one to stay around, while the third wants to get married to someone outside this circle of friends? etc.

Based on their personalities, how do they resolve this conflict, or do they? If they do, describe it in prose (again, about a page or longer). This last is assuming you picked that conflict as the beginning of your story. If you picked it as the middle of your story, describe how this conflict arose, and how it's resolved.

Note that you can completely skip setting with this technique, and add it later when the plot's been defined more closely.