Young Writers Society

This is a question I've had for a while now. Actually it's more just my curiosity getting the best of me. But do you guys write characters for a story or a story for characters?

A little bit of both. Sometimes an idea shows up first, and I have to put people into the world. Other times, someone will just sort of wander into my head and I'll go "Hello, who are you?" and the story comes from there. But my favorite is when I get a full scene from something that just shows up, and then I have to figure out who these people are and why they were having that conversation.

I'm a firm believer in the story coming from your characters. It's characters that make a plot--any plot, no matter how cliched--come alive. Without strong, believable characters, your plot is just a bunch of random people doing a bunch of random things, and I'll have no reason to care about them.

It is possible to focus too much on characters to the detriment of plot, but I don't find that nearly as common (at least among young writers, and genre writers) as focusing too much on the plot at the expense of the characters. It especially aggravates me when science fiction and fantasy writers delve into the minutiae of their worldbuilding, fearful of having one single tiny inconsistency in their world's history/topography/whatever, but completely neglect coming up with strong characters.

What's worse is focusing too much on ideas over both plot and characters. Then you don't even have a story; you have propaganda or a philosophical discourse.

I personally always start with characters. Everything else usually builds around them. I just can't imagine starting with plot--and whenever I do try to start with plot, I usually lose interest very quickly.

I feel it's true what Bickazer says as well; it's hard to have a good story without well-rounded and firm characters. I won't feel invested into the story unless I'm long invested into the characters. I don't care what's going on unless I care about the characters.

Well, sometimes the story comes first, other times, the characters. As for the story I'm wiriting right now, the character came first and then everything built up around her.
)I try to give the character taits, habits, everything a normal person needs and when I'm done with it, the story comes up by itself.

The characters are always first. Sometimes they sit in some dark corner of my mind for years, just waiting for a story. Eventually I'll get an idea that fits a particular character, and then I build the plot around the character.

It depends on what influences what. A character with charisma can influence the plot, if I was writing a story about Abraham Lincoln, I would be writing a story for him. But if the events are what's important, then the story would always influence the characters. If I was writing a war story, the events of the war (however they might appear in the backdrop) would be what shapes my characters as opposed to the other way around.

In this cursory analysis, it seems to me that better stories and stronger characters would be the natural result of a story-first mentality. If the plot is the primary force acting upon the writing, then the characters would have to be dynamic ones. The other way around would involve strong static characters who never grow and are therefore not as interesting at the end.

Now, I'm a firm believer that it's the characters make the story, and so it seems counter-intuitive that thinking of a plot first would bolster the character depth, but I find that to be true in a lot of good literature. Consider John Steinbeck's East of Eden a book which I consider to have the best cast of characters I've ever read about. East of Eden essentially tells the story of Steinbeck's family (edited for more drama, of course) and so with the plot already in hand, Steinbeck was free to allow his characters to explore the story by themselves. The result is stunning.

In the end, of course, there's a bit more give-and-take then I'm allowing for here, but from a literary perspective, good characters are made, and great characters are grown.

The choice is really a matter of personal preference. In my experience I will start with a plot for a story and then create my characters. Then I just let the story guide me. The choice comes when I run into instances where my characters conflict with where the story. Most people would rather see where their characters will take them in the story rather then make their characters go against themselves.

smorgishborg wrote:Now, I'm a firm believer that it's the characters make the story, and so it seems counter-intuitive that thinking of a plot first would bolster the character depth, but I find that to be true in a lot of good literature. Consider John Steinbeck's East of Eden a book which I consider to have the best cast of characters I've ever read about. East of Eden essentially tells the story of Steinbeck's family (edited for more drama, of course) and so with the plot already in hand, Steinbeck was free to allow his characters to explore the story by themselves. The result is stunning.
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Yes, it is! I absolutely love this book, and I love the character of Cathy! She is the perfect example of characterization through action, and she is so complex.

I find it easier to discover characters than I do plot. Sometimes a basic framework for a plot unfolds, but that framework can't be filled in until I have characters to steer it. A lot of the action is dictated by what the character would and wouldn't do, and even then, if a character must do something, it becomes about delving into why they would do such a thing... It's all a lovely circle!

I tend to do a bit of both but my stories tend to be more character orientated. So the characters normally come first with their own stories attached. It can be rather difficult sometimes though, especially when there is so much to one character it cannot fit into the story. . . perhaps I shouldn't give them such a mind of their own xD

Characters.
Its the people who make a plot, right? Barring out storms and other acts of nature (which, if you have gods in your story, are controlled by characters) a story is your characters interacting.
Science fiction, history and fantasy are your character acting in a certain setting.
And things like history, culture, and rules of the time are also conditions; part of the world that characters interact in.
And then the train of events in your story is usually intertwined with the character's thoughts and actions, with an occasional twist thrown in.
But that is just my opinion