McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Who Rules: Story or Character?

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Wordmaker:
I very much believe in taking responsibility for what I write. The story and characters are what I want them to be. I make changes because I realise one choice will work better, or a different action makes more sense based on what I've established so far, but that's all me. If I want to change something, or have the plot go a certain way, I'll make that happen, and change what I need in order to make it work.

superpsycho:

--- Quote from: Wordmaker on April 14, 2014, 12:20:21 PM ---I very much believe in taking responsibility for what I write. The story and characters are what I want them to be. I make changes because I realise one choice will work better, or a different action makes more sense based on what I've established so far, but that's all me. If I want to change something, or have the plot go a certain way, I'll make that happen, and change what I need in order to make it work.

--- End quote ---
The key line: "change what I need in order to make it work." Often we have the beginning, ending and then a series of scenes that get us from one to the other. It may be something that's formally outlined or just in our head. In the beginning, we have the basics of our central characters roughed out, then as we move through the story they develop based on events.

If we have a character where it was convenient they be afraid of heights for a scene or two, we can't very well have them on the edge of a building in scene seven without some overwhelming reason. And even if we write in a good reason, their fear can't just disappear. It has to be dealt with and agonized over, which means their actions aren't going to be fast. If in the original scene they are running across building tops without a thought, then we have a problem.

To make it all work, something has to change, either rewriting the scenes so they aren't afraid of heights or rewrite the scene where they're jumping across buildings without a care in the world.

Moving from scene to scene, developing subplots and establishing motivation can cause a character to develop a personality. That's not a bad thing, it can bring a story to life. But it sometimes leads the story in a direction we originally hadn't intended, so we end up having to make things work somehow.

Quantus:
I take a very iterative stance on writing, so its a bit of both for me.  I always need at least an outline framework to start from, which includes the generic roles my characters will need to play.  But when I come back around to writing the actual scenes, the characters grow and develop in the details and quirks along with the details and quirks of the scenes themselves, and sometimes a new idea will grow out of that that will take me long a different path from what I originally intended, but still int eh direction of the milestones on the original outline. 

I will say though that setting also plays a big role in this question.  It is much easier to simply spawn some characters and see where they take you when the setting is already clearly established (either because of contemporary/historic accuracy or because you are working in a well-established fictional world).  But with new and unique settings, you have to spend time telling the story of the World as much as you are telling the story of the Characters journey in that world, and so it takes more coordination to interweave. 

Wordmaker:

--- Quote from: superpsycho on April 14, 2014, 01:20:20 PM ---To make it all work, something has to change, either rewriting the scenes so they aren't afraid of heights or rewrite the scene where they're jumping across buildings without a care in the world.

--- End quote ---

Great example. In fact, I'd say to keep the fear of heights and re-work the scene to accommodate it. Having a character forced to confront their fears in dangerous situations is awesome!

superpsycho:

--- Quote from: Wordmaker on April 14, 2014, 01:26:03 PM ---Great example. In fact, I'd say to keep the fear of heights and re-work the scene to accommodate it. Having a character forced to confront their fears in dangerous situations is awesome!

--- End quote ---
What makes a good story is the conflict, not just with a villain, but with our own human nature. Fear of heights, dealing with crowds, being shot at, being shot, anything and everything depending on the character. If we plan a story out so far and with so much detail that there are no surprises, we can miss the accidental conflicts that can occur between a character and the story as we write it.

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