What Hits You First - Plot or Character?

[EmmatheRunner]

How does your inspiration process work?

As I flail around in search of a spark for a new story, I find myself in the very common situation of having probably dozens of characters swirling around in my head, ready to be flung headfirst into a decent story, yet I am bereft of plot ideas.

I typically just stick them in a pub or coffee shop, have them chat and then write the same plot 30 times. Then I come on here and read a few stories and/or the Story Ideas forum and think to myself, how do people come up with this stuff? The ideas are great (I mean sometimes awful, yes, but often great) and it baffles me.

So what is your process, and if its plot first, where do they come from?

 

[NotWise]

I usually come up with a story first, then create characters for it. The characters dominate my time and the plots remains relatively basic, but the plot has to be there first.

 

[ronde]

How does your inspiration process work?

As I flail around in search of a spark for a new story, I find myself in the very common situation of having probably dozens of characters swirling around in my head, ready to be flung headfirst into a decent story, yet I am bereft of plot ideas.

I typically just stick them in a pub or coffee shop, have them chat and then write the same plot 30 times. Then I come on here and read a few stories and/or the Story Ideas forum and think to myself, how do people come up with this stuff? The ideas are great (I mean sometimes awful, yes, but often great) and it baffles me.

So what is your process, and if its plot first, where do they come from?

The plot always comes first because without a plot there is no reason for the characters to exist. My plots are born from something I've seen or read. I'm a history buff so many come from what has happened in the past. Sometimes, my plot is some current or past situation projected into the future. Sometimes the plot is a result of seeing or reading about a question that has yet to be answered, like what will be the effect on society of some law or technology.

Some of my plots have been inspired by a person I know or have known and are me writing that person into a situation and then figuring out how they would react.

Once I have a plot, I write characters that will generate the story with their personalities.

 

[TheLobster]

My answer to the question of plot vs. characters would actually be both and neither.

What usually happens is that I stumble upon a concept (I like to call it a premise), which is an overarching idea that you could distill into an elevator pitch. Then, I work out what kind of plot could spring from it, and what type of characters would be the best ones to realize the premise and make the plot happen.

The upside of this approach, I found, is that it leads to satisfying, self-contained storylines; the downside of this approach is that it leads to self-contained storylines rather than a slate of characters that you could continue the plot with when the readers start asking you for more

 

[THBGato]

Most often the plot or, perhaps more accurately, the premise comes first.

For example, my story On a wing and a prayer started with the premise of two women who invent working, wearable wings. So, thus, they had to be engineers or scientists of some description. Then I started working on the plot: why would these women invent these wings and what would they do with them?

Or in Eve & Lucy, the premise was a performance of an Arthur Miller play that would involve public nudity. So that pushed me to create rival actresses. Then I had to work out the plot to get them together.

Sometimes characters do come first. Desire & Duende developed because I wanted to write about a flamenco dancer and expand an enby character from an earlier story. Then I had to come up with a plot for them.

Edit: @TheLobster beat me to it on this:

What usually happens is that I stumble upon a concept (I like to call it a premise)

 

[SimonDoom]

I start with a kinky (to me) concept, turn it into a plot, and build characters around the plot.

 

[BustyMiranda]

I like working on the kinks first, then the plot/concept, then the characters.

 

[iwatchus]

Sometimes I have a character (often inspired by someone I see in a restaurant or on the street) and then create a scenario for them. What would happen if the guy sitting at the next table asks the waitress out ...

Other times, it is completely the opposite. My most recent story about strangers being locked in a vault started with that concept than I had to create characters that would be interesting in there. My WIP is that also, I thought through several versions of both my MC before I found a pair I liked for the story.

I have a handful of interesting characters floating around in my head that I could pull into a story if one fits. We call plot ideas plot bunnies. Is there a corresponding name for characters floating in our head that are in need of a story?

 

[NotWise]

Most of us on the thread put plot first. There are other people who have a menagerie of characters that they mix and match to develop different stories. That usually requires a story series or at least a consistent world for a setting.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

So what is your process, and if its plot first, where do they come from?

Generally it's plot first, and ... I've read thousands of stories. I'm analytical thinker, so my brain disassembles them into components. When I'm thinking about something else, the back of my mind is reorganizing the pieces into new (sort of) stories.

Generally, I'll end up with a bunch of plot elements floating around, say:

• Our fictional version of Reddit, which is interuniversal and lets characters from different fictional universes chat.
• Two teens who get into a prank war that culminates in a disaster when their pranks cross.
• A Scooby-Doo reference. (I love Easter eggs.)
• A basically good 18-year-old who has gotten into a weird subculture that we real humans would question the morality of. Then his family is threatened by his distasteful acquaintances.
• A car chase.

That all turned into "Pranked". In this case, I had one of the characters immediately, because he appeared in "Coffee With Blushes". The rest grew out of the writing process.

--Annie

 

[Lifestyle66]

I think it's sometimes a combination of both plot and characters.

I have in mind a character with these attributes, now how would those play out with other characters to evolve a complete story.

Or I have a general story which would best wrap around a character with these attributes.

It's "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" I just think they sometimes grow together.

I'm currently struggling to gain momentum with a story idea. I know the general type of MC and scenario I want to build. Now the questions are how best to complete the character in the context which best completes a story with beginning-middle-and-end. What's the point I'm trying to make with both the character and plot?

 

[Areala-chan]

Most of my stories begin as plot/premise/"What if...?" thoughts, then the characters develop from those guidelines. Fanfic, on the other hand, usually works in the opposite direction, where the premise begins with a "What if...?" involving a particular character and I use them to guide my path through the story.

 

[FrancesScott]

My ideas come from all over.

The central concept of a person visiting parents, seeing a younger woman serving ice cream at one of his childhood haunts, and vaguely recognising her, was 100% based on reality (save for the gender of the protagonist). This led to my much lambasted story Ice Cream. The entire plot after that first encounter was made up.

So I first decided it wasn’t going to be a lesbian story. Then I thought about what circumstances had led my MMC to be back home. A flying visit, or had he retreated there for some reason? That led me to a recent divorce.

Then I wanted to get the MMC together with the woman somehow, it’s a story not a stroker, so something quasi-believable. So I think why might a younger woman be attracted to a somewhat older guy, particularly one suffering from a marriage breakdown? But they know each other slightly, so maybe the woman knows about something in the MMC’s past, some older event / trauma. And maybe something about what he did / didn’t do stuck in her memory, made an impression on her.

And then I was off. I won’t spoil the actual plot.

Deciding to base most character names on people in The Great Gatsby, and trying to write in a style that was a pastiche of a 1920s literary novel, that was just authorial whim. And the fact that I’m experimenting with different scenarios / approaches to writing here.

 

[HordHolm]

Sometimes one, sometimes the other, mostly a little of both at the same time which then develops.

 

[Djmac1031]

What usually happens is that I stumble upon a concept (I like to call it a premise), which is an overarching idea that you could distill into an elevator pitch. Then, I work out what kind of plot could spring from it, and what type of characters would be the best ones to realize the premise and make the plot happen.

This is pretty much exactly me. I first get the concept, the idea. Not a full fledged story, just, as you said, the pitch:

"What if a guy sold his soul to the Devil then had to seduce a nun to win it back?"

From there, I have to develop the characters; what kind of guy would make that deal? Why this particular nun?

Once they're fleshed out enough to start, the plot unfolds as I get the characters in place and things start happening.

Sometimes I have an Endgame in mind, other times I'm not even sure how it ends til it gets there.

 

[EmmatheRunner]

This is fascinating to me because it seems that I come at things from the opposite direction to most people (which is rather apposite in my case...)

So instead of a plot first and then a character, I have my characters and then I have almost an audition process whenever I get a plot or concept.

So I've been thinking about a lesbian trad wife story. I go round my mental room of characters I currently want to write about and see if any of them might fit into it.

In my case I think it's because for some reason my mind finds it really easy to create characters and yet not plots. I can catch a glimpse of someone at a bus stop and in five minutes have their entire biography in my head, but can I think of a single plot angle for them? Nope.

 

[TheLobster]

I can catch a glimpse of someone at a bus stop and in five minutes have their entire biography in my head, but can I think of a single plot angle for them? Nope

That is fascinating indeed, but makes me wonder. If you can easily concoct entire character’s biography, then couldn’t you just pick a probable story from their past and expand that into an interesting narrative, i.e., plot for your next story?

Like, if you see this very graceful middle-aged woman and you imagine she might’ve been a figure skater in the past, why not write about the ice-meltingly hot shenanigans she got into on the skating rink? Seems to me like an obvious approach if you want to leverage the idiosyncrasies how your mind works.

 

[EmmatheRunner]

That is fascinating indeed, but makes me wonder. If you can easily concoct entire character’s biography, then couldn’t you just pick a probable story from their past and expand that into an interesting narrative, i.e., plot for your next story?

Like, if you see this very graceful middle-aged woman and you imagine she might’ve been a figure skater in the past, why not write about the ice-meltingly hot shenanigans she got into on the skating rink? Seems to me like an obvious approach if you want to leverage the idiosyncrasies how your mind works.

This is indeed how things tend to work for me, and it does work to create scenes, but it interests me that this is the opposite of most people.

So for example I just walked past someone- in my head she is a mid-level marketing exec with a bitch boss who spends her lunchtimes walking barefoot in the park seeking inspiration. Back to my in-head list of characters-in-waiting. Okay, Stella is a botanist, maybe she's working in the park....and there we go.

But I would never randomly come up with "Botanist seduces straight woman in park" without the characters first.

 

[Britva415]

For me, the plot determines who the characters are going to be.

It doesn't work the other way around for me - imagining a character, no matter how vividly, doesn't give any inspiration for plots they should be in.

I would never randomly come up with "Botanist seduces straight woman in park" without the characters first.

Well, you already have "botanist" and "straight woman"

 

[THBGato]

But I would never randomly come up with "Botanist seduces straight woman in park" without the characters first.

I want to read this. Please write it. X

 

[Britva415]

I want to read this. Please write it. X

I have a story somewhat along these lines

 

[THBGato]

I have a story somewhat along these lines

Link please! I had a look at your profile, but couldn't see any lesbian stories.

 

[NuclearFairy]

For me, it usually starts with a scene, and then from the scene the characters and the plot grows until I have something bouncing around in my head too loudly for me not to write it down.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I usually think of a story concept and begin a search (in my head) for a character to live the adventure.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Always a character first with me, either someone I know or someone I've seen in the street, on the bus, on the train. Other than my take on the Arthurian myth, I don't think I have a story where I've had a plot first.

My latest, for example, came from the simple premise, what would happen if Bobbie met Adam (both existing characters with a number of their own stories)? So I put them on an airplane flying somewhere to find out.

A third character arrived like this:

She stopped at the boarding gate at the end of a queue, ready to scan her ticket. Her tall man was up ahead, half a dozen people in between them. The young woman at the gate suddenly smiled and looked spontaneously sexy. He must have said something to charm her. The queue moved forward, and Bobbie turned her fingers through her hair.

"Thank you ma'am," the woman said. "Down the ramp and go left, for business and first class." She looked at Bobbie, and wore too much makeup, but was attractive in that business-like way that aircraft crew have. Ma'am? Don't be ridiculous. You only said that coz you're programmed. Maybe the business class ticket gave Bobbie away, showing she was older than she looked.

"Thank you," she replied, and her mind suddenly flashed on the woman half naked, her body sprawled on a bed. She blushed, and the other woman saw it, because her eyes opened wider and the corners of her mouth moved up in a tiny, appreciative smile. Bobbie heard the drawl of Emma's voice in her head: if you think it, it shows on your face, you can't hide it. You're signalling, Bobbie, and she saw it.

The rest of the story was finding out what happened, first between Bobbie and Adam, then with the new character, Lisa. With Bobbie's relationship with Emma as an undercurrent.