Which Idea Comes First: Plot or Character?

[A_J_Amanda_Jane]

This is something that I go round in circles with a little bit.

When I come up with new story ideas, sometimes it starts with a plot, which I then have to fill with characters. Other times, I create a character, for whom I have to dream up a plot.

So for example today, I briefly met the most delightful BBW young lady who, in my mind, is just begging to be the central character of a longer story; I just can't fit her into any of my existing ideas, though.

Similarly, I've had one major plot swimming around my head for ages and I'm damned if I can settle on a central character that I'm happy with.

So which comes first for you?

AJ xx

 

[RejectReality]

It can be either.

My Magic of the Wood series as Les always starts with the characters. I have the next generation of kids already named in a spreadsheet, along with their DOB. ( in case it would be logical for them to appear in a scene as kids before they get a starring role ) That's the beginning of those stories. Have brothers? Only child? Twins? Middle child? All of that is the genesis I work from, and build a story around them.

One I'm working on now for a contest elsewhere started with nothing more than a time period - Ancient Egypt. Next was the general plot of attaining a burial above the norm for their class. Then it was to set it during the reign of Ramesses the Great. Now I'm finally beginning to work on who the characters are.

In this pen name, half of my stories start with nothing more than a quirky title to build from. Everything else emerges from that.

 

[SamScribble]

I occasionally start with a plot, but more often than not I start with a character: someone doing something.

 

[TxRad]

It can go either way but most of the time a picture or someone I see rings the bell. A few weeks ago i was cleaning up on my desk and found an old photo CD that i had made years ago. On it was a "Stories Pic" folder. Just pictures with possible story titles on each one.

As of now, i have five finished stories, 13 under construction, and 85 pictures that are still stewing. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I have news for them, the shortest finished story is 1200 words and the longest is over 30k.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Character and plot are machts nichts to me. Irrelevant. I go after the recipe for how experience is depicted. Then I contemplate the actors and the story, and shoot for congruence.

I believe Raymond Carver used the same process, as his stories revolve around a focal process where his actors and their story precipitate from the central action.

Its like mixing sulfuric acid and sugar, and observing all the reactions to it.

 

[visioneer]

The "magic" works differently for every writer. My stories usually originate when either a short vignette or a full scene (similar to a short film) pops into my head. The characters are more or less complete in their emotional skins.

For your BBW character without a context, write a fictitious interview and get to know her. Or apply the Raymond Chandler tactic and throw her into an outrageous situation and see what happens.

 

[DreamCloud]

The "magic" works differently for every writer. My stories usually originate when either a short vignette or a full scene (similar to a short film) pops into my head. The characters are more or less complete in their emotional skins.

I am the same way. It is a scene or situation that I wrap a story around. I have no idea how to start or finish, I just know I need to get to that situation in my head. It allows for some pretty wild swings in the story that pre-planning would screw up.

Strange that I am currently violating my normal style guidelines and writing something completely unoriginal with a fully stolen plot line that everyone already knows. Granted, I twist it pretty hard.

 

[FantasyXY]

I used to write character first, but found those stories to be pretty weak. Now I nearly always let the plot lead the way and create the character of the characters as I go... but that's just me.

Note that I did say I nearly always develop the plot first. One thing I have found in my own writing is that when I develop the character first, the story tends to be much shorter than when I develop the plot first. Recently I have been working on some longer stories with plots, sub plots and more that just a couple of characters. This is probably the main driver in my switch from character first to plot first.

That being said, I do have to have some sort of idea of what type of characters will be in the story to develop a decent plot. I definitely don't want to set up a character as shy and introverted then plug that character into a story line that demands the actions of a reckless extrovert.

 

[49greg]

At least half of mine started with a situation and I built the story into it. The characters were derived from the situation, and how I imagined someone would handle it. Then the plot came about as I developed the story to make the situation happen, and how things would be afterwords.

 

[TxRad]

I used to write character first, but found those stories to be pretty weak. Now I nearly always let the plot lead the way and create the character of the characters as I go... but that's just me.

Note that I did say I nearly always develop the plot first. One thing I have found in my own writing is that when I develop the character first, the story tends to be much shorter than when I develop the plot first. Recently I have been working on some longer stories with plots, sub plots and more that just a couple of characters. This is probably the main driver in my switch from character first to plot first.

That being said, I do have to have some sort of idea of what type of characters will be in the story to develop a decent plot. I definitely don't want to set up a character as shy and introverted then plug that character into a story line that demands the actions of a reckless extrovert.

Sometimes dropping the wrong character into the wrong plot can be the plot.

Squirm baby squirm.

 

[Hypoxia]

Sometimes I start with the ending and let the players and plot grow to reach it. Sometimes I start with characters I know and let them work out their own stories. (Sometimes that works.) Sometimes I start with a plot idea and plug-in the players and places. What works best is to already know the general story, taken from accounts (my own life, or folks I know, or whatever I can steal) and merely flesh-out the details. My journal-type pieces are like that. And sometimes a brain fart just explodes.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The story or plot is filled with characters...characters are not filled with plots. The story dictates the characters, what they do, how they do it, how they act. The hard part, sometimes, is coming up with names for them. Then again, sometimes, it's the name that dictates the plot line or one of them.

I know the story line/plot, it's in my head, playing like a movie almost all the time. The characters are there too, doing what character do, act. All I have to do is write it all down. There are, however, times the projectionist takes a break.

 

[Carnevil9]

Plot. Always plot. And by plot, I mean a problem and its ultimate resolution (for good or for bad). The characters are created and selected to advance the plot.

To me, starting with the characters leaves you with just a character study. And I'm not even much interested in real people, let alone fictional people, if they aren't involved in a fascinating story.

 

[Hypoxia]

Plot. Always plot. And by plot, I mean a problem and its ultimate resolution (for good or for bad). The characters are created and selected to advance the plot.

Sometimes, yes. But since only a limited sets of individual plots are available (according to some authorities) we may take a warhorse outline (x & y meet, squabble, fuck, separate, yearn, reunite, HEA) and make it a character study filled with incidents. I just read an old Ring Lardner story, ALIBI IKE, about a ballplayer who makes excuses for everything. The plot is paper-thin -- Ike wins a girl, loses her, then has a chance of redemption -- the characters and language make the story a classic of its time.

Or take my story Gift Box, another paper-thin plot suggested by Ender27. A girl gets herself into a predicament and there's no resolution. That's a story? No; it's who she is and how she got there that are the story. It's about the same in Substitute Pussy -- a woman faces a predicament, again with no resolution. And of course we have many enjoyable on-the-road tales that on LIT are essentially sexual travelogues. (Sort of like Ian Fleming's first draft of THUNDERBALL.)

Yes, many made-up stories require careful construction, such as mine where I knew the ending and had to craft the people, places and actions that achieved it. But that's not the only kind of good read IMHO.

 

[CyranoJ]

So which comes first for you?

AJ xx

I generally start with a plot idea (or a series of plot ideas), but the characters who come into the idea will typically tend to wind up significantly affecting where the plot ultimately goes. So it's kind of a tandem evolution.

 

[TxRad]

Sometimes it's just great fun to toss a character or characters out there and see where they go. Sometimes it's like herding cats in which case... killem all.

 

[MatthewVett]

Usually for me, first comes a particular scene I'm interested in, then I think up a storyline that can contain that scene, and then I populate it with characters.

 

[GriffyD_Boy]

It depends on the original inspiration for the story. For me, most of the time at least, the plot comes first. This isn't always the case and there have been plenty of times where my first thought that leads to something is, "I wonder what I can do with a character like this?"

 

[SamScribble]

To me, starting with the characters leaves you with just a character study. And I'm not even much interested in real people, let alone fictional people, if they aren't involved in a fascinating story.

The question was: Where do you start? Plot? Or character?

Starting with a character doesn't necessarily mean that you end up with just a character study. A convincing character in a convincing situation can often lead to an engaging plot.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Starting with a character doesn't necessarily mean that you end up with just a character study. A convincing character in a convincing situation can often lead to an engaging plot.

Any interesting character will by fiat generate his or her own plot. Interesting people either change things or are changed by things, and that's almost always a story.

 

[MSTarot]

I start with a "Conflict" and a basic working title.


Plot and character generally need to be in balance. but at the beginning you don't really know the character you are writing.

You can do tons of character outlines and think of how you want them to be. but then you get to writing and they will start to take on traits and a life of their own. Siphoning from your subconscious memory, bits and pieces of people, that you have meet through your life. So then you have to adjust your plot to match them.

But a good conflict now that stays the same.

In the end it's what ever works for you best.

 

[SikFuk]

Since most of my stories are in the 2 or 3-page range, and are based on a damaged or dysfunctional character, I get the whole shebang at once - the character, the conflict, and the motivation for the character's actions.