You might have heard that there are two types of fiction stories, those driven by a character and those driven by a plot. I’m going to make a bold claim and say that all fiction is character-driven. If we read books only to find out what happens, we could read the synopsis instead. Sure, there are certain genres, suspense and mystery come to mind, where what happens is essential to that page-turning element of our reading experience. Essential, but not all-encompassing, because we don’t want to know only what happens but why it happens, and the answer to why lies in the characters.
‘But, but, but what about the plot?’ some might ask. ‘Doesn’t it matter, too?’
It does, especially in genre fiction, but even a plot needs characters to drive the story. If the characters are moved from one event to the next, without making them happen somehow (intentionally or not), then they’re mere chess figures. This makes the reader an observer in a game of chess. The difference is that when characters are driving the story forward, the reader isn’t watching the game unfold, she or he is playing it.
If you’ve ever dropped a once-beloved series half way through or stopped reading a book before reaching the end, chances are it had something to do with the characters. Poorly developed characters or characters whose motivations, wants and needs aren’t made clear can feel distant and un-interesting. After all, why should we invest hours of our time to read or watch something, when we can only observe and not play along?
If the reader doesn’t care about the characters, there’s little motivation to continue reading. No plot, however brilliantly constructed, can make a flat character come to life.
That said, some fiction relies on certain plot mechanisms, which is especially true for genres like action, suspense, mystery and epic. In murder mysteries, for example, the reader will expect to get all the clues, including the red herrings, so they’re given a chance to solve the mystery. Hold back any key pieces of evidence and the reader will feel cheated at the end. The mystery, too, must get solved in a satisfying way. Ending your novel with ‘find out who was the killer in book number two’ is going to enrage readers rather than make them want buy your next book.
To sum up, plot mechanisms keep the readers hooked, but it’s the characters that transport the reader into the story (or the story closer to the reader).
A good story needs both.
That’s why the term ‘plot-driven fiction’ is at least partially misleading. While it rightly implies that the plot is essential to the story, it wrongly insinuates that characters in such stories are flat or poorly developed. I suspect that’s also why the esteemed world of literature often looks down on genre fiction and adds the ‘literary’ label to specific genre novels. Perhaps they do so to make them stand out or to say that the novel doesn’t follow all the genre conventions, so the audience knows what to expect, but it also inadvertently implies that this work of fiction is better than your usual genre novel.
Nothing could be further from the truth. One only needs to pick up any of popular genre authors to prove them wrong (e.g. anything by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mariana Enriquez, N.K. Jemisin, Sarah Hilary, Mick Herron, Mark Billingham, Sarah Vaughan, Tana French or Michelle Paver).
Each story, genre or not, needs fully-fledged characters with their own motivations, histories and flaws. Their page-time might be limited and their role that of supporting cast, but to the reader, they must feel real. Readers want to feel with and for characters, they want to care, commiserate and root for them. In terms of science behind it, think of the release of oxytocin in the brain, a hormone that allows us to empathise and feel as though the story is happening to us.
Characters are portals into stories, so it’s perhaps time to stop talking about character- and plot-driven fiction and start talking about character-driven fiction with and without strong plot elements.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
