: Re: How To Develop A Character For A Character-Driven Story? What is essential for a character-driven story - except, obviously, appearance?

@Shanna875

Vote Up Vote Down

By definition, character-driven fiction is that where the plot takes a back seat to the characters.

What's essential? Everything that's in a plot-driven story, really, just in a different balance. There is usually a plot, but its purpose is to keep the readers engaged while the author digs into the characters. A teacher of mine said plot is the shiny keys that the author jingles as a distraction while he picks the reader's pocket. That is, plot is there to just keep the characters moving around while the author tells the stories of the characters.

I suspect that any story - even sci-fi, romance, crime - could be a character-driven story with that shift in balance. Tone down the plot, tone up the character. Dig into their minds and emotions. Make the finale more about an internal change than in an external achievement (even if you include a final achievement).

The best advice I have is the same advice I'd give almost everyone here at writers.stackexchange: go read a lot of books that are like what you want to write. Go read character-driven fiction. It's sometimes called literary fiction. It's Raymond Carver, John Updike, Lorrie Moore, Larry McMurtry, and gazillions of others.

(0)

Login to post a comment!