On Character

“I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.” -Stephen King, book On Writing

“The first step to consider is who your characters are going to be. For many people setting out to write for the first time, this might feel counterintuitive. After all, the plot or narrative is what many people talk about when they want to indicate that a book is compelling. Yet we care about a story only when it affects characters that touch us deeply in some way. Readers might have only a vague sense of some of the events that happen in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1861) but, once read, figures such as Pip, Miss Havisham and Magwitch are rarely forgotten. Likewise, when we follow Lyra through Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (1995-2000), Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), or Holly Golightly in Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958), we are drawn into the storytelling because these are people we care about.

The British novelist Ross Raisin describes characters as ‘the lifeblood of fiction’, and observes that because they are the story, they need to be as unique as the work of fiction they inhabit. We want to believe in such people, no matter how fantastical they appear. To make them compelling, you will need to work out what your main character desires – what they want, how are they frustrated (because without this there is no drama) and how they will change to get what they need, which is not always the same as what they want.” -Jason Whitaker, Psyche Essay, “How To Plan Your Novel”

Start with theme or plot and you run the risk of writing flat, one dimensional characters.  Even worse, boring your reader. That’s why so many scripts feel like MFA thesis papers.

Start with character (fully-formed, know them inside and out). Give them something they’re fighting for. Put them in a room. Let ’em go.

Do that and you’ll at least get something interesting and propulsive.

And you’re likely to get theme and plot thrown in for free.