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Writing Character Driven Stories
Turning the wheel over to your characters to drive where your novel will go
When you’re writing your story, do you prefer to focus on the characters or on the plot?
Well, it’s not entirely one or the other. Plot drives the story. It gives us tension and drama and a place for our characters to exist.
But characters make us feel. They give us someone to root for (or against). They develop and interact with the plot, molding themselves as they follow the yellow brick road of story direction.
Characters have to interact with the plot, otherwise we’d just have awesome people doing normal stuff. There’d be no conflict, nothing to develop the character. That’s why we throw in plot, obstacles, and consequences to action. Those things help mold the character into who they will be at the end.
The End… the elusive finish to your book. You might have an idea, but maybe you don’t. You might have a plan but it feels like you’re forcing your characters to follow a set path to the right when they really want to go left. Maybe to get there you have to force a character to do things they wouldn’t normally do.
There comes a point where your characters might have a better grasp on their own story than you do. Here are some ways to help you write character driven stories, or better yet, hand over the reigns of writing to your characters and give them power over where things will end up.
Connect with readers through realistic characters
Readers don’t want flawless characters. They would pass through the story without any issues, fighting the bad guy and prevailing on the first try. No, readers want to connect with the characters and become emotionally invested.
How does that happen? Realistic characters that have flaws and display unique personalities. Readers want to see themselves in the character. They want to imagine they are going through the same challenges and finding their own inner strength. They see someone they love and they want to root for the character that displays similar characteristics and emotions.
