CREATIVE WRITING COURSECharacter, Plot and Message There are three kinds of stories: those that start from character, from plot or from message. If you start thinking about what a story is going to be about before you decide who’s going to be in it, you run the risk of populating your world with 2D puppets who are there simply to serve the plot. I made this mistake in a play once by inventing a character for the sole purpose of serving as a plot device. At the first staged reading, the audience reacted very badly to him. Why? Because he was a ‘type’ rather than a true person with likes and dislikes. When I started to flesh him out a bit, he began resisting the role I was forcing him into. I decided to let him lead me, and the plot developed in a different way from what I’d first envisaged, but it was truer to the character and resulted in a better play. That being said, there are very successful plot-driven novels, particularly thrillers, where the ‘who’ is not as important as the ‘what’. Take for example the John Grisham legal novels where one young, enthusiastic lawyer blends into the next, carried along by a breathtaking storyline. A message-driven story is one where a writer starts with an idea or theme (environmentalism, religion, anti-war etc.) then crafts a plot and populates it with types who will best illustrate the message. This runs the danger of becoming a sermon. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with ideas, but beware of writing something simply to convert your reader to a cause. I was very disappointed to read State of Fear by Michael Crichton which was no more than a thinly veiled manifesto for the anti-global warming lobby. Compare this to the brilliantly successfulJurassic Parkwhich turned the spotlight on the ethics of zoos, genetic engineering and environmentalism while still honoring the reader’s right to a good story. A character-based story is when the characters are so memorable and well-drawn that the story would not exist without them. Think for example of Christopher inThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Pi inLife of Pior Scarlett inGone with the Wind. The stories surrounding these characters are so much a product of their own personalities that no-one else could fill their shoes. The one danger with character-driven novels is that sometimes they become so introspective that nothing much happens. This is particularly dangerous in 1st person or stream of consciousness texts. The key of course if to have all three elements in balance. Different writers start from different points and some are more naturally plot-inclined than character or message. There’s nothing wrong with this. But there’s also no reason why you can’t have a great plot, well-drawn characters and still have something useful to say.
