Balancing Characterization and Plot/Suspense

[HikariDawn]

Wow, big forum here isn't it? I'm having some problems with the story. My story is about a shootout, and when I have a part in that scene in mind I just write it down. I was too concerned about plot for some reason that my characters turn out forced. I was wondering if other people had the same problem before. I'm new here.

Can you give me a bit of advice? My characters aren't coming to me anymore. I can't feel them anymore.

[Madison]

try this: http://www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html

it helped me a bunch.

welcome to the boards :)

[job]

Just keep writing.

Some days are good. Some are not so good. Sometimes we write wonderful stuff the first try. Sometimes we return to the same scene again and again and again and again ...

Work on something else for a while and come back.
You just keep writing.

[Danger Jane]

It might help to think of the two as inseparable. Your characters are what makes the plot occur, right? So give them some credit. If you set things up right between their personalities and actions, they'll behave "correctly", but sometimes you need to rethink their actions to match their personalities better. Would Joe really do that? Maybe not.

Character and plot are no more separate than your personality is from the events that happen in your life.

[Matera the Mad]

"Just writing it down" is fine, it gets the story completed -- everything can be fine-tuned later. You can tuck in more any time, thanks to the flexibility of computers. I usually write lean, then fatten it up a lot, then cut cut cut, and finally repair and polish. Nearly everyone writes lousy first drafts.

Hemingway rewrote a book 42 times and I still don't want to read it :tongue

[WannabeWriter]

Every word should be about character or plot, and if you find yourself having enough of one for now, switch to the other. A good story juggles both in a smooth way. :)

[Melenka]

I have the opposite problem - too much character, not enough action. But what everyone says about just keep writing is absolutely true. Just remember that the first draft is allowed to be shit. It will get better later. That's what the rewrite, and the second rewrite, and your agent and editor's suggestions are for. At least that's what I tell myself.

[wayndom]

The biggest problem with adding characterization after writing the action is the tendency for the characterization (like description) to slow down the action (and in the worst cases, bring it to a complete halt).

So once you've decided who you want your characters to be, the next step is to figure out ways to reveal their personalities with minimal interruption of the action.

So Stein uses a technique he calls "particularity," which is essentially tossing in a few small details that everyone recognizes, instead of trying to describe everything.

Using small details can also be entertaining and/or funny, if done right. For example, a character who can seemingly stomach any amount of blood and guts might have a phobia of moths, or someone might have a little tag line they say after each killing, or a small "good luck" ritual they practice compulsively whenever they're in a do-or-die situation.

Not all stories need fully-fleshed out characters, with backstories and philosophical quandaries, but all stories need characters to seem real. Little quirks are often all you need to accomplish that.

[Ruv Draba]

Hi Hikari and welcome.

Sometimes my characters feel forced too. This happens especially when I start with a plot idea and fit characters to it. A rigid plot allows the characters no room to react, to challenge each other or to pursue their broader interests. Often this means that the characters' personal stories don't end satisfactorily and worse from my perspective, the story's themes feel weak (because themes are grounded in character arcs). Often I don't detect the problem until a really tense scene where I expect characters to act a certain way, and it doesn't feel credible. Then I go back to the early scenes and realise that motivations were floundering there too.

It used to be that weak characterisation was not an impediment to publication. Pulp literature of the 1930s-1950s is full of stories that are mainly plot and situation-driven. You can see this in crime stories, fantasies, science fiction stories, westerns. These days though, I think it's a hard sell for anything but (say) action-movies and B-grade horror.

My solution?

Don't plot until your characters are well-defined
Ensure that your characters are laden with contradictions. Flat, monochromatic characters can never suffer dilemmas, never doubt or regret. They're hard to manipulate or provoke and they don't react in interesting ways. They also have no mystery; nothing to reveal
Research your characters thoroughly. Know their backgrounds, their best and worst moments; their strengths, their insecurities, their morals and foibles. Turn them from puppets into people. Write mini-stories about them. If you can't invent such things from whole cloth then model them on real peole. If you don't care whether a character had one sibling or two then you're not interested enough. Mess up the history with contradictions until it is interesting.
In each scene ensure that each character has a strong personal reason to be there: some objective that it will either achieve or fail in. Give every character in every scene either something difficult or risky to do, or a dilemma to decide on. Let them be changed by what happens.
Don't be inflexible about the plot. Sometimes characters will go in better directions than you initially think.
Be willing to be slower, more confused, less efficient in your writing for a while. For some writers (and I'd be one), characters can be the most demanding elements of a story. (Eventually, you'll get more efficient at dealing with them)Good luck!

[Bruzilla]

I think you shouldn't invest too much into what a character should do and just focus on the story. I was with a sheriff's office for several years, and I saw lots of people doing things that no one they knew would ever suspect them of doing. When I was in the Navy, I went to SERE school, which is like a POW school, and we had a student who for weeks had been bragging about how he would beat the snot out of any SERE instructor who dared to lay a hand on him. I saw this same guy at SERE school, and he was beating himself with a length of hose to appease his "captors". This guy had been all piss & vinegar until things got rough, and he completely collapsed.

I think that stimulai from situations drives human behavior far more than character or personality do.

[JimmyB27]

Wow, big forum here isn't it?

Sure is. I sometimes take a wrong turn and find myself wandering in unfamiliar territory. I was lost in P&CE for a couple of days once.

I'm having some problems with the story. My story is about a shootout, and when I have a part in that scene in mind I just write it down. I was too concerned about plot for some reason that my characters turn out forced. I was wondering if other people had the same problem before. I'm new here.

Can you give me a bit of advice? My characters aren't coming to me anymore. I can't feel them anymore.
Personally, I'm always bemused when people talk about characters and plot as if they are different things. If you have plot and no characterisation, what you have is a timeline, not a story. If you have characters and no plot, what you have is a CV, not a story. It's like asking which is more important, my lungs or my heart. Well, I'm going to die without either of them, so I'm not sure one is more important to me than the other.
When I write a story, it all comes to me more or less at the same time. The basic idea does usually come first. 'What if there was a superhero like Batman, but without Bruce Wayne's money?'. 'What if the man believed to be a messiah was an atheist?' (Two current WiPs btw). From there, plot and character develop more or less concurrently. If I don't know where to go next, I ask what the character would do in the given situation. If I do know where I want the plot to go, I ask what it might take to lead the character there. If it's a bigger piece (ie novel), I might also write some background pieces for the main characters, perhaps some major events from their childhood, or whatever.

[dawinsor]

Sometimes when I'm in this situation with a character, I do a stretch of non-stop writing from the POV of the character I'm interested in. What that means is that I set a time limit (15 minutes is plenty) during which I write non-stop about what that character wants, fears, and needs (wants and needs being different things). If I can't think of anything else to say, I write "what else can I say? what else can I say?" I don't have to do that very long before something else comes. The exercise is often enough to give me a way into seeing a character more complexly.

[Use Her Name]

If they are not coming to you, and feel forced, it's possible that they were not characters you should or could rite about.

What to write can be like an on-line dating service. You have to meet a bunch of dogs till you find someone who really clicks. I actually think you know at first sight who you love, who you don't, who you can get along with, who would be fun to hang around with, as well as who you totally reject.

[HikariDawn]

Hi Hikari and welcome.

Sometimes my characters feel forced too. This happens especially when I start with a plot idea and fit characters to it. A rigid plot allows the characters no room to react, to challenge each other or to pursue their broader interests. Often this means that the characters' personal stories don't end satisfactorily and worse from my perspective, the story's themes feel weak (because themes are grounded in character arcs). Often I don't detect the problem until a really tense scene where I expect characters to act a certain way, and it doesn't feel credible. Then I go back to the early scenes and realise that motivations were floundering there too.

It used to be that weak characterisation was not an impediment to publication. Pulp literature of the 1930s-1950s is full of stories that are mainly plot and situation-driven. You can see this in crime stories, fantasies, science fiction stories, westerns. These days though, I think it's a hard sell for anything but (say) action-movies and B-grade horror.

My solution?

Don't plot until your characters are well-defined
Ensure that your characters are laden with contradictions. Flat, monochromatic characters can never suffer dilemmas, never doubt or regret. They're hard to manipulate or provoke and they don't react in interesting ways. They also have no mystery; nothing to reveal
Research your characters thoroughly. Know their backgrounds, their best and worst moments; their strengths, their insecurities, their morals and foibles. Turn them from puppets into people. Write mini-stories about them. If you can't invent such things from whole cloth then model them on real peole. If you don't care whether a character had one sibling or two then you're not interested enough. Mess up the history with contradictions until it is interesting.
In each scene ensure that each character has a strong personal reason to be there: some objective that it will either achieve or fail in. Give every character in every scene either something difficult or risky to do, or a dilemma to decide on. Let them be changed by what happens.
Don't be inflexible about the plot. Sometimes characters will go in better directions than you initially think.
Be willing to be slower, more confused, less efficient in your writing for a while. For some writers (and I'd be one), characters can be the most demanding elements of a story. (Eventually, you'll get more efficient at dealing with them)Good luck!


Oh! Yes! Thanks a lot! This is the best.

[Feathers]

If you're characters aren't talking to you, and you feel like your story has become plot-driven, you need to start trying to think more about your characters. Instead of wondering how this next scene/twist is moving your plot, think about how it is affecting the lives of your characters. Beside being a tragedy (or whatever,) how does this change them as people? What does it mean for their lives? For their emotions? Are they the kind of person who would curl up and cry, or go bitter, or get angry?

Try to picture your characters in different settings. Say you're driving and you get stuck in traffic. Imagine your characters stuck there. What would they do? What would they be thinking about?

I hope this helps :)

-Feathers