Squeezing a Plot out of Character Development

What sorts of stories deal with the same kind of development you like? MC travelling in a strange land and meets strange characters along the way? Bitter OCD author must travel with his nemesis to win the love of the woman he adores? Mutiny on a ship?

I'm just brainstorming a bit, but it helps me to think of the sort of stories that already have the character themes I like. How do the happenings in that story work to develop the character toward the same theme I'm looking for?

Then I use my own interests to think up the kind of crazy plot happenings that I love and just have the characters react Mine deviate a lot from the model that sparked the idea, but the models get my thoughts going.

I've found that it's really hard to extrapolate plot from character development; the relationship between the two is actually a somewhat loose and random one. Instead to think of plot you're probably best off watching/reading some stories with a similar setting and emotional tone, and taking notes on what exactly happened in their plots, as well as what you thought might have been more interesting or more relevant to your specific characters and themes.

Most genres have a sort of standard plot. The quest in fantasy or the detective working to find the criminal in crime fiction? Do you know what genre you want to write? That might help you towards a sort of plot.

You could try coming up with events that would set the characters in motion toward their final psychological states... Granted, you would get random events strung together, but the point is to get you thinking about what the overall plot could be.

A story is a change engine. The events of the story cause something to be different by the story's end. At the moment, you're using dreams to provoke some changes in your characters. IMHO, those dreams are taking a role you could use external events for. Consider what external events might provoke the changes the dreams now provoke. Then the story is more external and you have some plot elements. Your nightmare scenes may work wonderfully, but sometimes they can be less vital for readers because the reader knows that the dream isn't really happening and therefore has no external consequences. You want consequences. You want risk.

I presume you are developing your characterization by having things happen to your characters (rather than just telling the reader about them and about their history). Plot is weaving those "things" that happen to your characters into a story arc. The best characterization in the literary world isn't going to keep readers turning pages without some kind of story to make that characterization come to life. So, plot is an integral part of every story, not something that is squeezed out of a bunch of characterization. The two have to be mutually supportive in taking the reader on a journey of the imagination.

Look for things that can happen that will affect the psychological or emotional side. If your protag is afraid of the dark, put them in the middle of a blackout. Events can trigger or exacerbate those emotional elements.

Waiting for plot to develop from character development is kinda like setting a tree in a lumber yard and waiting for it to make itself into something.

Like Danthia said -- look at each of your characters and say, for this person, what single event would affect them the most? What would most powerfully change or challenge each of them. Then see if you can go there.

Frankie.

I think you are setting yourself a really difficult task to start from this premise. It sounds as if you are on the way with character development, but althought it's a big part it's just that - character development. Unless something really stands out from one character - their childhood was so horrific that it naturally caused them to behave in a sociopathic way, or their job as a container ship captain leads them constantly into pirate infested waters (ha) - then you don't yet have a story.

I am also curious as to whether you have settled on genre? Are you interested in mysteries, thrillers, historical romance, fantasy, commercial fiction, etc.? IMO it might help to decide what elements you want in a book and then start researching or thinking about stories that could fit these characters and the type of genre you are drawn to.

vrabinec said:

Waiting for plot to develop from character development is kinda like setting a tree in a lumber yard and waiting for it to make itself into something.

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I don't necessarily agree. I think this sort of plot development is called "Literary."

Charlie Horse said:

I don't necessarily agree. I think this sort of plot development is called "Literary."

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I think this is an overly idealized view of literary works, and one that doesn't do justice to that kind of writing. Literary does not mean "plot-light" or "plot-late." I've seen literary works that had more intricate and satisfying plots than genre works, so I have trouble seeing a way those plots were incidental to character development, which is what the quote suggests. I'd be willing to bet, for a cross-section of literary writers, that plotting and characterization will be approached in very different ways, but always where the two will be enmeshed, although with different ending tips of the balance. Characterization developed in the absence of story may produce three-dimensional characters, but they will be floating weightless through the manuscript until they are grounded by some kind of story, and some idea of that story is ultimately necessary to determine how they touch down as the story is being written. An initial idea of plot may not be essential to a veteran writer, but to a new writer, hoping a plot will vaporize from character description is asking for the kind of trouble that promped the OP to start this thread--what do I do now?

Frankie said:

Hi, I'm new on the boards and I have a few interesting characters with pasts etc... and I know where I want them to end up (psychologically) but how does one find a plot where all you have to start with is the emotional and psychological journey you want your characters to take? I have a generally clear idea of how to present each one (they're mostly quite different different, to say the least).
Thanks,
Frankie.

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You've picked a tough way to go about this, but it may be very satisfying - IF the end result is emotionally cathartic.

Outline their character development the same way you would outline events in a plot. Stage it out similarly. Try this: http://screenplaymastery.com/structure.htm

And plot the course of their development along those lines.

Then you're going to have to create events and settings that will bring about these changes, but that's the flipside of plotting events and then trying figure out how these events will change the characters.

The setting will have to be a logical and fertile ground for this to occur. The events themselves are going to have to be dramatic enough to carry the readers interest and the characters are going to have to be developed and engaging enough to make the readers care about them.

Literary fiction isn't "plotless" - it's full of small plots; bumps in the road; detours and gentle adventures; just like real life. And the characters are so engaging and well-written that we care as much about their little conflicts and success as we do about a heroic character brought low in battle or saving the whole city.

Wow! Great link Sarah. Thanks.

Kerr said:

Wow! Great link Sarah. Thanks.

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I actually got it from someone here on this forum, but I dont' remember who.

Thanks, Masked Stranger!

I have found it very useful.

Frankie said:

Wow, I'll definately sit down with that link this afternoon.
In between hot chocolates and dozing last night (sick so can't sleep too well) I found a possible plot which should trigger around a good portion of the necessary steps to 'recovery' for my MCs. Also helping me find an appropriate setting, methinks. Now of course, I'm getting concerned that it might all end up too dark, depressing and complicated. Ah well, off to a start. Thanks for all your help

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Good luck, I know how much fun it is watching your characters grow. You can always lighten it up in revision.

Having a character but no plot is frustrating, isn't it? I have a couple of those lurking at the back of my mind waiting for me to find a plot to suit them...

You could try deciding where you want the character(s) to end up, then consider where they are now, then plot a route from A to B?

Or, if the character as they are in your head is the way you want them to be, perhaps imagine what they used to be like, and then plot how they got to how they are now?

Charlie Horse said:

I don't necessarily agree. I think this sort of plot development is called "Literary."

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Ummmmm...it can be literary, but I happen to be a very character-driven writer, and I write genre romance.

That said, in general, I will start with a kernal of a plot (i.e. - What would happen if a mother who's only child died and was an organ donor fell in love with a man who's only child had a heart transplant?), then my characters begin to take form, and the plot grows from the characters.

Also, I use things like knowing their personal motto, and their greatest fear to plot my story. Also, knowing what they need to learn.

I just turned in a proposal for a book in which the heroine's motto is: I'll do it myself. She's independent to a fault. What does she need to learn? How to accept help, to lean on another person. What did I do in the plot that forces her to do that? I made her pregnant, gave her a complication, and forced her onto bedrest -- 900 miles away from her own bed.

You can develop character conflict from motto. In my recent release, A Kid to the Rescue, the heroine's motto is: Breath in, take what life gives you, hold it, breathe out, let it go. She doesn't hold onto anything, or anyone. This motto developed from her BACKSTORY. The stuff that happened to her in the past. The hero's motto was: Fight the good fight. He believed anything worth having is worth fighting for.

Those two clashed. And yet, that was exactly the lesson the heroine needed to learn. And he needed to learn that SOMETIMES you do have to let go.

Loads of my plot developed from there. (Again, there was a kernal of a plot to start with. The heroine had inherited custody of her nephew, who had witnessed his father murder his mother, and as a result, the child is mute for a large portion of the book.)

So...yes, you can grow genre fiction from characters.

Susan G., character-driven writer in search of a plot. <G>

Susan Gable said:

Ummmmm...it can be literary, but I happen to be a very character-driven writer, and I write genre romance.

That said, in general, I will start with a kernal of a plot (i.e. - What would happen if a mother who's only child died and was an organ donor fell in love with a man who's only child had a heart transplant?), then my characters begin to take form, and the plot grows from the characters.

Also, I use things like knowing their personal motto, and their greatest fear to plot my story. Also, knowing what they need to learn.

I just turned in a proposal for a book in which the heroine's motto is: I'll do it myself. She's independent to a fault. What does she need to learn? How to accept help, to lean on another person. What did I do in the plot that forces her to do that? I made her pregnant, gave her a complication, and forced her onto bedrest -- 900 miles away from her own bed.

You can develop character conflict from motto. In my recent release, A Kid to the Rescue, the heroine's motto is: Breath in, take what life gives you, hold it, breathe out, let it go. She doesn't hold onto anything, or anyone. This motto developed from her BACKSTORY. The stuff that happened to her in the past. The hero's motto was: Fight the good fight. He believed anything worth having is worth fighting for.

Those two clashed. And yet, that was exactly the lesson the heroine needed to learn. And he needed to learn that SOMETIMES you do have to let go.

Loads of my plot developed from there. (Again, there was a kernal of a plot to start with. The heroine had inherited custody of her nephew, who had witnessed his father murder his mother, and as a result, the child is mute for a large portion of the book.)

So...yes, you can grow genre fiction from characters.

Susan G., character-driven writer in search of a plot. <G>

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Ah, yes, but the seeds of a plot is then saying that the tree will be made into a chair, but you just don't know what kind until you start making it. That's different. You have to have a direction.