Plot or Character

Definitely character, though the story needs to be compelling, too. Still, I become bored very quickly with stories where the characters are mere automatons that move at the behest of the plot.

And I would add that The Lord of the Rings does not fall into that category.

I'm not sure what it is that you want discussed here.

Either I like a story and want to read it to the end or I don't. If I don't want to finish it could be for any number of reasons.

BethS said:

... I would add that The Lord of the Rings does not fall into that category.

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I think most would agree with you there, but - it does for the OP.

AJMarks said:

...Take 'Lord of the Rings', again, could care less about the characters...

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AJMarks said:

Are you more of a plot, or character reader?

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Actually, I think of my self as a 'place' reader - IOW - when I read for me I'm experiencing the story primarily as an enticing place to experience. Yeah, the characters can be interesting and vivid in varying degrees, and the events can be exciting, but I what really draws me in is having a distinctive and vivid place to experience.

I never realized how much of a character-focused person I am until I binge watched three seasons of House with my little brother. When we discussed the show later, we realized we remembered every single episode differently. He could recite the diagnosed illness from every episode and I only remembered the character arcs.

We've never tried the same thing with books, but I imagine the outcome would be similar.

krinaphobia said:

When we discussed the show later, we realized we remembered every single episode differently. He could recite the diagnosed illness from every episode and I only remembered the character arcs.

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That's interesting.

Couldn't care less. The expression is couldn't. If I could care less about a thing, that means that to some extent I do care about that thing, indeed, I might be passionate about the thing and could afford to care less while still caring a lot. But, if I couldn't care less about a thing, then I am in fact indifferent, which is what I suspect you must mean.

Pedant mode off.

krinaphobia said:

He could recite the diagnosed illness from every episode and I only remembered the character arcs.

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Awesome. My wife and I are like this. I latch onto one character and she latches onto another, so we remember different things based on who we're more invested in.

The differences among readers is one of the reasons why fiction writing is such a hard profession. You can't satisfy everyone, only enough of them to support you in your writing addiction.

Perhaps the best tactic in the character vs. plot dilemma is to write so that you satisfy both kinds of readers.

That's not quite as hard as it might sound. Characters and plot tend to be two sides of the same coin. Someone will only do, or not do, some actions; character motivates actions. And vice versa. Actions reveal character.

Assuming of course that you try to unify people and their actions. Rather than throw in random actions because you like them, or think your readers will like them. If you have a good guy murder other people for NO reason, then eventually most readers will catch on and drift away from your writing.

I can't read a book if I don't find the characters themselves engaging. I don't like stories where characters feel like paper dolls being shoved down some path by their creator. I want them to feel like living, breathing people. But one thing engaging characters do is drive plots. Plot driven versus character driven seems like a false dichotomy to me, unless the former refers to those stories that to be more about events as related by an omniscient narrator like Seveneyes by Neal Stephenson.

So I don't completely understand what agents mean when they say they're looking for character driven stories. Does it mean they want stories told in first person or limited third narratives, maybe, or ones with a smaller cast of characters? And does this imply plot driven is the default norm, so they feel the need to specify if they want a story where characters make things happen?

I'll base my answer on a book I recently read that's the flavor right now. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN.

All of the people in that book are really just awful. Just awful. If I actually knew them, I would want nothing to do with them.

However. I couldn't stop reading because oh my goodness gracious I had to know what happened. The book grabbed my curiosity and shook it until it was lifeless (when the book was good and done). I FELT MY GOSSIPY SIDE WAS TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF.

So uh. Plot. Yeah.

Generally, I am against separating plot from character, because they are symbiotic and dependent on one another. If a story has great, compelling characters but no plot, it would be difficult for me to follow through to the end, just as with a story who has a great plot but uninteresting characters. However, if I think about it, I find that character is what interests me most in a story, and sometimes I can forgive the writer's other mistakes, if their characters are awesome. Not only that, but also the relationships between characters is something I pay great attention to. For example, I may like Harry Potter for its breathtaking, action-packed plot, but I fell totally in love with the characters and the relationships that bound them together.

Character is plot, and plot is character. Without character, plot is meaningless. Without characters we really care about, plot is meaningless. It's always what happens to the characters, and how they respond, that matters.

However you read Orient, without characters readers really care about, the story would not exist.