I seem to be struggling with the idea of a character driven story so i wanted to ask; what makes something character driven? If i told you a story is character driven, what would you expect from it?
IMO, "character driven" means that the main conflict of the story is interpersonal--conflicts between individuals. Whatever else is happening in the story, the root of the problem is conflict between individual people.
To me, a character driven story means the character drives the plot. A plot driven story is where the plot drives the character.
"If i told you a story is character driven, what would you expect from it?"
More talk, less action?
Character-driven stories are those where the conflicts and the resolutions are driven by the characters themselves, not by the world they inhabit. They are really stories about people, not about situations.
"If i told you a story is character driven, what would you expect from it?"
More talk, less action?
It's not just that, though, is it? There's also a sort of underlying the-reader-is-reading-because-of-the-character-more-than-(or-at-least-as-much-for)-the-plot thing happening.No, because the best books even if it's a thriller full of explosions-and-shit should be character-driven. Character-driven doesn't mean the MC spends half the novel contemplating Satre, it means they are propelling the plot forward through their own intentions and decisions.
It's not just that, though, is it? There's also a sort of underlying the-reader-is-reading-because-of-the-character-more-than-(or-at-least-as-much-for)-the-plot thing happening.
Take Robinson's Gilead. One reads that for the characters, because the characters are glorious and flawed and marvellous and because and their interactions and effects on each other drive the story - but you wouldn't say there's no plot. There is so much plot - but is not the one thing you read for. You read less to know what happens in plot terms than to stay in touch with what happens for the characters - because you know them, and love some of them and because they are hitting you where you live.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilead_(novel)
As far as what I expect in a novel that is considered character-driven, I expect the growing relationships between characters to be a big focus, almost as though relationships are the key to the whole thing.
I consider things like action movies to exemplify plot-driven stories. They can have strong characters, or not, and those characters might be arguably driving the plot or not, but very few action movies focus primarily on relationships. In a character-driven story, in addition to character being important, I do expect a focus on relationships.
I don't think that's a great example, sorry. Plot has to exist in a character-driven story, just as characters have to exist in a plot-driven story. There's a mistaken belief that a story where characters rabbit on about themselves will work if you call it character-driven and label it 'Literary' - but no - as Indianroads says, you need both. And you need something else as well - an understanding, as a writer, that the characters are going to do what they do and you need to clarify what happens in plot terms around that.For example let's say we have a story at a party involving a couple of people going through a breakup. The story follows them through the party in which they make choices and grow as characters.
Let's add a large drug bust and a swat team crashing the party, following a narrative plot arc. Now you have a plot driven story.
My creative writing professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Craig Bernier (back in 2016) hated plot driven stories, and genre fiction in general. He would always say, "No dragon fiction in my class." So a character driven story is a story that focuses on the development of characters as people. For example let's say we have a story at a party involving a couple of people going through a breakup. The story follows them through the party in which they make choices and grow as characters.
Let's add a large drug bust and a swat team crashing the party, following a narrative plot arc. Now you have a plot driven story. Think of a short story with some poor dude strapped to a bomb, and the bomb squad's rescue of that victim--its a plot driven story. You don't really get to know the people in a natural setting.
An easy way of thinking of this:
Taking a character out of his or her natural habitat, and introducing a crazy plot setting, like in a horror movie. Plot.
Leaving a character in their natural habitat, and introducing other characters that bounce off one another, and who make choices based on their interactions, character driven.
With genre fiction you usually see both, with plot driving the story.