Plot-Driven or Character-Driven Novel?

by C. Patrick Schulze

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First of all, we should understand the difference between the a character-driven novel and a plot-driven novel. A character-driven novel is based upon strong characters with a story built around them. In this case, the characters drive the PLOT. A plot-driven NOVEL is based upon a story with CHARACTERS created to fit the storyline. In effect, the plot drives the characters.

Novels that fit into a genre are most often plot-driven. In genre fiction, the major focus is to accomplish some task such as destroy the bad guy and save everybody else. It's of lesser importance who does this. As a rule of thumb, the hero chooses between a rock and a hard place and his decisions move the story forward. As the story develops, so does the hero.

In character-driven novels, the author creates a hero who's thoughts, emotions and other characteristics drive the story. In contrast to the plot-driven novel, as the character develops, so does the plot. Here, the hero doesn't so much choose between the rock and the hard place as create the rock and the hard place by his personality.

One advantage a character-drive novel has is characters carry endless possibilities within them. Plot does not. In fact, Jim Thompson says, “There is only one plot—things are not as they seem.”

A problem with character-driven novels is they often has weak plots. In contrast, a disadvantage to the plot-driven novel is they often lead to bland characters.

So, which type of novel should you write? A great part of that answer is based upon your personality. If you'll pardon my broad brush, I'll say people who write character-driven novels are often the type who focus on feelings, imagination and creativity, right-brainers, if you will. They steer clear of outlines and have a tendency to write from the cuff. In contrast, I believe plot-driven novelists lean toward the more logical, rational thinkers among us and are left-brainers. They'll outline, draw plot points and all the rest. I think it's similar to the difference between logical thinkers and emotional thinkers. Both types work well, they just use different tools.

So, which type of novel is better? Come on now… you've got an opinion. I know you do. The answer, in my opinion, is neither. I think the best novels have both strong characters and strong plots. I believe your success will improve if you have the ability to weave strong characters and a powerful plot together.

Should you write a plot driven novel with thin characters or a character-driven novel with a thin plot? Neither. If you have a strong plot and weak characters, you have a plot-driven novel with poor characterization. The reverse, of course, is also true. Plot and characterization are not mutually exclusive, any more than are dialogue and character emotions. All aspects of your novel must be woven together for best results.

So, what type of writer are you and how does your writing method hamper your writing?

Until we speak again, know I wish for you only best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze

Author of the emerging novel, "Born to be Brothers"

The Secret to Secrets in Novels

Almost every type of novel can utilize the power of secrets to advance the plot and improve the suspense. Think of how many stories you've read where something unknown pops up in the middle of the book and shifts the entire story to another track. I’ve come up with five ways to use secrets within your novels to enhance your storyline, increase suspense and even help your characters grown and change during the story.

One of the best ways to use the suspense created by a secret is to make it corporeal, something your characters can see and touch. When utilizing this technique, your reader is allowed to share in the secret and all the interest and excitement the unknown brings. It could be a sealed envelope, a person lurking in the shadows, a photo or a diary. It can be anything as long as your reader doesn't know what it represents until you want them to know what it represents. 

You can use a secret as a source of conflict for your characters. How about the husband who comes home late from work and refuses to tell his wife why?  What if a soldier cannot bring himself to talk about a war experiences, though his wife tells him she's heard an ugly rumor about that situation. In fact, this secret could even be your entire novel. Regardless, in these situations you've got something you readers know exists but is hidden from them for a reason they are not yet allowed to understand. They may just read on just to find out what's going on.

A third way to take advantage of secrets is to enhance your climactic scene. How often have you read a novel where just as the hero is about to die, he learns a dramatic secret that changes everything and saves his life and sanity? Personally, I don't care for this use. I think it was Orson Wells who said, and I paraphrase, terror isn't terror unless the viewer knows something is about to happen. As I recall, he used the example of two people sitting at a table with a bomb underneath. There is much more suspense if everyone knows the bomb is there and are waiting for it to explode, than if it just detonates all of a sudden. I feel the same way about secrets. They have more power if everyone is waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. Regardless my sentiments in this, a climactic secret might be useful to your story and you may wish to give it consideration.

Another common use of secrets in novels is as a vehicle for a plot twist. The secret to this secret is to insure it is truly hidden within your story as you set up your readers for its revelation. In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, (not the movie versions but the book), the creature threatens the not so worthy doctor with perpetual evil unless Dr. Frankenstein creates another creature, a female companion for the monster. When that comes to light, the entire story took on a new direction. If you can work this tool into your novels, it'll create terrific conflict.

I think the most powerful secrets to use are within you. You've got some, just like everyone else. Why not choose those secrets that inspire your life to inspire your readers? 

If you wish to use secrets but don’t have one in mind, find real life ones at Post Secret Blog for ideas. (This place is interesting.)

I hope you've found something in this article that'll spark a secret for your novels.

Until we speak again, I wish you only best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze

Author of "Born to be Brothers"

(Coming Soon.)

How Setting Influences Your Characters

As I performed my research for this article, an idea came to me I should have visualized long ago. That is, setting serves as much more than a mere vehicle to cement my readers in the time and place within my story. It is a psychological force upon my characters. In contemporary writing, setting stands as an influence that acts upon the characters.

Readers now know that in life, environment is part of what molds one’s personality and their background is among the many factors that help to shape who he is. Further, they understand one’s choices in life indicate the “real” person within. It’s psychology 101. Therefore, the successful author will use setting as an indicator of personality.

To put this in perspective, consider these examples. We’ve all known someone who drove a red convertible and someone else who drove a used Pinto. Without doubt, these people possessed differing personalities. With this in mind, consider how a murdered parent might push the child toward a life or good or evil. Will a coonskin cap show a wanderer’s proclivity to the hunter’s life? Will the slums of Elizabethan England act upon the street rat to make him a thief. How might an American woman be influenced if a book was set in a Muslim nation? All these aspects of setting play upon the personality and mind of the characters.

How might a writer go about presenting setting as a psychological force? I see it in subplots. In my current manuscript, my hero’s parents are murdered when he is a child. This event then determines his choice of careers. Further, this subplot takes him to places in the world he would never otherwise visit and force him to commit actions he would never consider had he not become an orphan. Further, I wanted to use a pocket watch as a subplot. My hero purchases this when he is a young man with the idea he would bequeath it to his firstborn son at the appropriate time. He never has children. What happens to the pocket watch? It becomes a symbol of those unrealized aspects to his life.

All this behooves the author to look at his setting as even more authentic, more realistic than ever before. Readers will pillory an author for these kinds of errors, so a thin setting is no longer acceptable. Caution and adequate research is necessary, now more than ever.

Setting is more than place and time. It’s a power that creates your characters and influences their lives. Get to know your setting as you would your main characters and your novel will be the better for it.

Until we meet again, I wish you only best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze

How to Build Suspense in Your Novel

Conflict, as we all know, is a critical component of a successful novel. In fact, without it, you probably don’t have a novel. One technique used by most successful authors to enhance conflict is to build suspense by judicious use of scenes.

What, you may ask, constitutes a scene? It’s a part of your novel that includes character interactions that moves your story forward. It places your reader in a position to “see” what is taking place. Therefore, a narrative of the landscape is not a scene as there are no characters speaking to each other. In contrast, two characters describing the landscape is a scene.

The purpose of your scenes is to:

·         Move your story forward and toward its end

·         Introduce and flesh out your characters

·         Create a problem or heighten it

·         Solve a problem

·         Set up the scenes to follow

·         Create setting or atmosphere

Within the concept of scenes, you have what are called, “Master Scenes.” These portray the most critical moments in your manuscript, the turning points in the story. For example, two people describing the landscape as above is a scene, but isn’t a master scene. Include the enemy army charging over that landscape toward your speakers and you may well have a master scene.

By combining the critical elements of your story, characters, dialogue, conflict and setting into scenes, you create your novel. And these scenes should interlink like a chain – one linking to the next is logical order. (And yes, your story is only as strong as your weakest scene.)  

How you connect these scenes together is another important aspect of your novel. You need to write your story so that the intensity of your story rises and falls in a rhythm intended to generate excitement. (I’ve designed a nice little chart, but it refused to upload into this blog, so you can see it by downloading my free eBook, “An Introduction to Writing a Novel,” HERE.)

Think of the way your scenes rise and fall from scenes to Master Scenes and back again as a roller coaster ride for your reader. The scenes build excitement, then release the tension, then build again, then fall again. By the end of the book, your story develops to its climactic crescendo before everyone is allowed their final sigh of relief.

As you see from the graphic on page 22 of my eBook, your Master Scenes would have the most tension and interest for your reader and your hero. The other scenes build to these crescendos by always “setting up” the Master Scenes to come.

The last scene, in this case K, brings your reader way down in intensity. This is your “Happily Ever After” scene.

Further, you see that your story should never, ever, be the least bit “Not So Interesting.” At all times, your reader must be enthralled by what is taking place.

Must your story follow the exact graphical guideline I show in the eBook? Not really. In my example, I have three Master Scenes. Your story may have more, though it should have no less.

Can you have more peaks and valleys than shown here? Absolutely! Just make sure your downs always lead to another up.

A secret for many writers, me included, is to create the climactic scene first. After that, create your other pivotal scenes, then fill in. This often makes the story much easier to write.

By employing this technique of ever-increasing tension followed by release then more tension, you’ll have a stronger story and a better chance of finding representation and publication.

Until we speak again, I wish you only best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze

The secret to any good story is the problem that requires solving. In fact, without this all-important central problem, known as conflict, you have no novel. Conflict is critical for it draws your reader into your story and is the key component that weaves all the elements of your novel together.

The secret to conflict is to know what it is. As I outlined in an earlier post, (click here), conflict is not the crisis or what happens to your characters. It is not the battle, the argument or the deception. Conflict rests upon their thoughts and feelings, toward these events your characters experience. It’s found within the moral choices they make. It’s within the building, then exploding tension between opposing forces.

There are two types of conflict, external and internal. External is obvious, such as lava coursing down the mountainside and setting flame to the town. Internal is less apparent, as might be the feelings of your protagonist when he realizes there is no way to save his business from succumbing to the onslaught of the fiery magma. Further, when dealing with this central clash that swirls about your hero, the successful novel writer will often have a number of lesser conflicts that are birthed due to the premier conflict point. For example, once his livelihood disappears within the flames, his wife leaves him, taking the children with her. (Boy, this guy has had a bad day!)

Regardless the types or amount of conflict, your writing is for naught if you don’t convince your reader to appreciate the power, the importance, of the conflict. They must know and become emotionally involved due to this struggle. As with the family mentioned about, if the readers want the wife to leave, for example, the conflict diminishes, as does your story. (This means the readers need to like your hero, doesn’t it? But that’s for another post.)

To enhance the readers’ interest, insure they see what your hero has to gain and lose. If they never see the flames racing toward the business, or they never learn how unsupportive the wife becomes, their interest will be less than peaked. It’s also helpful if there are negative repercussions to his solving, as well as not solving, the conflict. If your hero must choose between the lesser of evils to resolve the core conflict, you’ll heighten the story even more. For example, would you have greater conflict if your hero watches his business explode in flame knowing his wife will take his children if he loses his business? You bet.

There should not be too many conflict points, but regardless their number or how they develop, conflict is at the heart of any novel and must be resolved in one fashion or another. This resolution will make or break your novel. Make sure your conclusion is logical and results from the actions of your hero. It cannot be random or arbitrary.

One last thought about conflict. The guy in the white hat need not always win.
Until we meet again, I wish you best-sellers.

C. Patrick Schulze