Plot Vs. Character—Fairy Edition
First, let’s address the elephant in the room…or the blog. I’ve been gone for a really long time. It wasn’t intentional, but it was with a good reason. I’ve been working on the last book in my Enchanted Path series and being a final book in a series, it’s become a bit of a bear. More on that in another post. This one is a question I’ve been asking myself while working through (seemingly) endless edits.
Plot or Character?
I know people who prefer a story that is character driven—where the plot is solely there to advance the development of the character—and like a deep dive into someone’s (or many someone’s) emotions.
Others prefer plot over character where the person (or persons) are a device through which the reader understands what’s happening. As a speculative fiction writer I tend to fall in the latter camp. I start a story with a problem or a situation and then I think about the best and worst people to deal with it.
The pitfall of character stories is sometimes nothing actually happens, at least not beyond the character’s mind. On the other hand, when plot of all important, a story can feel more like the Perils of Pauline, jumping from one disaster to another with people you barely know.
As the title of this post suggests, I wanted to look at this through a fairy tale lens. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that fairy tales are plot driven. Sometimes the characters don’t even have names, just titles or occupations. However, those stories are also very good at getting to the point of who the characters are and what they have to overcome. Cinderella is good and in a bad situation. The Wolf is bad and hungry.
Having that spelled out means we can focus on what happens to these characters. If we switched out these characters with other people, other things could happen. Red Riding Hood would likely neglect the chores Cinderella does in favor of exploring the woods. If the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk were stomping about the woods, he’d likely have ignored the three little pigs or smashed all three houses without a second thought. So, characters do matter in plot driven stories.
Longer fairy tales can be character driven. Alice in Wonderland follows the adventures of one specific girl and her development from bored pupil to a queen. Would the story have taken the path it did if Alice had been Snow White or even an older Alice? A lot of the story depends on Alice being who she is at a particular time in her life.
I don’t know if any story can be called plot or character driven. A good story has both concepts playing with or against each other. Maybe it’s more a writer thing than a reader one. As a reader I hope to lose myself in a story with relatable characters and a plot that holds my interest. As a writer only one or the other starts a project.
How about you? Do you think character or plot is more important? Do you think there should be a distinction?
Fairy Tale Feminista 