Sunday 22 May 2016

Character or Plot- Which Arrives First?

Do you have a favourite series that you hate to miss?

Well Saturday night in the my house is NCIS night. Now to be honest across the week NCIS: seasons 10, 11 and 12 are being shown on assorted digital channels (along with the New Orleans and Los Angeles versions), which can be confusing as one night a relative of one character can be dead, and the next week on a different channel the dead character is still alive...

This is where box-sets come in useful.

Anyway, my OH just watches the story and whoever is in that episode- he calls it moving wallpaper; I told him that the characters and what's happening to them is as important as the story. He wasn't convinced...

That is what got me thinking about plot versus character, and which comes first?

Which arrives first?
If you define plot as "a sequence of events" that occur through the story, then I'd have to say no that doesn't come first- at least for me.

In fact whenever I've had a story idea and some of the plot before finding the characters for it, they have never made any progress no matter how much time I've put in. The last time I tried that it was three wasted months.

For me, it runs: initial idea (that is usually the result of two random incidents/thoughts/information) - a vague scene of one or two characters, but enough to start developing them - more ideas - research - basic bios of my characters- chapter outlines - write the first draft and discover more about the characters and plot as I work.

Looking at the process that way it's 50/50.

Every writer has their own way of doing things, so someone else may have the plot and then looks for their characters to fill the story.

Others discover as they go along.

So are you plot first? Characters first? Or somewhere in-between? 

Thursday 19 May 2016

My Problem Character...

Sometimes I find getting into the mind of my characters easy, at other times it can be problematic.

In my second draft I have some gaps to fill, and Hannah is one of the problematic gaps.

She arrived in the last chapter of draft one as if she had always been around; she and my heroine know each other quite well, but looking back, nowhere in the first draft had there been any hint this young woman existed...

That was when I realised that she would actually fill a necessary role that was one of the gaps I had.

She has the confidante role. But she'll also be a means of passing information on where appropriate.

Seeing the light?
At the moment I'm still learning about her, and her way of speaking is starting to emerge more clearly than in her first few lines.

I know she's a year or two older than my heroine, and has had a little more experience of the world, so that will prove insightful later- there's a completely new scene in my mind (for much further on in the draft) where Hannah will be doing a little manipulation- for the best of reasons of course. :D

Unlike my other characters I don't yet have a bio for her. That's usually when I find out all those useful snippets of information lurking in the recesses of my mind.

Perhaps that will get through her protective shell.

Onward with the never-ending mystery of the supporting cast...