Today’s post is by regular contributor Susan DeFreitas (@manzanitafire), an award-winning author, editor, and book coach. She offers a first 50-page review on works in progress for novelists seeking direction on their next step toward publishing.
In my work as a book coach, I’ve found that writers of fiction generally fall into three camps: those who start with character, those who start with plot or story concept, and those who start with theme. In the course of this three-part series, I’ll address the natural strengths of each type, along with challenges faced in revision.
Writers who start with character tend to be empathetic people—“people people,” you might say. A new story for these folks may arrive in the form of a certain voice in their head, or a line or two that seems promising.
Or they might be struck at first by a type of character—for instance, a character who’s a bit like an intriguing person they happen to know, or a bit like a character in a book or movie they loved.
Regardless of how the character arrives, when given a name and a context, that character quickly develops a compelling backstory and three-dimensional depth, taking on a life of their own.
Often this type of writer has had this character in her head for years—sometimes even decades. She knows the character well, including their family dynamics, early childhood traumas, passions, phobias, secret insecurities, you name it. This type of writer is also prone to carrying over the same characters from one book to another, because they’ve come to know those characters so well.
Starting with character can be a very effective way to begin a novel, and writers who do so have these natural advantages on their side:
Strength: Characters make us care.
A twisty plot, compelling themes, and fascinating setting are all great assets for a novel, but character is what makes us really care about the story.
Writers who start with character don’t struggle to create characters who seem alive on the page, whose struggles touch upon universal themes, and who exhibit the sort of complexity that makes us as readers really feel what it is to be human. All of this comes naturally to this type of writer, because her characters are so real to her from the get go that they only become more complex and compelling over multiple drafts.
Strength: There’s a solid market for character-driven fiction.
The vast majority of novels that fall into the genres known as contemporary fiction, women’s fiction, and literary fiction are character-driven. Which is to say, there’s a solid contingency of readers who read fiction for exactly what writers who start with character are generally able to deliver, on every single page: The sense of being someone else, seeing the world through their eyes, and going through a meaningful transformation or change over the course of the story.
Writers who start with character generally don’t struggle to determine if there’s a market for the sort of thing they do, because that market is broad and well defined.
Strength: There’s no question whose story it is.
Other types of writers may spend some time in the planning stages of a novel wrestling with the question of who their protagonist should be. But for writers who start with character, this generally isn’t an issue (unless there are so many compelling characters in their head that it’s just hard to choose among them).
These type of writers are not like directors looking for actors to play a part in their story—they’re more like directors making a biopic, with the story as a whole built around a certain character. (Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge is a good example.)
That said, there are several challenges writers who start with character tend to face.
Challenge: Too many POVs
If you do something well as a writer, why not do more of it? That’s often the position taken by writers who start with character, whether they realize it or not, by adding many different POVs in their novels.
Taking the points of view of other characters comes easily to such writers, and they generally find it fun, because they don’t struggle to get inside the heads of the protagonist’s husband, for example, or her kids, or even the checkout clerk at the grocery store where she shops.
And generally speaking, these other POVs are compelling and well written. But that doesn’t mean that including them serves the story; sometimes these other POVs are no more than game trails that lead the story off on tangents without contributing anything in particular to the main story line, and, as such, should be avoided.
Challenge: Lack of arc
Sometimes writers have so much love and sympathy for their protagonists that they have a hard time imagining a real flaw for that character, or some real issue in the way that person sees the world.
But without an issue or flaw—what story coach Lisa Cron calls a “misbelief”—there’s no real basis for a character arc, no clear way that the story will push the protagonist to grow and change. The first drafts of such novels tend to explore situations, events, and issues in the protagonist’s life without necessarily tracking a clear arc of change.
Challenge: Episodic or slow plot
Yes, readers in general find deep character work compelling. But that doesn’t mean a novel can just rely on character to keep the reader turning the pages. For that to happen, there needs to be a causally linked series of events, with emotional stakes, that escalates over the course of a story to a distinct breaking point—in other words, a real plot.
Because such writers often start by essentially following their characters around to see what they will say and do, they often face a real challenge in their second draft, which is to find a dramatic arc for the events of the story. This may involve moving events around in time, finding ways to link them in a more causal way, and/or working out a climax for the story and then restructuring it, so it builds to that point from multiple angles.
None of these issues are in any way insurmountable, and the more you get to understand yourself as a writer, the more comfortable you’ll become with your own process, both in drafting and revising.
Do you consider yourself a writer who starts with character? If so, I’d love to hear about your process in the comments below.
Susan DeFreitas is the author of the novel Hot Season, which won a Gold IPPY Award, and the editor of Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin, a finalist for the Foreword INDIES. An independent editor and book coach, she specializes in helping writers from historically marginalized backgrounds, and those writing socially engaged fiction, break through into publishing.
My latest series, The Martiniere Legacy is very character-driven. Originally meant to be a single book, it’s expanded to a set of two trilogies. And character was behind the change, because the original bad guy, Gabe, stood up and yelled “It didn’t happen that way, I had my reasons, and this is WHY.” When I looked into Gabe’s reasons, well…the story became much, much bigger and much more compelling.
The process? Complex. Generally, when I’m worldbuilding from scratch, I’m making notes either on paper, on a continuous roll of paper on my easel, and then finally into folders under the Research tab in Scrivener. I’ll make notes on character interactions with other characters, what I see as the individual character arc through the book and often the series, and character interactions with major plot events. When I start this process, I generally know where the story starts and ends, possibly a few high points. By the time I’m finished with all the major characters, I pretty much have my plot together and only perhaps need to make a scene matrix (in the case of multiple POV characters) in order to ensure balanced representation of major characters and appropriate plot advancement/character tracking.
My most recent interview was with someone who was reading Gabe’s book in the second trilogy (Broken Angel: The Lost Years of Gabriel Martiniere), and she told me she was falling in love with Gabe. Sweet words to an author’s ears!
Oh, and my genres? Speculative fiction crossed with women’s fiction. I write relationships in spec fic (not romance, relationships). The Legacy trilogies are near-future science fiction, agripunk corporate soap opera.
This is fascinating, Joyce! Thanks so much for sharing.
Susan, you nailed my issues with writing novels! The ones I’ve attempted are character-driven. I think the characters themselves are deep and complicated, but the plots tend to slide into the episodic, and I have to work at creating an overall arc. Thank you so much for this. Very helpful!
You’re so welcome, Gerry! Glad you found it helpful.
I find Susan’s advice among the most helpful and perceptive of any I read as I transition from nonfiction to fiction. I never miss her posts on Jane’s pages
You made my day, Roger! So happy to be of service.
My work-in-progress seems to develop too slowly for my beta readers … so perhaps my problem is as mentioned here in this article. I’ve decided against an action-packed beginning because it seems phony and formulaic. But I’m still stuck wondering how to blast off with powerful opening pages. Once my character gets ‘on the road’, the story engine is compelling. Just have to get readers to that point…
It’s a common problem, for sure–and I think you’re absolutely right to resist an opening that runs counter to your vision for the book. Often the key in such cases is to find an understated source of tension or a promise/question that can get the reader through to “the jump”…
I can’t read (or watch on TV) about mean MCs all my life, so stands to reason I’m character driven. But I also know it has to be one story, not rabbit trails. So, I write short stories of other characters with the concept of publishing them on the series’ website when the time comes. The side stories will include background for other characters, what’s happening along the way, and eventually prologues. But it will be a heptalogy, so I have the story set and a story arc for each book. And, yes, I do have trouble keeping down the number of characters, but this is a large group kicked out of society so starting their own community. It requires a large cast. (Still told in one POV.)
I’ve known my weaknesses, but this is the only story I want to bring to life. Since it’s seven books and I’m 65, it is enough.
This is fascinating, Lynn! Thanks for sharing.
Always enjoy your articulate, insightful posts, Susan. Thank you.
The first book in my Tawny Lindholm Thriller series was originally written as a one-off with a female MC. Two-thirds of the way through that book, another character (a lawyer defending her) elbowed his way into the plot and refused to leave. His chemistry with the female lead worked so well that I wrote books 2 through 6 to accommodate him.
Yes, characters drive my books even though they often refuse to do what I tell them to do. But that’s another story…
A common complaint from writers who are great with character! But in general, I think, a good problem to have. =)
Thanks for your kind words on my posts, Debbie–grateful to have you as a reader.
I’m one of those wouldn’t even try to write fiction without a compelling character to start with, although i also want to show the world and social issues they are operating in. My blues musician hero Marcus Manning Jr. faces personal and social challenges growing up in the Chicago hood; he must grow as a person or readers lose interest. You are exactly right in describing the challenges of the second draft: pinning down the plot and its causal events, and the character arc, so you get a cohesive story not a travelog.
See, for me nailing down that stuff is all part of preplanning and the first draft. Second draft is about continuity fixes that I didn’t catch but my beta/editor catches. But I also try to write a pretty clean first draft. Characters do evolve as I write them, but my current process also allows me to go back and tweak things.
Sounds like you have your process dialed in, Bonni! Thanks for sharing.
You absolutely nailed my problem as a writer. I tend to start with a character, fully developed, but do find myself having a problem (in my memoir) with a real tangible arc to the story. Although my life is very “colorful” and I did indeed change, it is hard to pull the arc into a real climax. Thank you for this guide.
Glad you found the post helpful, Dee. =)
I sympathize with you on memoir writing. After writing and self-publishing fiction for a short while, I thought a memoir would be easy. After all, the plot/story is well known as are the characters and myself. Not necessary to invent anything. Was I wrong! It’s been the hardest thing I’ve done! The arc, for sure and for the same reason as you have stated. Good luck!
My first and only novel (self-published), The Unlikely Adventures of Frances Westerly, is obviously character driven. I’ve self-published a collection of short stories, all of which are character driven. But I know that plot is as important. Notice “adventures” in the title of my novel. The characters in all my writings are carried along in a story. Usually they are changed by the events of that story, although with one, it’s just another couple days in his professional life.
Terrific read. I don’t always start my books w/a character but I often do and this article helped me to see where I’ve faced the challenges you’ve mentioned. This is the first time I’ve read about this in a clear way, so thank you for sharing your wonderful insights!
Thanks for your kind words, Carlyn!