Character Vs. Plot: A Riddle

by Cynthia Light Brown

Here’s a riddle. Where does this come from (and NO USING GOOGLE to find out)?

“A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.”

If you guess it, leave a comment that gives a hint.

The dichotomy between character and plot is a false one. To speak of whether one is more than the other is to miss the point that you can’t really have one without also fully developing the other. Indeed, why would you want to?

The best way for us to know and understand a character is through what she does. Yes, her internal thoughts can be revealing. But what she does (which includes what she says, by the way) is even more important. “Telling” has its place in good writing, but it’s rarely a good method of revealing character in a novel.

But it doesn’t just work one way. To understand a plot – why things are happening as they do, we must understand character. Certainly it’s true that we only care about things that happen if we care about the characters, but it’s even more than that. The plot only makes sense in light of understanding the characters that are driving the plot. And if your characters aren’t driving the plot…they need to. Even in a murder mystery, where the precipitating event may not be related to your main character, from then on in, your characters—especially your main character—need to drive what happens.

And then we come full circle. The things that happen in your story (your plot) also will change your characters. If they’re not changing, we as a reader aren’t interested.

The quote in the riddle is referring in particular to someone shrouded in mystery. Which is what your characters are to your reader: shrouded in mystery. You as the writer must reveal your characters, and your best method of doing that is use action. As we know and understand your characters, their actions will be understandable (even if they sometimes surprising).

There's No Predicting the Future

     An interesting truth rang clear to our family this year as we sat around the Christmas Eve table: there's no predicting the future, or where it will take us. 2011's gathering consisted of my husband, myself, our adult daughter, our adult son, his wife, and my elderly father. As I finished up the dishes that year, stuffed the last bit of wrapping paper into the bulging garbage bag, and turned off the Christmas tree lights, I assumed, I'm sure, that Christmas 2012 would look much the same. I had no idea that my father's empty chair would be occupied my our daughter's new, but very significant, other, and that he would come packaged with two lovely children. Or that at the corner of the table, between our son and daughter-in-law, would be a new little grandson, lulled to sleep by the click, click, click of a swing. We veterans of the previous years, though thrilled with the changes (save losing my father), couldn't get over the fragility of our assumptions about the future.  
     I've noticed the same thing in writing a novel. While I like to think that I have a strong story line plotted out, that I know the path my main character will take, that I've decided what the supporting cast will look like, and most critically, that I know what my story is about, the truth is, my characters wander off to places I never knew they would go, with people I hadn't planned on creating, for reasons I had never considered. So, even when I think I can control the story by actually writing it, I find that stories have lives of their own that sweep us along in their current. There's no predicting the future, even when you're the one at the keyboard. 

What a Character!

     One of my favorite workshops at the New Jersey SCBWI Conference last month was conducted by Harold Underdown, called "Re-Imagining Your Picture Book." Though he spoke at length about setting and voice and point of view and character, his comments on character were what resonated most with me.  And since a recurring point during the conference was that picture books need to be no more than 500 words, authors don't have a whole lot of words to waste bringing our characters to life.
     We were all asked: How well do you know your character?  Can you answer these three questions?
1) What is their favorite ice cream flavor?
2) Name one quirk of theirs.
3) Do you know what their favorite book is?

Each of us present at the workshop had to take a character of ours and answer those questions.  I picked mine, Finneas Folderol Foo, and was able to say:
1) Astroberry
2) His head can rotate 360°
3) Where the Extraterrestrial Things Are


But thinking about character got me looking at some other picture book characters and how well their personalities are revealed with a minimum of text.  How about Mo Willems' pigeon in The Pigeon Wants a Puppy:
     "Oh, don't worry.  I'll take care of it.  I promise I'll water it once a month."

Or Kevin Henkes' Lilly, in several of his books:
     The next day at school during Sharing Time, Lilly said, "I've always wanted to be a flower girl.  Even more than a surgeon or a diva or a hairdresser."
*****
     The story earned her ten minutes in the uncooperative chair.
*****
     Lilly ran away seven times in one morning.

Or the irrepressible Olivia, come to life via Ian Falconer:
     One day Olivia was riding a camel in Egypt...
*****
     "One day my mother took Ian and me to the circus,"  she begins.  "But when we got there, all the circus people were out sick with ear infections."

Even Judy Schachner's Skippyjon Jones' character is obvious from the mere description of him:
     His ears are too big for his head.  His head is too big for his body.
*****
And also from some very basic information:
     Every morning he woke up with the birds.
*****
     Alone in his room he began to bounce and bounce and bounce on his big-boy bed.

Finally, the always outspoken Madeleine - don't we learn all we need to know after we hear simply there were:
     ...twelve little girls in two straight lines/ The youngest one was Madeleine.

I am always energized after a conference and especially so after this single workshop.  If picture books are character driven, I think I am ready to get in the driver's seat!

Thoughts on Plotting

I’m wrapping up this year with frantic dashes out the door for last minute gifts (yes, oh young ones, the madness continues, even as your children approach thirty). At the same time, I’m mentally preparing myself to move on to a new writing project. Which project I choose is still a mystery to me. Will it be the half finished (or is it half begun) YA novel I started, shockingly, in 2002? I had no idea it had been so long ago until, looking for the most current version, I revisited the ten or so early ones in a folder on my desktop. Should I maybe choose the historical fiction novel I’ve been mulling over for years, partly because I know I would enjoy the research it involves? Or will the winner be the new idea that hit me last month completely out of left field? (a definite warning sign of a possible passing fancy) To make things even more complicated, I listened to a segment on NPR this morning which discussed the new multi-platforming movement in Kid-lit and realized, after bemoaning feeling like a techno-dinosaur, that my “passing fancy” idea may adapt itself perfectly to this format.

To hear the NPR article go here.

However it ends up, I’ve decided that my musing time might be a good opportunity for a refresher course on the basics of writing, especially since, to quote the NPR article, “As fun as the online missions” (i.e. multi-platforming) “may be, everything still revolves around the books.” Whew! So I dug out a number of “how to write” books from my shelves and decided to wrap a few suggestions on plot development into a neat little package for you. Though each author offers their own treasure trove of thought and insight, I’ve chosen Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s straightforward, The Craft of Writing the Novel .

And for a second little gift, check out Auntie's Light As Air Sugar Cookies, the lightest, most delicate sugar cookie you'll ever taste!! (Don't be mislead by the word light)

Happy Holidays

Fran McDowell

Problems of Plot

In Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird she refers to a manuscript she had submitted and which her editor rejected.

The passages are from her chapter on Plot Treatment.

"The editor went on to say, I had in effect created a beautiful banquet but never invited the reader to sit down and eat. So the reader went hungry." "The book felt like a house with no foundation, no support beams, which was collapsing in on itself . . ."

Some truths about plot:

Plot comes into focus by perpetually asking yourself “what if . . .”

Plot delineates your main character’s journey toward change.

You can learn a lot about your plot by summarizing it in twenty-five words or less.

Theme and plot are two different things. Define your theme, keep it before you, and refer to it often.

Some necessities in plotting:

Keep your Main Character (s) your central focus. Other great characters might be important, but don’t allow them to shift focus from your MC, (I almost always end up with a main, and a supporting, character. And my supporting character almost always emerges as the more engaging of the two, something I then have to correct)

Give your MC a problem that is important to him and that is fraught with obstacles. Then find a way in which only he can overcome them. (note a comment further down on credibility)

Create each obstacle as pitting the MC against something within himself.

Increase the emotional tension by giving your MC the burden of having created the obstacle, at least in part, himself.

Recognize the climax, or turning point, in your story (I’ve been shocked to find that my own stories have occasionally fooled me when readers describe the turning point for a character differently than I intended)

Know your hook—the suspense that compels the reader to keep reading.

Include intriguing subplots that feed into the main plot, but never let them steal the show. For fellow subplot freaks . . . control the urge!!

Auntie's Light As Air Sugar Cookies

1 C powdered sugar

1C white sugar

1C butter

1C salad oil

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

41/2 C flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cream of tartar

***************************

Oven 350

Cream sugars, butter, oil & vanilla. Add eggs. Beat until fluffy. Sift dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Chill. Roll into balls, then flatten with a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake 10 to 12 min.