My Writing Tips

Good Characters Vs. Good Plot

So I was messing around the other night and got to thinking: a good plot will write itself while good characters drive the plot.

Here's what I mean-

When you have a good story idea, it will just expand and add on to itself basically doing all the work for you. All you have to do is add in your characters and ta-da! You have a full fledged story.

However, there will be low moments in your story that you don't really know what to do with, which is why filler exists. If your characters are well written, they will find a way to fill the empty space. Sometimes your story gets stuck and you have a gap you need to bridge. This is an excellent opportunity to make your characters grow closer and even for you as an author to get to know them better as well. Sometimes when writing a scene, it doesn't come out quite as you imagined, and that's perfectly fine! You'll learn something about your characters and yourself in the process.

If you're holding back because the scene is so perfect in your head and you're afraid it won't be right when it makes it onto paper- it's okay. The good thing about writing is you can do it over and over until you get it just the way you want. Or you write the thing and it comes out better than expected. You never know what's going to happen until you do it. 

So when you have a good idea, it will continue to cultivate itself and grow on its own. You may have to shape it and guide it to get it where you want, but it will mainly drive itself. If you have one single point but a lot of good characters, they'll help you shape the story. It'll be a lot of character interaction and less plot, but more than likely it'll make a funny story in the end.

Happy Writing! <3