Which comes first the plot or the characters? This week's post is a writer's take-off of the age old causality dilemma, now imposed as pertains to the world of story creating.
So which is more important to you? An interesting plot, or interesting characters? Hmmm... You may have never looked at movies, and thought on lines like this before. Maybe as deep as you go is, "All I know is, I either like it, or I don't like it." If that's how you think, well I've got good news for ya, I'm going expand your horizons. So you can kiss being a superficial knownothing goodbye! 'Cuz today we're delving deep.
So let's begin the discussion by cracking open E.C. Henry's trusty, handy-dandy American Heritage Dictionary and getting a clearer picture of what is meant when the terms "plot" and "character" start getting vollied about, as pertains to movies and the stories within them:
Plot: the series of events consisting of an outline of the action or a narrative or drama.
Character: The combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group or thing from another.
Okay, so plot is the action. Characters are on the ones involved in that action.
Point: by mere definition plot is more important than characters in story creation. Do you get that? You have to have action to have a story. THEN you have to have characters involved with that action. Debate over. The egg came first -- as pertains to story development: you have to have action BEFORE you have characters which fill that action.
But in the evoution from nothing into something, can characters come first before the author has the series of events which take place (the plot) worked out? Of course, don't be stupid! The initial seed which ultimately evolves and is taken by the writer and goes on to become a completed script and ultimately, if one is so blessed, a feature film.
Character driven movies. A fancy way of saying you're boasting about the people in the story. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (2005: Steve Carrell, Judd Apatow). Take a man that's different from the norm, and explore what happens to him and the affect he has on others as his personal story unfolds in various scenes. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is a textbook character driven story. Why? Because everything springs out of Andy's need to have a fuller life. Sure the virgin part is big part of Andy's need, BUT Andy (Steve Carrell's character) real need is relationships with other people. And that's what drives the story. As is the case with "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" plot flows out of Andy's life. Do you get that?
Go watch any Judd Apatow movie and you're watching a character driven story. This guy really tailors his stories around people -- in a good way, I am by no means taking a shot at him.
Plot driven movies. A master plan or quest drives the story forward. "Raiders of the Lost Arc" (1981: Harrison Ford): Indiana Jones must outsmart the Nazis in both finding treasure, then in keeping the utimate treasure, the Jewish arc of the covenant, away from the Nazis. "Alien" (1979: Sigorney Weaver): Members of spaceship encounter a foreign life-form, then find themselves in a desperate attempt to contain it.
An interesting point with the whole Indiana Jones franchise is that through a plot driven movie an iconic character emerged -- and that's Indiana Jones, you idiot! As franchise moved on the filmmakers built up Indiana Jones, and let the audience see his father, Sean Connery in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", then later his son, Shia LaBeouf in "Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull")
Despite what Indiana Jones' misgivings about plot are, it's not as easy as it looks. I slave over plot MUCH more than the nuts and bolts wording and poetry of verse -- even characters! Why? Because if you don't get the plot right everything else will be skewed. I say as a writer: get the plot right and everything else will follow.
Point: Plot is the vessel out of which everthing else flows.
Okay, so we've got one over-sized, fire-breathing, mutant lizard who disagrees with me. Sorry Godzilla, didn't mean to offend you -- and in your defense all your movies are character driven stories -- and you're the one driving them. What? How can Godzilla movies be construed as being "character driven"? Easy. If you look at them the way I do, a Godzilla movie is like a WWF match. Like Hulk Hogan against Andre the Giant. The story flows out of the known: a man in a rubber suit is going to get into the ring with one of his fellow monsters: their is no plot! The plot comes out of building up the character so he can do what he does, which is wreck havoc on the island of Japan, and fight against his fellow monsters. Get it -- character driven: what the Godzilla character does dictates the story's trajectory/plot.
Okay, so now in this post I've even dealt with Godzilla! What blogsites do that?! Ha-ha, I'm feeling quite pretentious again!
But in all honesty no matter what theories I'm working on, or believe in, I think it's in the pre-pro screenwriter's best interests to be adaptable. If someone wants to look at the world through character driven eyes -- fine I can do that. If they think tricky plots and twists and turns are were the screenwriter should be focused and let the director and actors hash out where their artistic vision thinks the story should be. Fine, I focus on that.
Whatever theories you cling to you have to be open to other people's world-view and adapt. I don't remember where it, by somewhere along my journey I remember hearing that Michael Douglas wanted to know where the character's redemption was? It was like how he analyzed character arc. Now, I would question the man's logic, as I do not believe you can simplify all characters under that framework. BUT if I was working with Michael Douglas, and he brought it up, sure I'd role with his vibe; I could cook up some tie to redemption. When it comes to evaluating character, I prefer the overall character arc: how the character changes from the beginning of the movie to what state he or she is in at the end of the movie. A lot of terms writer's volley about are related and stuff like redemption and character arc aren't too far apart.
Regardless. When discussing plot vs. character, three act structure vs. four, can we all remain civil. Disagreements amongst opinionated creatives are bound to errupt, but we never want them to disintegrate into something resembling this:
Calvin and Hobbs. Gotta love 'em. Was my dad's favorite cartoon series. Hard to argue with that. HUGE fan of "Calvin and Hobbs."
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
P.S. The progress on the new script is going well. Not as fast as I'd like it to be, but it's rich; lots of balls in the air -- and I like that in a first draft. In my humble opinion first drafts should ALWAYS be long. You want material. THEN you pare back the stuff that doesn't work...
P.S.S. Will try to post again sometime around mid-week. Probably a short follow-up to my "Gateways to the Demonic: Heavy Metal Music and Its Influence" post.
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