How To Write A Character-driven Plot

How to write a character-driven plot

The Character-Driven Plot Wheel

1. Emotions drive actions.

Make your hero act on their deepfelt emotions. This not only adds meaning to their actions, but also helps communicate to readers your hero’s core emotional struggle.

2. Actions trigger consequences.

When your hero acts, give their actions consequences that affect the plot, themselves, and/or the surrounding characters. For example, driven by curiosity, maybe your hero opens Pandora’s box; maybe they act recklessly and someone dies; or maybe they stand up for what they believe in, but at great personal cost. Consequences raise the stakes and empower your hero with agency.

3. Consequences compel change.

Use the consequences of your hero’s actions to create a crucible of growth — challenges and situations that force them to take the next step on their character journey. That step may be forward, or backward, and it may be large or small; but something inside them changes.

4. Change influences emotions.

When a character goes through a change, even a small one, allow it to affect them emotionally. Maybe they feel increasingly frustrated or guilty. Maybe they’re afraid, having just taken another step closer to abandoning their old way of seeing the world. Or maybe they finally feel peace.

Regardless of the form it takes, remember to reflect your hero’s change in their emotions. Then let their emotions drive action, to trigger consequences, which will compel further change.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

And there you have it! That’s how you write a character-driven plot.

So what do you say?

Give the wheel a spin.

— — —

Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

Brevity: How to Write Less and Say More

Brevity is difficult to accomplish. For me, it takes several rounds of edits. For authors more experienced than I, it might take less.

Stick to your point. Don’t keep all your dumped thoughts on paper. Find the point of all those thoughts and edit them down to  a singular point.

Don’t waste words. So I found these edits from that one action chapter I spoke of in my Writing Effective Action Scenes post. Here is both the unedited and published versions.

Theosodore is right. My anger is my strength. If there was anything that could ever persuade me to fight in a situation that seems beyond hopeless, it is seething rage. The rage takes me back to the barn where Colette was trying to teach me how to control my fire. I almost had a grasp on the tempting flames then, almost felt like I would have had full control had Colette not invaded the blackness of my thoughts. Now that feeling is back, and this time, I have the fear just underneath the skin of my palm. All I have to do is snap my fingers and–

Published version:

Theosodore is right. My anger is my strength. The feeling takes me back to the barn where Colette tried to teach me how to control my fire. I almost had a grasp on the tempting flames then. Now the feeling is back. I focus on it, drawing the anger down into the skin of my palm, letting it heat my skin until it’s almost unbearable. All I have to do is snap my fingers and–

Notice that the published version is two lines shorter than the unedited version. There was no reason for me to repeat that “seething rage” could help her fight, when “My anger is my strength” is enough to signal that all it takes is anger. I also didn’t need to repeat that the RAGE helped her remember. That’s treating my readers like they’re dumb. Then “I ALMOST had a grasp on the tempting flames then” is all that needs to be said. Readers can already infer why she couldn’t grasp her flames from a previous chapter. As for the next sentence, it was edited to emphasize her anger. So the published paragraph says more than the unpublished paragraph, yes?

Don’t think about word count, but value. Having a 100,000 word novel (this is often only accepted for sequels) doesn’t mean you’re being wordy. Oftentimes it means you’re developing your world and characters more from the previous book in the series. So think about the value of each word you’re using.

Passive voice.  This can add unnecessary words. Sometimes you can’t avoid passive voice, but oftentimes you can.

Passive voice: Canes and wheelchairs are used by people who have some form of physical disability.

Active voice: People with physical disabilities often use canes or wheelchairs.

Not only did I change it to the active voice, but I also cut out some words.

Use strong verbs instead of adverbs.

I ran quickly to the door.

Use I dashed to the door instead. ‘Dashed’ has more urgency than ‘I ran quickly.’

Avoid redundancy. Refer to the ‘don’t waste words’ point with the unedited version. The third sentence is redundant.

Use punchy sentences. Long sentences aren’t a sin, but if you can convey your point in fewer words, do it.

Unedited version of a scene in When Stars Die: A loud rumbling breaks through the shadows, hurling my entire back back into the present, where I’m dodging fire while being subjected to cruel words.

Published version: A loud rumbling breaks through the shadows, hurling me back into the present as I make a hard turn to dodge another ball of fire.

Don’t say something over and over again. Not only does this assume your readers are dumb, but you only need to state your point once. The sequel to When Stars Die is still going through revisions, but my publisher caught me on this one. He even said I’m treating my readers like they’re dumb, so even I’m not perfect.

Keep your sentence structure varied. Don’t use long sentence after long sentence after long sentence, unless there is a stylistic reason for this.

Experience is your ally. Just keep writing and receiving critique from experienced writers.

Thursday’s post will be about using commas. So many of my editorial clients struggle with how to use these.

me: okay time to jump into the action scene

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: don’t say it

me: … “SUDDENLY”

What would be the best way to portray a sense of emotionless boredom in a non first person POV short story? I rely heavily on emotions to do descriptions so it’s a mega struggle.

Try taking out all emotion from this character’s delivery and actions. Make it a flat read. You can even change their dialogue slightly per their mood as, irl, people use different phrases and speech patterns when they feel certain ways.

Change their actions according to their personality too. Most people when bored might become inactive, but many can get restless and fidgety when there’s nothing to do. Sometimes they can’t be interested by anything, other times they might doggedly pursue activities, like chores, that barely interest them just to keep busy.

Basically, “best way to portray” is on a per character basis. Decide how boredom affects this/these character(s) individually to give yourself something to describe. Also, if something is difficult to describe emotionlessly, show it. To an onlooker, these people must be bored because they’re doing ‘X’ in a ‘Y’ fashion. 

Words you can make use of:

apathetic

disaffected

disinterested

distracted

dreary

droll

dull

flat

idle

lackadaisical

languid

limp

listless

loaf

monotone

nonplussed 

toneless 

slouch

slump

Hope any of this helps!

+ Please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee!

+ HEY, Writers! other social media: Wattpad - AO3 - Pinterest - Goodreads

I’m compelled by stories where the characters suffer a lot, but only if there’s catharsis in the end. If they just die without ever getting to recover I’m OUT because what’s the fucking purpose then? Voyeurism? Bye