How to Ensure Your Characters and Plot Don’t Flat Line

Is it possible to sell a story that is high on action and adventure, but has flat characters?  Yes, though it isn’t easy.

What about a story that is flat on plot, but rich with three-dimensional characters? If your plot is flat, your reader (and that agent or publisher) has no reason to turn the pages. (Look out trash can.)

Your story stands a much better chance of being published if both the plot and characters are well developed. (Tweet this.)

I’m a writer whose strength is in creating characters. I struggle to develop a great plot. And without plot you have no story. There are writers who are strong plotters, but weak on developing good characters.

Most people are one or the other.

Which one comes easier to you? Know where your weakness and spend time developing your characters or plot before you sit down to write.

Think your manuscript is ready to send off?

Do you have a manuscript that keeps getting rejected?

Go back and review your characters and plot. Below are items to look for (though this is far from all inclusive).

Characters:

• What physical attributes do you reveal? Go beyond the basics. Is there a striking feature such as one blue eye, one brown; a stutter; an endearing or irritating mannerism? That striking feature should play into the character’s personality, affect how the character reacts to situations, or affect a scene outcome.
• What is the character’s temperament? Temperament affects behavior.
• What is the character’s back story? You’ll rarely reveal all the back story in your book, but you should know it because what the character has experienced in life affects how he or she reacts to events occurring in your story.
• What is your character’s flaw (or flaws)? No one’s perfect. Your protagonist must have a weakness, just as your antagonist must have some character trait that readers can like.
• What motivates your characters? Why are they reaching for the goals you’ve given them?
• How does the protagonist change from the beginning to the end of the story? What about your antagonist? This is called character arc and often referred to as the character’s inner journey.

Plot:

• What is the main conflict of your story?
• What are the scene conflicts and how do those move the story forward?
• What occurs to spur your character into the action of the story, the point of decision where the character knows life will never be the same and there’s no going back. (This is called the inciting incident or the point of no return.)
• What is your protagonist’s goal?
• Is there tension to each scene, whether obvious or an undercurrent?
• What consequences does the character face if he/she doesn’t meet his/her goal? These must be strong enough to keep the character from turning back.
• What or who opposes the protagonist’s goal and why?
• Does each subsequent conflict up the stakes for the protagonist?

I’m not talking about character- or plot-driven stories here. I’m talking about the necessity of having both characters and plot that are well developed.

A useful tool as you examine your story is to create a document for each character that outlines everything about that character. You can do the same for each scene by listing the main character, the character’s goal in the scene, the conflict, and purpose of the scene (e.g. to introduce the antagonist).

Questions? Please put them in the comments section so all our readers can benefit from the answers.

Resources I recommend:

• Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
• Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress
• Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction by Jeff Gerke
• The Christian Writer’s Institute

2014 © Debra L. Butterfield