I’ve been thinking about this topic all week since seeing a post on Threads (which I now can’t find again) about how we read. That some of us go for character over everything else while others couldn’t give a stuff about the internal conflict of the puppets carrying out a twisty plot (and of course most of us fall somewhere in-between). I think the same is true of writing. All writers approach their stories in a different way. There’s a reason why we have plotters and pantsers and people who fall in the middle.
I am unapologetically a character-led reader and writer. Long after I’ve forgotten the intricate plot details or the twist, I remember the people. Yes, Sarah Water’s Fingersmith has one of the best twists I’ve ever read, but it is Sue Trinder who I rooted for even as she attempted to dupe the woman she was falling in love with. I am convinced that Jane Eyre is so revered to this day because it is Jane herself who we want to revisit, rather than the plot which at times, quite frankly, is ridiculous (I have yet to watch a TV or film adaptation that includes the scene with Rochester in drag as a gypsy woman). I won’t comment on how insane it is that Rochester is still considered a romantic hero because that would be a whole post to itself… However, I also love those novels because their plots are so involving. You don’t know what’s going to happen next and you keep reading because you know that whatever is going to be revealed will be satisfying.
Traditionally, plot has been associated with genre fiction, as opposed to the loftier goals of literary fiction which is often more concerned with behaviour and the analysis of human nature. But every novel needs a plot of sorts. All of the beautiful writing in the world can’t hold a reader’s attention if the characters and their environment remain stagnant. Something has to change over the course of the novel, even if those changes are subtle rather than some high-octane Dan Brown-esque adventure. Even a novel such as Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, which you could say doesn’t have a traditional plot-line, it has interlinked characters who have all been on their own journeys. A plot is really just a sequence of events that unfolds over the course of the story.
When my debut novel, This Lovely City, was published in 2020, it was decided not to market it as a crime novel. Even though the novel begins with the discovery of a body in the first chapter and the culprit is revealed at the end, the novel focuses more on the impact of the investigation on a community rather than on solving the crime. It was thought that readers used to crime fiction would expect something more twisty in terms of the plot and it would be better to go for the ‘book club’ market, those readers who want a novel that they can discuss with friends. Of course, many readers will pick up books in both those categories and enjoy them. It is more about setting expectations - letting readers know what sort of book they’re picking up so that they can read in the right frame of mind.
So there is no plot versus character. The two need to exist side by side, but you may place more importance on one over the other, depending on how you want to read/write in that moment. You might read a twisty psychological thriller followed by a quiet, meditative novel focused on a woman’s life in 16th century England (as I have just done) and love them both equally. Anyway, I’m now off to read a good book…