I read once in an essay that there are three types of novels – plot driven, character driven, and theme driven. Pretty self-explanatory, really – a story that’s driven by what’s happening, the people in it, or the point the author is trying to make.
However, I’d like to contest this.
I think that at its heart, /any/ good novel is character driven. Sure, the plot may be more important to the story, but what use is a good plot without characters a reader can /care/ about? Then it simply becomes a structure, a formula for what might make a good story if the right people are inserted. As for a theme driven novel, why should we /care/ about the theme if it affects characters we can’t relate to? Why should we pay attention to the theme if the characters aren’t anybody we can see ourselves in?
As a book on writing I recently got my hands on claims in its very title, ‘Fiction is Folks.’
I’ve been told fairly often that one of my writing strengths is crafting my characters, so I suppose I’m more inclined to notice this sort of thing than others might. But it’s true, no matter how awesome the plot is, no matter how brilliant a truth you’re demonstrating, it all falls flat if the reader doesn’t connect to the character.
That doesn’t mean that a reader has to /like/ every character. But they have to be /believeable/.
I spend a lot of time thinking over my characters, trying to figure out why they do what they do, every little nuance of their personality. Most of it probably won’t show up in the story itself, but knowing every in and out of your characters really helps to write them – it allows you to add the little touches, the little details that really flesh out a character.
There are various ways to do this, of course, and I use different tactics myself depending on the situation. For instance, I journal from the point of view of a character I’m writing. I take a scene, give him time to think, and then let him reflect back on the scene he’s just lived through and give him a chance to vocalize his thoughts in a format that he /knows/ nobody else will see. I only use this for the type of character who /would/ keep a journal, though – not necessarily ones that /do/, but the potential is there.
Other times, I simply write extra scenes. I dump the character I want to know into all sorts of situations, alone or with other characters, to see how he reacts. Who knows if I’ll use any of them in the novel itself, but it really does help to get a grasp on exactly who each character is.
I’m not sure where else I’m going at this point, but it really /is/ important to make characters believeable. Know what makes them tick. Why they act as they do. What it is that they hide from everybody else. How much of it you /show/ is up to you, but the better you yourself know your characters, the better it will show in your writing.
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