Embarking on a novel with character at the helm can be a thrilling yet daunting endeavor. Discover the three key strengths this approach offers, and the three challenges you might face, to craft a compelling narrative that resonates with readers.
Natural strengths of each type of writer
Writers who start with character
- Empathetic people tend to be empathetic
- Characters with a compelling backstory and three-dimensional depth develop quickly
- Carry over characters from one book to another because they know them so well
Strength: Characters make us care
A twisty plot, compelling themes, and a fascinating setting are all great assets for a novel, but character is what makes us really care about the story
- Writers who start with character don’t struggle to create characters who seem alive on the page
- They only become more complex and compelling over multiple drafts
Lack of arc
Sometimes writers have so much love and sympathy for their protagonists that they have a hard time imagining a real flaw for that character, or some real issue in the way that person sees the world.
Strength: There’s a solid market for character-driven fiction
Writers who start with character generally don’t struggle to determine if there’s a market for the sort of thing they do, because that market is broad and well defined
- The vast majority of novels that fall into the genres of contemporary fiction, women’s fiction, and literary fiction are character driven
Challenge: Episodic or slow plot
Readers in general find deep character work compelling, but that doesn’t mean a novel can just rely on character to keep the reader turning the pages.
- A novel needs a causally linked series of events, with emotional stakes, that escalates over the course of a story to a distinct breaking point.
Strength: There’s no question whose story it is
For writers who start with character, this generally isn’t an issue
- These type of writers are not like directors looking for actors to play a part in their story-they’re more like directors making a biopic, with the story as a whole built around a certain character
Challenge: Too many POVs
Writers who start with character, whether they realize it or not, by adding many different POVs in their novels.
- Sometimes these other voices are just game trails that lead the story off on tangents without contributing anything in particular to the main story line.
