March 4th, 2020

Starting off the meeting a few minutes early gave us an opportunity to discuss a subject I find fascinating, Plot Driven or Character Driven stories. Sparks fly when authors begin to discuss subjects close to their heart. Both camps expressed viewpoints and there were those of us who weren’t sure which style we encompass. I find myself a little confused. A recent article from the NY BOOK EDITORS blog. 

Character-Driven Vs. Plot Driven: Which is Best, defines the hallmarks of a plot-driven story in this way:

When you focus on plot, you focus on events.

Plot-driven stories are often exciting and fast paced. They compel the reader to turn the page to find out how the characters will escape, evade, prevail, or overcome.

As an author of a plot-driven story, you have to meticulously tie together plot points to create a cohesive story. You naturally focus on ideas instead of people and their motivations.

In your story, you force your characters to make quick decisions that move the plot forwards. As a result, character development is secondary to plot development.

A Character-Driven Story is defined in the same article as:

A character-driven story is one focused on studying the characters that make up your story. Character-driven stories can deal with inner transformation or the relationships between the characters.

Whereas plot-driven stories focus on a set of choices that a character must make, a character-driven story focuses on how the character arrives at a particular choice. When you zoom into the internal conflicts, you tend to focus less on the external conflicts. The plot in a character-driven story is usually simple and often hyper-focused on the internal or interpersonal struggle of the character(s).

In a character-driven story, the plot is used to develop the character.

Many readers love character-driven stories because the author tends to put a premium on developing realistic, flawed, and human characters. Readers can see themselves or someone they love in these characters and, as a result, connect emotionally.

Can your story change from chapter to chapter? I think it may, depending on what type of story you’re writing. We’re talking about fiction here, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, and other genres have limiting factors built in. A good writer must build believable characters and sustain a storyline to keep the reader interested, who wants to read a story with shallow characters and no rhyme or reason to its flow. If your character takes on a life in your imagination and directs the flow of the story, is that a character-driven story? Can a character drive a chapter while the storyline, plot, drive others? Think about it, find examples to support your arguments and bring them to the next meeting. Bring examples of your work in which you use either or both elements. Let’s have fun with this.

Well, what else? Oh, I almost forgot, we had two visitors at this meeting. Joann Buell’s sister, Helen Harvey is visiting from the Finger-Lakes are of New York, she sat in on the meeting as an observer. We hope she comes back again even if it’s during a subsequent visit. Also, Jean Young, author of Quicksilver Summer, joined us as she is vacationing here from Newfoundland, Canada. Jean tells us the writers in her home group have published an anthology of their work and it has sold well. Her book, Quicksilver Summer, has been used through the provinces in schools as a tool to help readers with limited reading skills learn to read better. Using simpler language and basic writing techniques, she makes reading and understanding easier. What is your target audience? Thank you for attending, Jean if you’re in the area, we welcome you anytime.

Diving into our reading segment, Ed Ellis unlimbered a poem I think is one of best he’s written. Entitled Quantum Reality, this piece takes on a subject confusing to a vast majority of the rest of us. Quantum Physics, just the name conjures up pictures of atoms and exploding stars in my mind, is explained in this poem, as only a poet/physicist can derive. Passages like,

“Created by vibrating molecule bonds

Playing the music of odor

We listen to the quantum guitars

Of Chemistry”

create a picture in my mind and clarifies a fuzzy and distorted image that has long eluded me. More Ed!

Letters! Are letters a dying art form? Peter Frickel writes a collection of letters, real or fictional, hard to tell. Interesting, almost spell casting, for sure. He gives us a glimpse into the lives of people across the world and in all walks of life through these letters. A Legionnaire in the deserts of North Africa, an Attorney on vacation in the Pyrenees Mountains, writing letters home or to lovers. Each tome gives us an insight into the lives, loves, and fears of someone we don’t know. Also, the story of a river ending its journey upon entering the ocean as seen through the eyes of a youngster or is it a memory of a native home long ago, but never forgotten.

A THRACIAN CATFIGHT in the fourth century. Ernie Ovitz takes us to the year 311 as the emperor Maxentius plots to declare war on his brother-in-law Constantine. Gathering his allies and supporters in a vacation palace, a pair of female gladiators square off in a struggle to the bitter end as entertainment for the bloodthirsty spectators. Descriptive language and passionate composition bring reality to the page. A few suggestions cannot help but enhance the story. Great job Ernie.

Creation and Media Gone Wild are subjects for Scott Anderson’s poetry. In a haiku we’re left with a mystery about creation, are we suspended by a thin thread? What happens if the thread is dropped? When the media gets hold of a story, in this case, the Corona Virus, is the hype more important than the story, will the hype cause more harm than the disease? What a powerful tool words are, and in the hands of a master they can wreak havoc.

Bill Elam has a story with no names, only characters who draw you into the moment. This chapter breaks the no-name rule as Sam makes an appearance. Based on an actual case, Sam’s attorney takes a homeless vagrant’s case to the Supreme Court of the United States of America and changes the law forever. Yes, Bill, this man deserves his name.

How many people have met a two-faced monster in their lives? Rip Converse writes of an ambitious and innocent 15-year-old girl named Gabby. Her first crush, a boy who treats her well and seems to be a true gentleman changes when the evil flame of lust burns hot in his loins. He attacks with rape on his mind, physically abusive and intent on getting what he wants, Gabby must fight him with tooth and nail. A barely remembered tactic comes to mind as he holds her captive in his barn. Does she prevail? What next? Look for Rip’s newest book to find out.

Returning to the Poet’s Corner, we hear from Don Westerfield as he brings us two great pieces. Sailing to the Moon takes us on a magical nocturnal voyage. Lyrical and enchanting, this piece leaves us dreaming of calm waters and soothing moonlight. In a salute to his late father, My Father’s Vagabond Life, chronicles the life of a man whose flaws are overshadowed by his devotion to family. Times were hard in days gone by. Great story in verse, Don.

Embarking on a gargantuan task, Bruce Haedrich attempts to look at creation from the earth’s point of view. Giaia Earth, the Living Planet is the first of at least four installments. Having already taken on the formation of a hurricane from a wisp of a breeze in Africa, to the formation of the Great Plains in previous writings, he is stalking the universe. Amusing in some passages, frightening in others, his story is informative and spellbinding.

Manifest Destiny took Americans west. James Kelly tells us of their lust for land and riches which disposed native tribes from their land and drove some to near extinction. Lack of foresight and greed cost many their lives and livelihood. Here, on the frontier wagon trains formed and settlers abandon unessential belongings before setting out for the unknown. A young man views the process and looks toward his future.

Starship Diana has traveled across galaxies, suffered a mutiny, and was damaged by a collision with a meteor. Now her Captain faces the impossible task of landing the 3-kilometer-long-craft, which was never designed to be a landing craft, on a planet taken over by the rebels who mutinied. Ian Schagen’s stellar imagination presents many scenarios. How will this happen? Who will survive? Stay tuned and look for this and other Schagen books.

Who would think our founder and poet, Susan Haley, would ever write for a news outlet? Well, she did. She wrote an article depicting confusion in the media. Interruptions in interviews, misquoting and avoiding direct responses to questions. Does all this sound familiar? In the midst of another election cycle, we are bombarded with this stuff every day, night and day. When did she write this article? In 2008. It wasn’t new then and is still pertinent today as it was since the beginning of time.

Well, that pretty much sums it up for this meeting. I may have missed something, but I’m not perfect. Until the next time, March 18^th, KEEP ON WRITING.