What's more important when writing fiction- Characters or plot?

This has been debated many times and depending on what genre is being discussed will usually drive it one way or the other. I'm going to give you my take on this... and remember, this is my opinion, and you are welcome to agree or disagree with it. You can even do so in the comments section if you so desire.

I believe that regardless of the plot, the characters drive the story through their personality and their emotional reactions to whatever is happening within the story. Yes, you need an intriguing and interesting story idea, but the plot is what happens in the story and without a cast of characters to wrap that idea around, what have you got? Even a plot driven storyline needs well-developed characters. The characters can be wonderful people or the worst individuals on earth. They can be non-human, or they can be animals or insects. It doesn't matter. What does matter is regardless of where the setting is located, or how strong the plot is, you need the characters to bind it all together. Flat, lifeless, characters, written without emotion that have unrealistic or unnatural dialog will take the reader right out of the story, even if the plot is a great idea. As a reader, you can't become attached to the robbery, but you can become attached to the cunning bad guys who pulled off the theft, or the masterful sleuth or bumbling amateur who is trying to solve the crime. And, in my opinion, this is true in any genre.

 I write mostly in the mystery genre. I have a series with a private investigator as my protagonist and I'm a pantser, which for those of you reading this not in the writing profession, means that I let the writing flow organically and do not outline the story ahead of time. I discover what's going to happen as I write. And this is heavily based on what my characters would do in each situation. I write my series mostly in the first person with some alternating third person chapters. I know, I know - this could be an entirely different debate just on that alone. But it works for my stories, and I think I pull it off fairly well. Now, because it's a series, and because I'm a pantser, there are certain things that I feel must show up in each book. Just because I write by the seat of my pants doesn't mean I don't want consistency in my series. I think of these things as the background setting, and they are generally the same in every story. It's not the plot, but it's an important element to every plot in a series that uses the same characters from book to book. For my series, the Characters live and work in North Carolina; primarily Charlotte. And just like the real citizens of Charlotte, they are either native of the Charlotte region or are transplants from other cities. The main character, Tony Razzolito hails from central New York, his partner, Scott is from Atlanta, the three main law enforcement characters, Captain Rita O'Connor, Detectives John Cahill and Lucy Havens, the office manager/receptionist Rose, and Tony's girlfriend Karen all grew up in the Charlotte area, and Vinnie is a transplant from Brooklyn, New York. Regardless of the plot of the book, these characters will show up somewhere in the story. And because of that, I have to stay true to each character's personality within the narrative. They each have strong personality traits that make them unique, and I hope, interesting. I want them to be the kind of people you either love or hate, or at the very least, are curious about. And for that to happen, they need to be consistent in how they act and react around each other, no matter the crime they are involved in or conflict they face.

That all being said, I have been known to go completely against the grain of what I just said. In Dead is Forever, which is book one, except for Tony, Scott, Vinnie, Rose and Rita, the other characters that were in that book were left behind in books two and three and will probably never appear again in the series. The series really starts with book two. I say that because Dead is Forever has become more of a prolog to what the series has become. But I do have an accompanying Razzolito short stories book where some of the other characters from Dead is Forever make an appearance. And I am working on the second short story collection that also goes against the grain. In both of these short story collections, Tony takes a trip or two and gets involved in crimes outside of Charotte. However, even though a couple of the shorts have plots that take Tony away from North Carolina, anyone who has read the regular series books will still recognize the strong personality traits of the characters that have crossed over to the short stories. That consistency in character is there and it's what drives the plot regardless of what it is or where it happens. It's not the crime, or any other plot point in my books that makes them a good story to read. It's the depth of personality I try to bring to my characters that turns, just another murder in a mystery book, into a story a reader can become invested in. Or at least that's my goal. 

So, for me, I come down on the side of characters being the most important part of a story. Interesting, three-dimensional characters that have real depth and emotion will always improve whatever storyline they are mixed up in. They can carry a weak plot and save it and they can make an already outstanding plot even stronger. 

As I said in the beginning of this post, this is how I feel, and it is my opinion. I welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Meanwhile, if you'd like to read one of my books to see if I'm true to my word on character, you can find them by clicking here: Joe's Amazon Page

All can be read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited subscription 😀

Until next time...