When creating a story, inspiration and ideas come from anywhere. Sometimes we’ll think of an awesome story premise, but it has no plot. Maybe we have a great character, but don’t know where they belong.
What is more important when creating a story?
Before I answer this question, let me first explain the difference between Plot and Story.
PLOT VS STORY
For the most part, the difference between plot and story is a Google search away, but often we get the two confused.
A story is a sequence of ordered events. More accurately put, it’s the history or timeline of events. “Doug took the ball, then a cat chased Doug, then Doug grew wings, then the cat morphed into a thermonuclear warhead…etc.” X happened, and then Y happened, and repeated until there is nothing more to tell.
However, plot is different.
The plot is the reasoning behind why these events work together and what the story is communicating to the reader. “Doug took the ball from the greedy, ball hording cat. In the cat’s rage, it chased after Doug. Fearing for his life, Doug grew a pair of wings to escape and deliver the ball to his friend Wilbur, a ball-enthusiast. The cat would not allow him to get away with its favorite toy and morphed into a thermonuclear warhead as both a means of catching up and a threat…”
The rationale is present and tries to answer the “why?” in a story. Why are these pieces coming and for what reason? That’s the job of plot.
It’s a difficult balance that writers must balance or confusion for the reader can quickly set in.
PLOT VS CHARACTER
Okay, so which is more important, plot or character?
The short answer: Both
Character is important. A great character or cast of characters is what really keeps you wanting to learn more about the story. A good character is one we root for (or against) and have genuine self-interest in learning more about them. We want to follow the character on their adventure. However, if you have a bunch of awesome characters with nothing for them to do, nobody would read that either right?
Character and plot should work together, weaving fast-paced, exciting events with engrossing, multi-dimensional characters. There is no wrong way to write. You can work on characters that are interesting and insert them into a story. You can think of an awesome sequence of events that would make a great story and organically build the characters inside of it.
At the end of the day, you want both to blend together in your story. If you don’t have both, readers might get bored and have no reason to stay around.
That’s all I wanted to cover in this post and if you want to see more of this on the blog, please let me know on the comments or on Twitter.
-J.J.