How To Write A Character-driven Plot

How to write a character-driven plot

The Character-Driven Plot Wheel

1. Emotions drive actions.

Make your hero act on their deepfelt emotions. This not only adds meaning to their actions, but also helps communicate to readers your hero’s core emotional struggle.

2. Actions trigger consequences.

When your hero acts, give their actions consequences that affect the plot, themselves, and/or the surrounding characters. For example, driven by curiosity, maybe your hero opens Pandora’s box; maybe they act recklessly and someone dies; or maybe they stand up for what they believe in, but at great personal cost. Consequences raise the stakes and empower your hero with agency.

3. Consequences compel change.

Use the consequences of your hero’s actions to create a crucible of growth — challenges and situations that force them to take the next step on their character journey. That step may be forward, or backward, and it may be large or small; but something inside them changes.

4. Change influences emotions.

When a character goes through a change, even a small one, allow it to affect them emotionally. Maybe they feel increasingly frustrated or guilty. Maybe they’re afraid, having just taken another step closer to abandoning their old way of seeing the world. Or maybe they finally feel peace.

Regardless of the form it takes, remember to reflect your hero’s change in their emotions. Then let their emotions drive action, to trigger consequences, which will compel further change.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

And there you have it! That’s how you write a character-driven plot.

So what do you say?

Give the wheel a spin.

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Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

My favourite (UNDERRATED) writing techniques | Authortube

Did y’all catch last week’s upload? I chat my top ten (underrated) writing techniques, including some that I made up lol! What are your favourite writing techniques?

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laylabsposts

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laylabsposts

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MEDIA INFLUENCES FOR ‘ON SUNDAYS, SHE PICKED FLOWERS / LITERATURE

MEDIA INFLUENCES FOR ‘ON SUNDAYS, SHE PICKED FLOWERS / LITERATURE

The long put of sequel to the film version of this post… But anyways, it’s finally here so we can talk about the books that inspired On Sundays, She Picked Flowers. I’m just gonna give you the names of the books and the inspirations I took from each of them in relation to the plot, the relationships, the setting and the characters!

THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker

Celie and Shug Avery was the first time I’d ever read or seen anything about Black women who love women. It’s no surprise that their relationship inspired the relationship between Jude and Nemoira.

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston

Janey’s independence inspired much of Jude’s character, as well as her relationship with her hair and her lovers.

The body as nature, a pear tree in bloom as a symbol of sexual awakening; Jude’s connection to plant life (trees, in particular) is quite obvious in On Sundays

BELOVED by Toni Morrison

I could do an entire essay on the connection / inspirations between Beloved and On Sundays, She Picked Flowers but that’ll have to wait until the book is published, and more of the references will make sense. For now, Jude is heavily inspired by Sethe and Nemoira by Beloved herself. Many other themes borrowed are the pursuit of freedom through violence, mother-daughter relationships, isolation and self-ownership, and healing through past trauma, how trauma affects the whole body, mind and all.

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte

Jude herself admits to being formed/inspired by Miss Jane Eyre!

Not to mention, the themes of nature, isolation, strange loves and “haunted” houses

HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z. Danielewski

Speaking of haunted houses … Both houses viewed in On Sundays, She Picked Flowers are characters of their own, and they’re both radically inspired by House of Leaves. The corridor, the staircase… Yes.

ANNIHILATION by Jeff VanderMeer

Nature behaving strangely, isolation (again!), and a little something special with a bear ;)

ALIAS GRACE by Margaret Atwood

A slightly unreliable narrator, a woman that can’t be pinned down with just one word…Yes. All over, yes. Also quilting, but less in a white woman way and in more of a ‘Black American women have always had a very complex and long history with quilting, so much so that our contributions to quilting is its own history.’

SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn

Two words; Mommy Issues, Self Harm as a way of gaining control over a body that seems uncontrollable. Though I guess, actually, that’s way more than two words. You get what I’m saying though, right?

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson

The setting, the sick house and sick land, the haunted house as a character, the unreliable narrator, the gay vibes all throughout, the bone deep terror that weaves its way through the story until you’re curled up on your bed terrified… I only hope that On Sundays makes you all feel the same.

Keep reading

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laylabsposts

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