Re: Writers' Study Chat and Feedback - Ask all your questions here!
The MAARC LXXXIII has only one entry so far (it would be great to see more), so you'll be okay, Skotos. Meanwhile, don't forget to enter Tale of the Week 292: Leap of Faith and MCWC XX: C'mon, Guys, Don't Leave Kilo11 on His Own!!.
Originally Posted by
Kilo11
Honestly, I don't really understand why this distinction would be made so strongly. I mean, obviously some stories focus more on one or the other, and there are notable examples that wholly emphasize only one of those, but to my mind basically all stories should have a healthy balance of both. If it is all character I will lose interest because I need a reason to follow what the characters are doing, and if it is all plot it will rapidly feel somewhat flat (as the characters are then likely to be nothing more than set-pieces). So I would say that authors should aim to have stories that are driven by a plot, but where the characters have a real impact on the plot's development, and the characters' impact(s) flow from their own personal development(s).
I think you make a good point about the need for a balance between plot and character, with the storyline and the personalities of the people influencing each other.
For AARs, I wonder if this involves a wider choice, between 'campaign-driven' AARs (in which we play the campaign as we normally would and write a story about that), AARs based on 'story-driven' campaigns (in which we have a story in mind, and play the campaign to fit the story) and AARs based on 'character-driven' campaigns (in which we play the campaign according to the personalities of the major characters).
I wonder if writers can relate to that way of thinking? I don't see this as a simple choice of one of these three options. We might play a campaign normally most of the time, but delay sending reinforcements to a critical battle because it will make that encounter more exciting. We might mainly play a campaign according to the story we planned, but, when the brother of one of our main characters is killed defending a city, and the enemy sacks that ctiy, we might feel that it's right for the main character to lead an increasingly bitter campaign to avenge his fallen brother (even though that wasn't the story we intended to write.) This classification won't relate to everyone, since not every AAR is based on a campaign (some use the game-world as a setting, without focusing on a campaign.)
Last edited by Alwyn; May 29, 2019 at 03:27 AM.