Plot vs Character

Would you rather read a badly-plotted book, or a book with flat characters?

This hotly-debated question crossed my feed yesterday. With the obvious answer being “neither,” my second answer is, “what constitutes ‘bad plotting’ is a genre question,” followed closely by “sometimes, it’s the same book.”

Genre is pretty inextricable from reader expectations. If I’m reading a romance and the book ends with them breaking up, that’s poor plotting…but if I’m reading an upmarket or literary love story, then the breakup may be the whole point.

Additionally, saying a book is more plot- or more character-driven can be an oversimplification, because the characters create the plot. If there’s nothing compelling happening in your story, you may actually have a character development problem just as much as a plot problem. Thus, oftentimes a book with flat characters who have no goals can lead to a plot void, and vice versa.

So, what can you do to steer clear of these issues? Recognizing that plot and character are ultimately somewhat inextricable helps. It’s not a question of “bad plot or badly-developed characters,” but rather “does this plot and do these characters support each other and the story I’m trying to tell?”