Character Driven or Plot Driven

[lunamk03]

No: HPFGUIDX 155313

> > Laura Lynn Walsh <lwalsh@> wrote:
> > snipped
> > I think the important thing is to look at the characters and
> > to understand their motives, their feelings, and their actions.
> > It seems to me that the plot is there just to expose different
> > facets of their characters, which would make the books, in my
> > mind character driven.
> >
> > But I can also see that people who have not immersed themselves
> > in analyzing the characters might view the plots of each book to
> > be more important.
>
> Leah:
> I wonder how much is personal preference.  snip
>
> So it's perhaps not surprising that I find HP plot driven; perhaps
> I'm just not interested in character analysis.  Having said that,
> I think there are three main elements at work in HP, none of which
> is characterisation.  Firstly, plot. Each book embodies a mystery
> or mysteries- <snip> In most mysteries, character is subservient
> to plot.


Luna:
Thanks Laura and Lea to bring about this subject!
Actually, I find myself in the plot driven group. I also see the
characters serving the plot, and not the plot serving the
characters.

I remember a similar discussion with someone in the shipping
discussion list. After HBP, some H/Hers were all startled and
surprised with the outcome and were asking R/Her about the Anvil
sized clues that Jo was supposed to have shown in the books. While
explaining this, I realized that a lot of the H/Her's in the list
were character driven persons who centered their attention an awful
lot in Hermione, which somehow rendered it very hard for them to see
the books from a plot point of view.

It was hard because they were talking apples and I was talking
oranges!

Now I wonder... Is it possible that most H/Hers are more character
than plot driven readers...?

Luna, who wonders if being a tranlator also rendered her plot driven
reader...