One of the biggest mistakes new authors and those in the writing community make, especially in regards to queries, is mistaking the subplot for the plot.

For the purposes of simplicity, I’m referring to narratives in which there are one or two main characters, rather than (mosaic) narratives with ensemble casts, which is a beast in and of itself.

The plot is the main sequence of events that create the core of the story. It overshadows all subplots, and can (but doesn’t always) tie the subplots together.

The subplot is the secondary sequence of events that adds dynamic to the main plot, but is not the main plot, itself. In action-driven novels, this can be a smaller sequence of actions that increase the stakes of the main plot (the illness of a family member which causes the villain to rob a bank), it can also be a love interest, the relationship between a villain and his mother, a bully and his own abuser, a cop and a criminal, so on and so forth. In a character-driven story, the subplot can be the physical movement of the story, other relationships, the introduction or abolition of a marginalizing law, so on and so forth.

Authors are conditioned to believe that the plot revolves around physical movement. This is true for action-driven stories, however, applying this train of thought as a blanket statement to all stories would be a disservice to the character-driven ones.

In being part of a writing community where aspiring authors offer their queries for critique, I have seen many a comment suggesting that various stories had a weak plot because the commentators mistook the chain reaction of physical events for the plot. I’ve also seen comments suggesting the plot had holes, or was superficial at best.

So what did the writers do? They rewrote their queries to showcase the physical movement of the story. Why is this a blunder? Because you’ll query your Romance as a thriller with a love interest. You’ll shop your narrative of grief as a crime novel. You’ll hook an agent with your coming-of-age by the promise of an epic fantasy it’ll never live up to, or repulse an agent who would have otherwise gobbled up your story of overcoming addiction because you presented it as a Whodunnit.

I have seen non-Romance writers critique a query and say there was too much emotion and not enough “plot.” It begs the question, what then, is the plot of a Romance? (I’ll give you a hint: it’s not to watch the two lovers fix up the inn that brought them together.)

It’s very tempting to create a query out of the action sequence of a story, but this is a no-no, especially when that sequence only serves as the subplot. Those who are unfamiliar with your genre will oftentimes revert to highlighting the action sequence of your story because this is what the forums (which are invaluable for authors) taught them to do.

The best thing any querying author can do is know what your story is about (theme). Once you narrow down your genre, find other authors/readers who know that genre inside and out and ask them to take a look at your query/synopsis/sample/novel first.

Your beta reader doesn’t always have to read or write in your genre, but the ideal critique partner should. If you’re new and get all your advice from someone unfamiliar with your genre who’s taught to draw out “the action,” their influence just may turn your narrative of dealing with depression into a true horror story.

All stories have a plot, but not all plots are driven by the same thing. What’s the difference? The conflict.

Stories that focus on an external conflict are action driven (often called “plot”-driven), and stories that focus on an internal conflict are character driven.

Many character-driven novels have some action, and many action-driven novels have some character growth. But how does one know which is which?

A friend of mine told me this, and I’m passing it on to you (with permission).

Consider a story that starts with a character who wants something they can’t have. That’s the overarching story element that’s the last thing to be resolved. This is why so many romances end with a marriage, for instance.

Contrast that to a story which starts with a problem that MUST be solved—like a terrorist has taken control of a school and they have a kindergarten full of hostages.

That’s a great starting point. There are a few other methods that might help narrow this down, so let’s keep going.

Another way to identify if your piece is character or action-driven is to identify the main conflict. Is it internal, or external?

Consider this. One can build a home externally (with bricks, boards and nails), or one can build a home internally (with love and compassion). One can get the girl externally (physically retrieve her), or one can get the girl internally (win her heart). What main course of action *must* our hero(ine) accomplish by the end? Defeat/complete something external, or overcome/change/accept something internal?

Identifying the main conflict can be difficult for some (especially MG and YA novels where characters often grow as well as defeat a foe). So, if you’re unsure about which takes precedence (the growth or the defeat), try deciding whether the protagonist changes the story dramatically.

To do this, first exchange the protagonists with someone else who has a different *in my Liam Neeson voice* set of skills/color/gender/race/religion/confidence. If this significantly changes the conflict/issue our hero faces, then it’s likely a character-driven novel. If the conflict is relatively the same, then exchange the protagonist/locale. If this changes the storyline, then you likely have an action-driven novel.

Take Castaway, for example. The plot in this character-driven story is about an unprepared castaway who must battle depression and hopelessness and learn how to survive. Sure, a plane went down and he’s building stuff (subplot), but the main conflict is within himself. The bulk of the story shows him conquering his own shortcomings (learning how to make a fire, hunt, build, overcome loneliness and depression, find a will to survive etc). And then he gets off that island. *He* must change before his circumstance can.

Now, imagine if survivalist expert Bear Grylls were marooned on an island. What would the plot look like then? Definitely not the same because he knows how to survive in such an environment. So, I’d expect an external conflict in this story—maybe there are aliens on this island and they keep taking his rafts. Maybe the island is alive and absorbs human visitors to power itself. (Or, perhaps it’s simply a prescriptive nonfiction piece.)

Now, take an action-driven story—Jaws, for instance. If you replaced the protagonist with someone else, the conflict would be relatively the same—a shark is terrorizing the beach and someone must stop it. It doesn’t matter whether Jeremy Wade or Batman is the protagonist, the narrative will remain relatively the same, and the characters will likely do minimal growth because the battle is external. Since changing the protagonist in the story does not change the conflict, go a step further and change the shark to an alligator or a penguin, or set the story in a volcano. The storyline would be vastly different in the level of threat and the manner in which it is addressed.

This helps you narrow down the focus of the novel—are we watching a person or a relationship change, or are we watching a threat become neutralized?

In addition to identifying the main conflict and/or the impact of exchanging protagonists, you can also try to identify the antagonist. In a character-driven narrative, the focus of the story is usually a character changing himself or his relationships (internal conflict). In an action-driven narrative, the focus of the story is usually a character overcoming his physical surroundings (external conflict). Therefore, the antagonist of an action-driven novel is usually someone else (a bad guy, predatory animals, a live forest trying to kill MC, etc), whereas the antagonist in a character-driven novel is oftentimes (*but not always*) the protagonist, himself.

I’d expect character development (and maybe a bit of growth) in an action-driven narrative, and I’d expect some sort of action in a character-driven narrative, but the point in the distinction is the main focus. Determining the focus of the narrative can also help you decide whether it’s character or action-driven.

In conclusion, most stories have both action and character with the emphasis on one over the other. If the main point is to watch the protagonist grow and change in himself or his relationships, then we’ve likely got a character-driven story. If the main point is to watch the series of physical events unfold, then we’ve likely got an action-driven story.

New novelists of character-driven narratives have a difficult time writing queries because most authors are conditioned to focus on the external conflict of a story.

When these novelists present their queries, they’re pressured to plug it into a format that showcases a series of physical events. But, what happens when the main events that move the plot forward are all internal? They’re dinged for having “no plot.”

This is far from the truth—the plot is strong and present, it’s just not driven by action.

Before moving forward, let us define plot. Plot is the main chain-reaction series of events that create the core of a story. These events can either be external (physical) or internal (mental).

Compared to the size of the novel, there’s very little physical movement or action in The Shining. However, when you look at character development and growth, it’s quite apparent that the focus of the story isn’t the sequence of actions the characters take in order to escape the hotel, but on watching Jack Torrance become unhinged and fall even deeper into his alcoholism before succumbing to his demons, so to speak.

Do things happen in the story? Sure, they go to the hotel, he starts seeing things, Danny is chased, the previous cook returns to help, Wendy tries to protect her son, then the hotel blows up. However, those are things that happen in the subplot, they’re not the Plot.

This is an example of how an action-driven sequence serves as the subplot in a character-driven novel.

Character-driven themes include but are not limited to:

The relationship between one person and something else, such as:

• another person (friendship, romance, a family rift, superior/subordinate/authority)
• a pet (a boy and his dog, a girl and her cat)
• an item (hoarding, the last thing a child made for its mother before passing away, a man’s refusal to sell the house he and his now-deceased wife built together)
• a social construct (ageism, racism, sexism, ableism, unjust laws)
• alcohol/substances (substance abuse, alcoholism, a strict aversion to it all)
• religion (struggling with, finding, or accepting Main Character’s own or someone else’s faith)
• environment (escaping the “fate” of fatherless boys in a crime-ridden community)
• coming of age

Themes where the relationship is with oneself include but are not limited to:

• coming of age           
• overcoming addiction/OCD/trauma/Main Character’s own prejudice/ism           
• grief           
• introspection           
• learning to love oneself          
• learning to forgive (betrayal, framed by a friend/cop)        
• coming out of one’s shell, perseverance and endurance (finding the mental strength to keep going/trying again when exhausted, injured and lost in the wilderness/snow storm, keeping up morale as a prisoner or war, clinging to hope when wrongfully convicted)

Characters who are both the protagonist and the antagonist usually grow to the point of becoming someone completely new because the obstacle they overcome is within themselves.

In conclusion, a character-driven story is not a plotless story, nor does it lack in plot, because the character growth is the plot. Consider Blindside, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Boy Meets World, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, The Color Purple, or Forrest Gump. These stories have nothing but Plot.

So, if you’re a new author of character-driven stories, don’t be shy to showcase your characters in all their messy, dramatic glory, and don’t allow others to “edit” your query into a high-octane-something that it isn’t.

If you’re a veteran critique-giver of action-driven narratives and a query comes across your desk that focuses on the characters, don’t assume it’s plotless; consider that perhaps it is the characters who drive the story, and help the author make that internal conflict shine.

Plot is one of the 5 elements of a story (the plot, the setting, the theme, the style and the characters).

The term “plot” is oftentimes used in place of “action,” when referring to what drives a story, but that’s not exactly what plot is. Plot is the chain-reaction series of events that create the core of a story. Plot is what the story is about. It isn’t limited to the physical movement or action in a narrative (external conflict), but includes the mental, intellectual and emotional movement (internal conflict), as well.

When the emphasis of a story is on its physical movement (someone kidnaps the wrong person, and she blows stuff up to get away), then the story is driven by action. When the emphasis is on inner or “mental” movement (developing relationships, for example), then the story is driven by character.

To imply that a story is “plot”-driven, rather than action-driven, is to imply that it has meaning or worthiness of being read (because it has plot). What does this do? This implies that character-driven stories have little to no plot. If you scour various writing forums, you will find many comments suggesting that someone’s character-driven novel lacks plot, and this simply is not true. They’ve mistaken “plot” for physical movement or action, rather than the series of causal events that create the core of the story.

What drives the story is the focus of these events. It’s easy to assume they’re physical because action usually moves a story forward. However, characters can also move a story forward just as effectively and powerfully. In character-driven pieces, the physical sequence of events serve as the subplot, whereas in action-driven pieces, the inner/mental sequence of events often serve as the subplot.

Need an example?

In thrillers, the main plot is Bad Guy doing this and Hero apprehending him (physical sequence). The subplot is Hero getting the girl (emotional sequence). In Romances, the main plot is Hero 1 and Hero 2 falling in love (emotional), the subplot is them finishing the project that brought the two together (physical).

Let’s take Remember the Titans. The point of remembering the Titans was an examination of how racism in society destroys unity. Without the outside influence of racism, an interracial team was undefeatable, but when subjected to the outside pressures from friends, family and the community, the interracial team crumbled. The main movement is internal. The point is internal. Watching the team going from decent to great and winning a football tournament was the added bonus of its subplot.

Another example is The Green Mile. The healings, executions and Percy’s removal were integral events, but the story was not centered around them. The narrative emphasized Paul growing as a human being, developing a personal relationship with an inmate, identifying racial injustices and microaggressions, and accepting John’s desire to pass away instead of breaking free. That is the Plot—it’s emotional, it’s internal, it’s powerful, it’s character-driven.

In conclusion, “plot”-driven does not mean action-driven. Physical movement doesn’t always move the story forward, nor does it always serve as the Plot. Therefore, to conclude that a story has a strong, weak or missing plot based on its physical movement is to misunderstand the character-driven narrative.