You’re working on your comic and you’ve put together some sort of plan to figure out your story’s plot when suddenly: A DILEMMA! You find yourself with both a plot and characters that need to be fleshed out. How do you tackle this challenge and make your comic the best it can be? Join us as we discuss.

When you’re reading a comic and the balance between character and plot isn’t working, what does that look like?

• Characters don’t seem to act on their own and instead follow a premade trail.
• Conflicts don’t seem to be resolved by the characters, rather solutions come via divine intervention or just because the author declares as such.
• Deus ex Machina

Too much focus on character vs plot can be seen when:

• Characters are enjoyable, but there never seems to be any consequences for things they do.
• Stakes are never raised.
• Convenience can get your characters into trouble, but it shouldn’t get them out.
• There’s no character growth

Sometimes characters can feel underdeveloped when they are just following a very clear plot structure. How do you personally deal with and avoid that in your own works?

Take a step back and look at the character. What would they do? Would this move the plot forward? Would a different character be more likely to move the plot forward at this point?

Use someone else as a sounding board to get ideas. Get inside your character’s head! Know how THEY will interact with a moment. Is it truly in character for them to act X way just to move the plot along? Will this create contradictions in characterisation?

Beta readers can be very helpful to catch things like this. Make sure you don’t sacrifice the character’s personality and motivations just to move the plot around.

How can “letting the characters loose” benefit the plot? What are the downsides of it?

If a character is already well developed it will have its own wants, needs, and desires. Allowing them to act on those desires or preventing them from reaching their wants can help drive the plot in an interesting and character driven way. Use this carefully, because allowing the characters to drive TOO much could lose the plot and lead back to the original problem of imbalance.

Bonus Thoughts

Avoid concentrating too much on one element over the other. The two must be able to breathe for readers to enjoy, engage, and invest time in your works. Having one without the other *could* work in *some*stories, but many need both compelling characters and story to create that impact you seek. Balance is everything!

Develop behind the scenes to help round and ground your works. Not all info has to be presented to the reader, but knowing most of the answers for yourself will help you structure not only the plot, but the characters in it to be more likely to relate/or feel more towards. This also comes in handy if you were to have subtleties you wish to extrapolate on, or for readers to have a more enjoyable second or third read through. (Re-readability is a good goal to work towards, depending on your genre!)

Ultimately, what a lot of readers are there for are the characters. The plot is there to draw out the facets of the characters that lead people to become invested in them. Plot and Character development work together to create a story that readers will enjoy and keep coming back to.

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Episode Release Date: April 27, 2022

Episode Credits:

Kristen Lee (@feathernotes) - she/they, ghostjunksickness.com lunarblight.com

Phineas Klier - they/them, heirsoftheveil.fervorcraft.de

Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane) - she/they, chirault.sevensmith.net wychwoodcomic.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.