I’m a big believer in plot, but often I read books that only have a story. Sometimes this is enough. For short stories, fables and even some films, all you need is a story that allows you to properly present an interesting character and let it blossom into something that people ‘click’ with. It doesn’t matter how you hook a reader or a viewer, but once you have hooked one – you’ve got a fan. Fans are, in one way or another, the ultimate goal of every author. Fans mean sales and sales mean another contract. Fans = careers.
The problem comes when books or films that don’t have great characters are given only storylines to work with. A great example is the Walking Dead, where you have an ensemble cast of broken idiots shuffling about aimlessly, trying to progress a storyline as slowly as possible to fill a dozen episodes – Season 2 is incredibly dull. Why? I think it’s because there is no plot. Plot is when you take a storyline that goes from point A to point B and C and D and so-on, and then mess it up like cooked spaghetti until you have actions and consequences that run over the duration of the novel or series or film or trilogy. Plot is when you don’t see things coming. Plot is when a throwaway red herring becomes critical. Plot is when the audience guesses one thing and you go and do something shockingly different. Plot is foreshadowing. Plot is what turns a story into a character of its own.
An example of this would be to take Back to the Future and re-cast it. You’d have a great plot about changing the past, affecting the future and saving the space-time continuum. The plot is deliciously convoluted and, for all intents and purposes, as much of a character as Marty or Biff, who in their own right bolster and enhance the plot by being integral to it. The whole series works so well because of the synergy between plot and characters. Either element would work on their own (this is why there are animated series and spin-off series and comic series for popular franchises), but together they’re a juggernaut.
If you’re writing a novel or screenplay, imagine changing your entire cast of characters. Does a plot still hold together, or are your characters the real trophies in the showcase of your story. It may be what you want, but bear in mind that the most beloved of classic and contemporary works are likely to have a real plot rather than just a framing device for comic sidekicks and a few fight scenes.
Exceptions do exist, but we try not to talk about Twilight too much.