Can anyone think of a good example of a "character" driven plot, or a writer who is renound for good, rounded, believable characters and develops them well?

The only writer I can think of that really stands out is Stephen King; The Shawshank Redemption, The Stand, and IT are examples that immediately come to mind. I haven't read any of these for fifteen, or twenty years, yet I can still remember the characters very well.

I'm concentrating on writing for Young Adults, but I'll read anything if it's good.

Any help would be appreciated.

Colin M

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and Iain Banks - some of his characters were okay.

Holes by Louis Sacher, Fat Boy Rules the World by K.L. Going.

I'll try and think of some more.

S
x

Yup, both brilliant examples, but I've read them. I don't think KL Going has done anything else, and can't find anything in the same age group by Louis Sacher. You could say that Lyra is quite believable in His Dark Materials but the other characters aren't anywhere near as well developed(although I liked the bear!)

Well, it's not for young adults, but I'd say Bonfire of the Vanities is character driven plot (Tom Wolfe) although some might disagree. And Julia Darling's novels and short stories are very much so, as are Jane Smiley's, for example A Thousand Acres- all the action takes place as result of characterisation. Steinbeck's East of Eden... could go on, but won't.

Thanks Anna. I'm not necessarily looking for Young Adult stuff. That's the audience I really want to write for, but the novel I'm planning is becoming more adult by the day. I don't mean "adult" as in sex, but in subject.

I got a suggestion from Ashlinn on Matthew's Story which was to tell the story from a sibling's point of view. I decided I could only do this if I changed to fiction; that was the starting point of 'standing David - my current project.

Colin

Surely, Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye' is one of the finest examples.

Darryl

Next stop... Amazon.co.uk!!!

oh hang on, all the bills have come out. Next stop... The Library!!!

cheers

Colin,

The character of Owen Meany in "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving haunted me for weeks after I finished the book.

Colin,

The character of Owen Meany in "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving haunted me for weeks after I finished the book.

Colin,

The character of Owen Meany in "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving haunted me for weeks after I finished the book.



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Now you know just how much I liked it!
sorry about that, I thought I had a stuck button on my pc.

Susan Howatch has written many wonderful books which are all character driven. Her characterisation is fantastic; I especially like the way she writes one section of a novel from one viewpoint, and then for the next section switches to another character, so that you see exactly what someone whom you perhaps hated in the last section thinks and feels, and that person becomes more sympathetic.

She wrote five so-called sagas, which in my opinion are far to good to be delegated to the "saga" genre, and then a series of six called the Starbridge novels, which are all set in the world of the Church of England (and are NOT at all stuffy!), and then several more which I found not quite so powerful.

I read a book by Malorie Blackman like that: Noughts and Crosses - a truly brilliant book. It had alternate chapters, swapping between the two main characters; starting with them as children through to adults.

Are character driven plots mainly a female thing?

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by that, I mean that the best writers of this type seem to be women.

Cloud Atlas - not what you'd call a character driven plot, or even a coherent plot, as such, but the characters voices (five different parts all written in first person) are so distinct when I read it I was amazed they'd all been invented by the same man - David Mitchell. Also, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and I agree with you whole-heartedly about King - his ability to characterise is phenomenal.

One man who gets his chaarcters perfect is Rohinton Mistry. Oh, and for that matter Vikram Seth in A Suitabe Boy, That's also character driven.

Some good suggestions here. I bought The Catcher in the Rye yesterday. Finished it this morning. Fantastic! Just the sort of thing I was after. (It even gave me a nightmare! Class!!)

I also bought A Prayer for Owen Meany - hope to get that started today, but I've agreed to do a barbeque, and it's started to rain. I'll probably get a sniffle which can easily develop into a cold if your not careful.

Colin M