Develop a clean line of action for your leading character
I'm certainly a plot and character man. Themes, structure, style - they're valid components of a novel and you can't complete the book without them. But I think what propels me as a reader is plot and character.
When it comes to a character, I make sure that it adds to the plot.
Plot and character are virtually the same thing.
My feeling for reality TV isn't ironic, guilty, or apologetic. Reality TV is one of the few remaining modes of popular entertainment in which characterization is permitted as plot.
I definitely feel that plot flows from character. I don't believe that you can construct a plot and insert people into it.
I love magic and playing with magic systems. But to me, good fantasy like all fiction comes down to good character and plotting.
The characters are the plot. What they do and say and the things that happen to them are, in a sense, what the plot is. You can't take character and plot apart from each other, really.
The biographical novel sets out to document this truth, for character is plot, character development is action, and character fulfillment is resolution.
