•  What’s Most Important: Character, Setting, or Plot?

We’re back in the writers’ room with our eight international and local writers. What do they have to say about which is most important in a story: character, setting or plot?

Fiona Snyckers:If you’d asked me this a few months ago I would have emphasised character and a good, strong plot.  But recently I’ve been reading books in which the setting is so strong that it almost becomes an

additional character in the story.  I’d really like to start making a more vivid use of setting in my stories.

Beatrice Lamwaka: The characters are more important to me and when all is set with the characters then setting and plot come into place. It is the characters who tell the stories so if a writer develops great characters then the story will come out easily. Without characters, plot and setting cannot be.

Cheryl Ntumy: Character is the most interesting part for me. I love getting into the heads of the characters, figuring them out, allowing myself to be possessed by them. It’s fascinating and educational to think like someone else, and human beings are such incredibly complex creatures that I never get tired of exploring them through my characters. Plot is the next most important thing. I usually don’t care very much about setting unless it’s integral to the story, e.g. with fantasy or sci-fi stories. In my head the ideal stories take place in parallel universes – worlds almost like ours but not quite. I hate being restricted by geography, socio-political conditions, time, or anything else, to be honest.

Jenny Robson: Plot, plot and more plot. Readers deserve a story that wows them, that encourages them to turn another page rather than turn on the TV. Characters are mainly important because of what they DO – which is the plot. The setting is only important as the backdrop to what is HAPPENING, which once again is the plot. Plot is about organising the doings and the happenings in such a way that keeps the reader wondering and in suspense. Suspense is the cherry on the top of the plot.

Gothataone Moeng: Character is most important to me. As a writer from Botswana, I do feel that setting is also important, partly because I do feel some responsibility to write stories about Botswana.  Botswana doesn’t really have a strong literary tradition or history, so I do feel like it is about time stories about a real Botswana and about Batswana were told.  That doesn’t mean that I am just looking towards the nostalgic past, I am also writing stories about contemporary society.

Sue Guiney: When I started writing, it was all about character, and I suppose character is still what interests me most. Who can exist in the world, what would they do if they were here? But as I wrote more, I found I loved writing about setting, and more and more I look to set my novels in places that move me and that I want to write about. My last novel, A Clash of Innocents, and the one I am writing now, are both set in Cambodia. Plus, it all gives me a good excuse to travel! And although I always used to say that my favourite novels were the ones where nothing happens, I have now learned the importance of plot. If you don’t have a plot, you don’t have a story. But this is the element that I personally have the most difficulty with, and why of all the good reviews I’ve had for my last novel, the fact that people have called it “a page turner” has pleased me the most.

Tania Hershman:For me it’s character. When I write, I need to hear the voice strongly in my head from the word go, whether it be the main character’s voice or the narrator’s, that’s what grabs me. And that’s what

entices me when I read to. A character that intrigues me, or language that woos me with its uniqueness. I don’t generally set my stories in a specific location, that’s not what interests me, I write on the borderline between real and unreal and actual places don’t serve the stories I am trying to tell. Plot is a misleading word for me – writers often feel they need lots of “events” in order to keep a reader reading. The story equivalent of an action movie. Those aren’t the kinds of things I need when I read – or write. I am more a fan of the quiet moments, the small things that can change a life almost without you noticing them. But that’s plot too!

Wame Molefhe: Character(s). I like to think I get to know the characters in my stories. I think about how they react in different situations, what they dream about, how they think. My characters’ names are very important. Maybe it is because they are usually Setswana names (whose meanings I know).  I want to make the name matter. Also, I find that I am more interested in knowing what goes on in the character’s head rather than physical appearance—although when I am done creating the person, I know how they look.