It's the characters, stupid!

I had an epiphany this evening as I was walking through the New York Public Library after work. I had gone to pick up the copy of Libba Bray's Rebel Angels that I had reserved. While I was there, two things hit me. The first was that I have never read a Nicholas Sparks novel, and I have absolutely no desire to do so, despite the fact that I've seen two movies based on his books, and they weren't bad. I think part of the reason I refuse to pick up his books besides disinterest, is he once made a comment to Entertainment Weekly about how men made better romance novelists than women which I thought was the most bone-headed comment I'd ever heard.

The second epiphany that I had was that I've never put down a Nora Roberts novel after I'd finished it, and thought to myself, I wish I had come up with that plot. Not that Nora isn't a great plotter, but that's not what I come away with after I've finished one of her books. It's the characters that stay with me. I've read almost everyone of her J.D. Robb books, not for the mystery, but to find out what's going on with Eve and Roarke, Peabody and McNabb, and whether or not Mavis is ever going to have that baby (it's been like two years now that she's been pregnant).

It's the same with the Stephanie Plum books. If you asked me to name a plot of any of Janet Evanovich's books, I couldn't tell you, but I can tell you about Morelli and Ranger, Lula, Grandma Mazur, Stephanie's parents, her cousin Vincent.

When you're creating a series, the characters have to be compellling, otherwise, why would the reader keep coming back book after book. But the same is true of books that aren't series driven. One of my favorite romance novels is by Lavryle Spencer, called Years. The love story between Teddy and Linnet is what I remember the most. Even Gone With The Wind, we remember Scarlett, Melanie, Rhett, Ashley and Mammy more than we do the actual story.

I've also read every single Mary Higgins Clark book, which are incredibly plot driven page-turners, which keep me up all night reading them. But the next day, I couldn't tell you what the book was about. They're like Chinese food, an hour later and you're still hungry.

Not that plot isn't important, but it's the framework to a novel, and (for me at least) the characters are the bricks and mortar. If you have really great characters, the plot should (hopefully) flow from what the characters would or wouldn't do.

I freely admit I suck at plot. I either have too much or too little. I have the biggest problem ending chapters but characters I can write, dialogue I can write. Every single rejection letter (that hasn't been a form letter) has mentioned how much they like my characters.

Now if I can just get the plot thing going, I'll be cooking with gas.