Spider-Man: into the spiderverse. Every. Single. Character. So well written. I can’t even express how deeply I love this movie.

I read almost exclusively high fantasy. The issue is, that fantasy has so much conflict, magic and mystery in it, that it is very tempting to focus on worldbuilding and plot, which is why the characters tend to be flat underneath their cool badass quotes, skills and abilities. I wish more people were able to master both worldbuilding and characters, it seems too often one comes at the cost of the other.

kung fu panda, believe it or not. It has dumb jokes here and there but the protagonist is super well written!

I’ve always loved anime so much, and now i realized why - 99% of anime focuses on a character’s inner conflict so much it’s almost obnoxious! But you grow to love the characters and when they face that huge battle/climax scene it hits you like a punch to the gut. it occurred to me that, actually, anime has a habit of perfectly balancing characters and plot. no wonder it’s so popular!

Mulan will always be my favorite movie, period. Yeah, yeah, it looks like it’s just a woman dressed up as a man to fight in a war, but is much more than that. It’s about a woman finding herself and her self-worth, and understanding that she’ll bloom in her own way, and that’s OK. She learning how to fight and actually fighting the Huns is a lot of fun, but is not the important part.

Thank you for using sci-fi as your examples. I feel like some sci-fi movies are like look at this amazing CGI and not the under developed characters! People of Hollywood need to watch your channel.

I think it’s different for everyone though!! My dad can’t stand character driven stories because he doesn’t care about connecting to fictional characters - he just wants to read an interesting plot. Different stories attract different sorts of people. I think as writers we need to get that everyone looks for something different in a story and not everyone is looking for a lesson or a character to connect to. Some people just want a good plot with twists and turns and surprises and the characters are just vehicles to experience it. There’s no wrong reason to read and therefore there’s no wrong thing to focus on when writing. Some people are looking for a good world. Some people are looking for plot twists. Some people are reading to care about characters. I think looking down on plot driven stories is fine, but realize that’s what some people look for in a story, which is fine too! Furthermore, plot driven stories don’t actually mean we don’t care about the characters. It just means the plot is what decides the character’s actions and pushes the story forward, not the character’s inner deliberations. In many examples of character driven stories, nothing really HAPPENS because the author is focused on telling the character’s story and thoughts instead of an adventure. And that’s fine! Some people dig that. Character driven stories aren’t just stories where you care about the characters, and plot driven stories aren’t just forgetting about the characters in favor of plot. It’s just a term used to describe motivation. A lot of “character driven” stories I find the characters unlikable and am turned off immediately. Too much emphasis is on how the characters are feeling and I don’t care and there’s no interesting plot to fall back on. Like your misbelief thing - some of the misbeliefs chosen in stories are so cringy and ridiculous I can’t stand to read any more to find out if the character learns from his mistakes. Whereas a book that focuses more on plot has the potential to be interesting and impactful even if I stop caring about the characters. It just depends. I think it’s important we as creative people don’t dismiss other points of view as inferior just because we don’t personally like it. We talked about that during my creative writing course in college haha. Anyway I enjoyed the video and your aesthetic is so pretty!!!

Avatar the Last Airbender is Character driven.... while The Legend of Kora is Plot driven.... I had been wondering recently why one made such a significant impact on me and why I didnt even remember the names of characters from the other.

I’m sure someone’s already said it, but in the book, Ready Player One actually has great internal conflict and arcs for the protagonist and side characters... though it does still suffer from some infodumping at the beginning. The movie basically went, “Let’s throw out everything about these characters and stick in a high-speed race with King Kong and a T-Rex instead!” The book goes a thousand times deeper than anything in the movie did. My favorite seemingly-plot-driven-but-actually-super-character-driven thing is Lost. There’s plot happening ALL over the place, but the backstories we get for each character in various episodes gives meaning to what’s happening on the island in the present. Some of the best character development ever written (and performed) in that show.

Speaking of Marvel movies, I actually think the first Captain America film, although not the best film, is pretty character driven. Steve is a great character, but some of the movies didn't do him justice at all.

This just helped me have a MAJOR breakthrough with a character! Exactly what I needed today

Favorite character-driven story??? Hard, there's so many, but I just rewatched Big Hero Six. So good. All the characters are great, it's got action, but the best part is THE EMOTION. My favorite superhero story.

Little Women: I grew to love all of these characters and really felt like I knew them. They all go through so much growth as people, and I love it!

This is so well said and so important. Answering the why it matters question for my MC is what finally got me to finish my outline after 8 years of struggling. Wish I'd found your channel waaaaayyyyy sooner!

I wanna create a story that makes the reader completely fail in love with the characters then at the end hurt the characters so badly that it leaves the reader emotional scarred

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson and The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson are AMAZING character-driven stories, definitely recommended!

You need BOTH. Character and plot go hand-in-hand to create an enthralling story. Without plot, all you have is a bunch of random inconsequential things happening. Anyone who says plot is what makes a story bad, and I hate to say this, have yet to truly understand what story IS. A STORY happens when something EXTERNAL forces someone/someones to confront their INTERNAL shortcomings (flaws, fears, etc). You don't need massive world-ending stakes to have a plot. All stakes are about life and death. Losing the chance to be with someone you love IS STILL ABOUT DEATH! Without plot, there is no conflict. And without conflict, there is no drama. And without drama, your story will be boring. No matter what words you use, without any of this your 50k word manuscript is sure to make a great doorstop. You need BOTH. It's a chicken and egg situation; character can come from plot or plot can come from character. But you need both to be strong. A strong plot FORCES a character to confront their inner self. They can't sleep on it, THEY ABSOLUTELY *MUST* ACT *RIGHT NOW* , or risk death (which, as alluded to above, can be an emotional one). Maybe a bit dramatic in that last sentence, but the point is that something happens which forces the protagonist (or protagonists) to take action. By the same token, you also need a great character. And here's what fiction writers can learn from other mediums -- it's not what we SAY, it's what we DO. A great way to show who a character is, is through the choices they make IN CONFLICT, of which there are six types: internal, relational, situational/environmental, social, paranormal, and cosmic. Simply put: INTERNAL = Versus self. Something that stops a character from moving forward. An example would be a man (and I know, I'm stealing this example) who wants to move in with his girlfriend (before marriage), but guilt holds him back. RELATIONAL = Versus someone else. Protagonist can't win unless the antagonist loses, and vice versa. SITUATIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL = Usually involves fear; a natural obstacle between what the character and what they want. One example could be a lifeguard who's afraid to save a drowning girl when he see's sharks surrounding her. It could also be something more human or man-made, as long as it's a clear obstacle that would still be there otherwise. SOCIAL = Versus a group of people. PARANORMAL = Versus the supernatural, or technology, or magic. COSMIC = Versus God/fate/etc; a more existentialist sort of conflict. All of these should naturally arise from your hero(ine?)'s dramatic need. Another point: we are _intrigued by characters who WANT things (plot)_ . We don't just empathize with a list of traits. That's not what makes someone likable. We empathize -- we understand, and connect with someone who WANTS SOMETHING... _badly_ . We empathize with the STRUGGLE that people go through. "external vs internal, mental vs emotional, etc" traits do not matter nearly as much as we'd like to think, which is why I personally do not focus on them.

My favorite story of all time is the Hunger Games story. The plot is amazing and well thought out, but the characters are even more so. There are almost no characters who we don't get at least a tasting of internal conflict and the more prominent a character they are the more insight we get. Beautiful.

Ready Player One is a WONDERFUL book. The book has very few similarities to the film and it's really a rivetting story that is very character driven. It's sad that they changed so much in the film.

Great video. Characters are the heart of fiction, for sure - but, of course, we need to get the plot right, too. And strong characters are important in every genre. Thank you for recognising this. Stories that focus exclusively, or almost exclusively, upon plot feel so empty. 💝

Your new space is so nice! Also yes character driven stories [but with a good plot] win every time for me :) Plus, your editing in this one is epic.

An older movie that represents the type of story I hope to tell is "Pay It Forward". That movie gutted me and made me really think about the kind of life I wished to live.

I love it when you say you measure success by the number of lives impacted. I believe in this strongly, and that is just one reason why I love you and your channel!

Gladiator (2000). I love how Maximus chooses to fight for the heart of the crowd to make the Roman people realize their fallen Emperor. He freed the slaves, had his vengeance, and created a new Rome that he never got to witness. I adore this movie.

You’re an amazing person I value your advice so much And I love your passion ❤️

This is hilariously on point with what you’re saying because when you said “let’s talk about Ready Player 1,” I was like “nope, never heard of it.” Then you started talking about the plot while flashes of it played on the screen and I was like “oh wait, this is familiar now that I’m looking at it actually,” but I couldn’t tell you a single piece of information about it at all😂😂😂

I always said plot is the skeleton of a story. When people tell me they are only interested in plot, I feel like they counterintuitively taught themselves to miss the characters and story in order to focus on plot because they think it makes them sound clever. So many stories forget characters and focus so much on concept, plot or world building that they forget to be about something beyond magicland, fantasyland or dystopianland...

*speaks while crying* finally the Amazing Spiderman gets the respect it deserves *sniffles*

Thank you so much Abbie! The way you explain how to make story structure correctly and how to make it actually matter has made me understand so much :D It's making me excited to start my comic that I'm creating. You're an amazing teacher

Little late to this party, but I have to point out The Last of Us. That game is just fantastic. Yes, it's about a zombie apocalypse, but it's not getting swept up in the blood and gore, it's more about the characters. The first scene is just about a girl giving her father a birthday present, showcasing their relationship, it makes you care about them before it even starts throwing zombies at you (and by the time it does it's more about getting your daughter to safety). I genuinely care about the characters because the writers cared about them; their backstory, motivations, feelings. It's one of my favorite stories and I don't replay it because I want to shoot some zombies, I replay it because Joel and Ellie mean something to me.

Success is measured by the lives impacted not by sales. Another great gem.

The best piece of character development advice I ever had was from a guy on KZfaq whos name I'm ashamed I can't remember (he analyzed Zuko's character), he said: Don't just have something bad happen to your characters, have something happen to them that they BLAME THEMSELVES FOR. I love that you really made this a point in this video. A character has to take responsibility for their actions (their fatal flaw usually causing it). In fixing their mistake, they then inevitably have to overcome their flaw. I'm so glad I didn't succumb to peer pressure to see Ready Player One with my friends. It seems terrible... Amazing video as always Abbie!

My favorite character driven story would probably be Inception. The plot/concept definitely takes a lot of the attention being so intriguing and different, but the story of Cobb and his journey to get home to his kids really does get me every time! I think it's a perfect example of taking an interesting plot and rounding it out with a character who's story you really do care about! It wasn't just about the unique idea, it was about a journey to forgiveness and returning home.

Attack on Titan. One of the greatest masterpieces in character driven stories, supercharged with a deep and interesting plot that makes you stick till the end.

Hi Abbie! I found your channel a couple days ago and I cannot leave it! You've been brilliantly speaking to my soul and I've been enjoying your every word, and putting all of them to use. This particular video has caused me to press pause, applaud your genius and write you a short note to let you know that in this very moment your work is changing my life. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. You'll be seeing me around here frequently. Ok, back to the video. Lol

I think I know what you’re trying to say, but you really need to read Creating Character Arcs by KM Weiland. It’ll get you to stop thinking about plot, character, and theme as separate entities.

My favorite character driven stories are My Hero Academia (a tv show) and the Green Ember (a series of novels) both handle character development really well, despite being totally different stories! And Avatar the Last Airbender

Probably my all time favourite movie is Inception and I think it balances the plot and character development really well. Although it starts with an action sequence where we are thrown into a world of dreams within dreams, we are quickly shown what drives Dicaprio's character Cobb - his desire to return to his children. When Saito wants to hire him for an inception of thoughts and in return offers to help him get home, Cobb accepts because it's his way to get back to his children, even though it means he will have to face his fears, because as we later learn it was his (innocent) inception that caused his wife's death which lead to him leaving the country and abandoning his children.

The Harry Potter movies are a GREAT example of character-driven stories. Call me basic, but every single character is meaningful and you can relate to them. Also, not a movie, but the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series is an excellent example of a VERY character-driven story that NEVER excludes good and exciting plotting.

Best explanation about the character-driven story on KZfaq I watched

Always LOVE the way you put it into a perspective I can digest, great video, SOOOO flipping helpful!! Thanks.

This is exactly what my story needed! When your standard tale of the relationship between a boy and his dog (well dragon actually) is nothing but a list of what happened, you know you have a problem.

I watch a lot of anime and most anime are character driven, especially One Piece.

I would have to disagree with the statement that character driven stories are better than plot driven stories. One of my favorite video game series, Bioshock, is heavily plot based and doesn't focus on making likable characters, and I would say this series is a masterpeice. While Bioshock certainly has some really good well developed characters, what really hooks you into the games are the incredibly creative worldbuilding, shocking plot twists, and the immersive atmosphere. In fact sometimes, character based stories can sometimes be worse. Another one if my favorite game series is Danganronpa, and I certainly liked the first one better than the second one (I haven't played the third one yet, but I heard it was awful). What made me really like Danganronpa 1 so much was the elements of phsycological horror, the worldbuilding, the gameplay, and the plot twists. The second game on the other hand, focused more on making likable characters. While I do like the characters of danganronpa 2 a lot more than danganronpa 1, danganronpa 2's worlbuilding, atmosphere, and plot twists are just not as good, making it lose what made danganronpa so special in the first place.

Lucas' Star Wars made me understand the 10-minute rule twenty years ago when I sat down and timed everything that happened in the film. I also observed that this rule also works in any part of a film, or a tv series, even in the middle of an episode, in the middle of a season, and in the middle of the series. If after 10 minutes you're not hooked, it's bad. Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series made me understand that the plot should be at the service of character development and, therefore, good storytelling. Nice video.

I can’t tell you how much I’m grateful to have found your channel!! I don’t even get bored while you explain!!! Thank you so much! 💜

What a powerful intro! Loved the change. I'm happy you're back 💕

So happy I found your channel! I've read many script writing books, but your approach to explaining how to write compelling three act stories has been so incredibly clear and easy to understand. Also your passion is motivating me to keep writing even on the toughest days, thank you for that. Can't wait to watch all your stuff!

I’d say that Before We Go Extinct is pretty character-driven. It’s one of my all-time favorite books. I’m rereading it right now and I’ve already cried like twice. (It’s not that sad; I’m just over-emotional)

I haven't seen Ready Player One but this talk about it is reminding me of the Transformer movies with Shia LaBoeuf. Now, I was into those movies largely because of the action but also I think because Shia LaBoeuf managed to still make his character compelling even though the filmmakers didn't give him much to work with.

4:34 The way you described success was very inspiring. Holy crap your content is awesome! Very helpful for a new author

You made me want to watch Amazing Spiderman again. Good on you

there are no words to describe how many of my stories abbie has saved.

Character development is my favorite thing to do. I’m obsessed with it. I literally have a huuuuge love for getting to know personalities, mindsets, instincts, reactions, internal fears or conflicts... in real people, and in my own characters. But plot? Eheheh... get back to me on that. 😂 Plot always takes me a longgg while to master. And then writing everything out without moving on to a new idea, or spending (totallyyyy hypothetically) over two years trying to perfect a set of characters in their settings and perspectives? ...yeahhhhh um I need to work on a bit 😅

Okay so finally a person who sees why amazing Spider-Man is great. Never thought I would see that day

The first Amazing Spider-man is my favorite one out of all the Spidey movies. My favorite character driven story - I'd have to say either The Witcher 3 or Persona 4. I know, these are videogames not movies or TV so maybe you aren't familiar with them. But just thinking about the characters makes me feel nostalgic as if they are my real friends.

This girl has taken the feelings i have always had but not known how to articulate and expressed it perfectly. Now i know what makes a great story!

I needed this! My character was starting to become a bit passive (he has an addiction and the whole story is him reacting to it and not doing much about it) now I know how to fix him and have him drive the plot (his addiction causes him to do things that mess up other peoples lives and therefore come back to affect him in the inciting incident)

You teach STORY better than any pricy curriculum. And we couldn't ask for a better personality. Or face, smile, or video quality.............

I love this new space! I honestly found myself looking at your backgrounds a lot during your past videos. This minimal set-up makes it easier to focus on you

Rise of the guardians. It closely follows the three act story structure. I know it's a kids film but it's so good that adults also love it

I think one of my favorite character-driven stories is actually Joker

Lovely space! (I miss the organized-by-color-bookshelves, though!)

This is so on point. Thank you, Abbie! 👏🏻✨

Arcane on Netflix is incredible. It’s a character driven masterpiece.

I might be obsessed with this movie too much but I have to say Dune: Pt 2: Because Paul himself is stuck between these two goals: either he chooses Chani (love), not lead the fremen into war and put them in even more danger or he can choose to be the so-called Lisan-al Gaib which basically means that the relationship between him and Chani will be stressed, he leads a holy war across the galaxy, killing billions of people while avenging House Atreides. It's what he struggles with most throughout the film, many times he gets emotional about these decisions. To give examples, he literally yells at his mother, Lady Jessica because she keeps spreading the false prophecy about the Lisan-al Gaib (Paul Atreides) telling her that doing that is not giving hope to the fremen. He also gets emotional when Sietch Tabr is attacked by Feyd-Rautha and he starts having visions that if he goes South, his future visions of the holy war and people dying will become true so he desperately attempts to try not go South. Bro says he'd rather cut off his own hand than take Stilgar's place and he cries when he talks with Chani and she says "You'll never lose me as long as you stay who you are" (before he takes the water of life).

Who is this lady and can someone tell me why I am only just now discovering her channel? Wonderful thought-provoking content.

I gotta say Abbie, I have been following you for like 7 years now, almost as long as I have been working on my novel. I don’t like ever comment on peoples channels lol but for you I had to make an exception. I am just finally getting to the revision process and have been having a tough time gauging if there is enough internal conflict in my two very different characters. And MAN watching this so well spoken and analytical video about how to make even action story’s matter is inspiring since that’s my goal. Just wanted to encourage you and remind you that there are others like you who have a passion for making stories matter. I’m out to prove that action books can still hit peoples hearts. Thanks for the awesome video as always! I know your probably super busy, but I was wondering, do you think internal conflict can be desire vs fear, even if the desire is a wrong one or maybe even wrong reasons for the desire… I have a character who desires to make the world better, to help people, but the only reason is because he wants to prove to others he can achieve what his father couldn’t. His desire is driven by pride and selfishness not altruism. I’m curious if you think that, that will still make the audience care even if the desire isn’t exactly an idealistic or pure desire (not like Disney where the characters desires are usually pure) Thank! Keep making awesome videos.

The Amazing SpiderMan actually impacted me.. you got taste

I have been trying to figure out what my character was missing, you nailed it. I love spending time with my characters, and while I was understanding their internal conflict and knew what was driving them, I realize now that I just haven't explained and explored it enough in my writing. Thanks so much!!

Arcane hits such a good balance between action/plot and character. All the most intense Action scenes are the most intense moments of internal conflict.

everything that I have learned from these videos is amazing but entirely goes against my stepdad's entire philosophy on stories (warning: tangent ahead) we were playing a video game together when I was five that had, you know, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (it was Little Big Planet btw) and when the second installment came out he said, "they went way too hardcore on the characters and the story." and I was just like, "number 1, that is a GOOD THING, and number 2, if you READ THE SPEECH BUBBLES in the first game, you'd know that THE FIRST GAME HAD A STORY TOO"

I am a playwright and a teacher of theatre. I just stumbled onto your channel and I really like how you present these two concepts (plot and character) as interdependent. Definitely gonna check out some of your other vids. Good work.

Thank you so much! Favorite character-driven story: ROCKY

The movie Ever After is one of my most favorite movies. It has character internal conflict, character development and interaction.

I have a treatment to write for class and this is gonna help me out so much!! Thank you 🥺💕

Thank you! I’m so grateful for your channel there’s not a lot of videos supporting upcoming writers so carry on doing what your doing your making such a big difference if you don’t know it already❤️

omg!! I finally found this, the advices told frankly really make everyone realize how important the difference of Plot Driven and Character Driven... good job

I always knew The Amazing Spider-Man was the best one! No one believed me. Haha. But I knew I loved it for a reason. Now I know why.

This video was super helpful for my story, thank you! I already had a lot of this from watching your other videos, but this one helped realign a couple things I had out of place. Can't wait for the next one!

I was disappointed last week when I didn't get to see a video from you, so I'm super happy to get one this week! I can think of a really great character driven story. It's an unpublished story my older sister wrote that I got to read for her; I'm still waiting for her to finish editing so she can do the next book and let me read it... 😂

the only thing that i really dislike about this point of view is that some people may take this advice to push plot to the wayside. in my view both are equally important. character dev and plot, both are meant to fit together nicely like a glove and if one of them is off kiltered it will feel entirely wrong. you need good plot before character development even matters otherwise plot holes would simply ruin the setting/ circumstances that the character finds themselves in

When I was a little younger I really enjoyed the Michael Vey book series. It has not (YET, hopefully) become a movie series but there was a lot of action in the books, and I also normally prefer contemporary stories, but for this action-packed, sort of contemporary, half sci-fi story there was a lot of inner conflict for Michael and a few of the other main characters. Now as the series continued many other characters were introduced that I didn't care for as much because not much was revealed about them, but I love how the author still used these new characters to aid in Michael's character development since this was primarily Michael's story to begin with. By the end of the series, he changed a lot and I don;t even remember all the action that happened, it was the lessons learned and fears that he and other characters overcame that I remember the most!!

Unrelated but the backdrop music at around 6:04 is amazing!!! Thnx for the tips btw..

You’re amazing Abbie ❤️

I think this is the best video explaining this topic, amazing explanation, thanks.

I wrote a story where the plot was entirely driven by the actions of the protagonists. The inciting incident isn’t a new problem from outside, but the main character saying something so embarrassing to one of their friends that 2 people wind up dead.

Wow, this is seriously high quality content! I feel a lot more confident about the story I’m writing, and feel like I know exactly what I need to work on. Thanks heaps!

I’ve been trying to figure out why movies ( and books) like pride and prejudice or sanditon keep grabbing my attention. Husband even ask what I like about it so much but now I know.. it’s the characters that make me reread or rewatch, thank you for that insight

Attack on Titan is such a good example of a story with balanced plot and character drive.

I thought I had a plot driven story but when I looked deeper found out the characters story was more important

Outlander is my current favorite book. I love the entire series. Love for the characters make care about the plot. And a lot happens! Great story ❤️

I like (The hunger games) for character driven Science fiction. You see at the very beginning Katnis' protectiveness over Prue.

The Amazing Spider-Man is underrated. Even though it was weird to incorporate his parents it still made sense and added to Peter's character which makes it unique and amazing.

Wades desire is pure escapism and solving the Halliday puzzle, driven by moms drug OD and living in the stacks. He fears reality and to an extent other people. A naive character loosely based on Percival and the grail. His new love interest forces his character grow and the quest changes from just solving a puzzle/getting rich, to caring about other people and what solving it means for everyone in and out of the oasis.

Thank you for the clarification Abbie! The comparisation between these 2 movies helped a lot and was in an instant very very clear. Okay here a bunch of action movies of which I think are Character-Driven: - Casino Royale - The Dark Knight - Deadpool - Gladiator - Treasure Planet - The Dark Crystal (not sure on this one, but it has impacted my childhood a lot and therefore still remember a lot of the movie). ^^

Snow White is plot driven cause she doesn't do anything at all. But people remember it???

1. The movie "The Italian Job" is one of my favorite character/plot driven story lines. 2. As a rule, the book is (almost) always better than the movie. The Ready Player One book is slightly better and VERY different. (I totally see your point about it though.) 3. Your new space needs some soft elements to minimize the echo. Rugs, curtains, pillows...something. And color. It's so WHITE and Abbie is so COLORFUL!

I love ready player one! My husband thinks it's trash. I might be the only person on the planet that adores it. I think the main character remind me SO MUCH of my brother that I kind of just... replace Wade. I mean, I love Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility and Amelie and other great films/ miniseries!!! But I won't lie. There's a tonne of "bad" films that I just can't help myself and love? It's quite humiliating. But that won't stop me from watching ready player one for the 8th time!! Tobey Maguire is the true spiderman... He's fantastic!

Bridge To Terabithia and the original Spider-Man. Ooh! And Spirited Away. Those three are my all-time favorites. Pretty much every Studio Ghibli film does really well, in my opinion, with the characters. edit: This is an example of 3 different genres that all develop characters and give you an engaging story.