E.S. Raye

I’ve seen this question come up several times among writers: do you think of characters or plots first?

I can’t speak for every writer, but for me, it’s both.

Character First

The story idea that inspired me to become a writer (and is still rattling around in my head waiting for me to get around to writing it) very much started with the character.

I am referring, of course, to the epic, 7-book scifi/cosmic horror/superhero/alternate WW2 history series I often refer to as “The Cobalt Fist.”

I’ve been a comic book fan since I was a kid. As I got older and became interest in World War II history, I began noticing that the DC superheroes didn’t go overseas in their comics during the war. Superman never fought in France, nor Batman in Belgium.

This made me ask the question, “What would a real ‘golden-age of comics’ superhero do if World War II broke out in the heyday of their superhero-ing career?”

In order to answer that question, I created Gorman Durnin, AKA The Cobalt Fist, a superhero from Boston who enlists after Pearl Harbor. He is recruited into a special division of the Airborne and gives up his superhero persona.

He’s changed a bit from my original image of him to fit the story I’ve built up around him, but he definitely came first.

Plot First

On the other hand, the story I stopped working on The Cobalt Fist to write instead, Gas Giant Gambit: A Tall Tale From Beyond the Cygnus Rift, absolutely came to me as the plot first.

I knew I wanted to write a space-western about greed and power. I also knew I wanted to write a story that was so “western” that you wouldn’t have been surprised to see John Wayne or Clint Eastwood as the main character. And then I wanted to drop it into a science fiction setting. I also knew I wanted to subvert as many tropes as I could along the way.

(Additionally, knew I wanted to pass the Bechdel-Wallace test, something I keep in mind with every project.)

And so, because westerns are overwhelmingly male led and are often quintessentially and heterosexually masculine, I chose to write a female LGBTQ+ lead character.

Character vs Plot

This woman with no name I call Gus was created to fit the story, not the other way around like Gorman. But I think they are, together, my favorite characters that I’ve created. One a space-faring gunslinger with a chip on her shoulder, the other a guilt-ridden superhero trying to atone for past mistakes in a world gone to Hell.

They’re very different from one another, both in how they were created and the stories they exist it (though both are in the same universe and both carry the pink-beamed raygun Delilah!), but I really don’t think it matters.

I don’t think plot or character coming first is important. I believe they are two halves of the same whole. If you try to shove any character into any story, it usually won’t work. It has to be the right character for the right story. When they’re combined they feel real, and their message feels true.