Normally I'm not a fan of craft books. I've found many entertaining but not quite helpful. These two, Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress and Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell, however, are the exception. Since I started revising my novel, I realized one of my weak spots is the intersection of plot and character.
I believe the idea of "character driven stories" and "plot driven stories" is a myth. Ideally, you want strong characters whose motivations and decisions create the plot. In action adventure fiction it's easy to fall into the trap of using an archetypal plot and plugging in cookie-cutter characters. Best case scenario, you've got a clone of an already classic story. Kress's book helps you avoid this pitfall. It's ok to start with an archetype, but you've got to make that character a living, breathing individual, otherwise what's the point? Who wants to spend five hundred pages with a guy who's got no personality?
Bell's book on Plot & Structure has some great tips for crafting an engaging plot and I found his methods for scene construction and revision invaluable. For anyone interested in fiction writing (regardless of genre) I highly recommend reading these two books. There's no substitute for hard work (lots of reading and writing), but it helps to have a sense of the craft and both Kress and Bell know what they're talking about. You'll never read (or write) a story the same again.
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