I recently read a book (which shall remain unnamed) that reminded me of the power of character in story. In short, character is the key to story–the driving force that determines the direction and gives purpose to a story. Who a character is must affect how a story is written and the eventual outcome. The writer of the book in question is experienced enough to be aware of this, but the book shows no evidence of this knowledge. In truth the novel suffers from the worst affliction possible to a story: If you changed the characters race, age, gender, affliction, etc. the story wouldn’t be affected at all.
From time to time I call this the Bella affliction, or PANTS. The latter name comes from the notion that Bella, the lead character of the Twilight series, could be easily replaced by a pair of ladies jeans. Short of being female and young, every other variable about her could be changed–race, personality, characteristics, etc. and the story would still play out the same way. This is exactly how the other novel I just read played out. In fact, these PANTS could’ve switched gender and age without the story skipping a beat.
Story is about character, so who a character is must affect the choices made in the story and, in many ways, determines where the story begins and ends. Without this fundamental part of story, all you are doing is pushing script for Oculus Rift. I think some writers get lost in trying to tell an epic saga and focusing on the big mystery and or the great changes their worlds will undergo. All of those mysteries and changes are meaningless unless the reader cares about the person that stuff is happening to. Readers are followers. We follow people in stories because we care about what happens to them. Things happening independent of people to care about are just empty things.