Oh, one I can answer!
My novella is highly character driven. So I focus more on trying to flesh out their characters and more on their growth and their changes. If I were doing a plot driven book (which is the sequel) it’s more about how they react and what events transpire from the situation they’re thrown in.
This is why I ask because people can get into arguments about which drives the plot in a certain story.
I wonder where that would leave Assasination Classroom.
Had to look that up; I’ve never heard of it before. Does the protagonist change by the end of the story? A plot-driven story, to me, would be one in which the character is static and has no character arc, like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. Those characters are exactly the same at the end of the story as they are at the beginning, so the whole story is about what happens rather than about how the character grows as a result of those events.
Arguably the enture e-3 class is the protagonist, forced to kill their teacher to save the world
Interesting concept! Who wouldn’t want to kill their teacher? (>‿◠)
The kids in E-3 because Kuro Sensei is the best teacher they’ve ever had and is hilarious.
I mean sure, it would have changed in some way, but the plot to get the ring to the…Mordor, that’s right, forgot it for a second there XD, anyway that overall plot, I personally don’t think it would have changed much. Someone would have made it to the volcano and destroyed the ring. Maybe Gollum would still be alive, who knows? 
Interesting how we have different ideas about LOTR. Maybe, to some extent, character-driven or plot-driven from a reader perspective depends on the reader (or film-watcher in our case)? But the writer could say otherwise, still, both of us would be right because it was our individual interpretation?
I have heard people say that Frodo in the movies is a really passive not-so-good character and in the books it’s different. That’s what I heard. Idk for sure though. And same with you, I do like Sam better (except how he treated Gollum). He was a lot more driven and he even held onto the ring for a while and had no issues, didn’t he?
Yesh, I totally agree that there’s a lot of room for individual interpretation. I wasn’t saying you were wrong in my first post, just that I see the focus of the story as something different from you. ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)
Yup, I thought so too! But I think that’s why the story couldn’t have been told from Sam’s pov, because when it came time to give up the ring he’d simply do it. He had much more strength of character, coupled with a childlike faith and trust, and likely wouldn’t have become as corrupted as Frodo. There was a lot more conflict with Frodo as the ringbearer imho, but now that the writer’s dead I guess we’ll never know for sure unless we read a whole lot of Sam-based fanfiction. (>‿◠)
They portrayed the hobbits as innocent children. They did a better job of letting them be adults in the Hobbit. Hobbits were supposed to be people who enjoyed simple pleasures in life without too much insanity, more everyman than everyman ever was. To a 3K year old man, they were innocent children, but the biggest difference between them and humans was supposed to be less greed (although they were greedy in the small things).
But our lore on halflings changed since Tolkien. They became far more childlike, wildly playful, no thoughts about responsibility until forced into it, and weak towards decisive leadership qualities–except for the rare ones. So, a lot of who Frodo really was in the novel was plain striped from him for the movies.
It can be hard to pin-point in some stories of which it may be, but the basic example is a story where the story happens to the character and not based on their actions. Like, Harry Potter for example. It’s very plot-driven because the story wouldn’t be anything if nothing crazy happened to Harry. He didn’t decide to get attached to Voldemort. He didn’t decide to live with his abusive aunt. He didn’t decide to save Hogwarts several times. These things happened to him, and therefore, the story remains plot driven with minor character driven scenes.
But then there’s a story like the Hunger Games which is character driven. Katniss chose to be in the Games because her sister was in it. Katniss chose to befriend Rue and then give her a proper “send-off” when she died. These two things set her up to become the Mockingjay, the face of the war. She didn’t choose it, no, but her actions did. Her actions got her there. She also decided to play along with the idea of star-crossed lovers bit with Peeta to help get sponsors, even though this would go into a whole other direction in the second book where Peeta felt betrayed.
Now, yes, naturally, a book should feel like the plot is driven by the decisions of the character’s actions, but when you create a story where things just happen to your characters like a domino effect, then it’s not really them making a decision. It’s—shall we say, God?—of the story.
So if there was a story where an entire middle school class was chosen by the government to kill a mutant octopus man, who is also their teacher, it is plot-driven?
It is, yes.
But do know that plot-driven stories aren’t bad. 
I just think it’s a bizarre way to think about it.
A big reason why I don’t think much about it is because there should be both internal and external conflict if you’re a complex writer. And they need to bleed into each other, have consequences that echo back and forth: just like real life. Life isn’t simple even for the simplest of us. Things outside our control and things we bring on ourselves all melting together in a swirl of “What the hell I did to my life, now?!”
A lot of times, I think that if I wrote my life, people wouldn’t believe it, and I think it’s more boring than anything.
Had a slumlord, real trash, got the state involved with our family because my father pomised him physical harm if he ever tried to solicit my mother again. Had no reason to as the state couldn’t do much more than e a nusiance to us for a short while, but still government interference out of nowhere is a scary thing. Kind of made us leery for the rest of my childhood.
Well, one day a couple years after that mess, the brakes gave out on his work truck, ploughs down a hill through parked cars outside Palmer Candy (the candy found in one of the dollar stores)…crossing a busy intersection without killing someone, and giving a heavy financial blow. My parents took another couple who had hell from him out to go and watch the sight of his well-known truck having caused thousands in damage…it was quite a gloating moment.
So, maybe a week later, my father wakes to yet another scene where a vehicle wound up down the hill…from the side street that is almost 100% flat, having rounded around parked cars for a good block and a half, taking out a picket fence and smacking the edge of a tree hard enough to not go into the living room of a house that has kids sleeping on the couch. the ticket was minimal, and the only thing the car needed was some putty (JB weld?) for the radiator, something like a $20 repair? This thing STEERED around cars to perfectly hit something that didn’t cost anyone much in property or life.
Here’s the kicker. Highly religious family that knows you’re not supposed to repay evil with evil, and that vengeance is God’s, how are they going to take this? It’s a bit like disciplining your kid for tormenting their siblings.
It’s a pretty big story in my family, but the believeability takes a belief in a higher power, so it has this huge taste of surrealism to it. The timing is way too “life lesson from dad” to suspend that disbelief over.
I thought so
And I found that interesting.
Individual interpretation is so interesting to me.
So, @NotARussianBot did you get your answer yet? Do you know what character driven means as oppose to plot driven?
I think so. But it isn’t any less weird to me.
What more are you confused on?
Think Overlord. Is it plot driven or character driven?
Does Momonga drive the plot or does the plot drive Momonga?
Does that make a lick of sense?
I’m confused that people even use the category, as it isn’t as helpful to describe how a story works and some think.