Both.
Sometimes characters already loaded with personality and dynamism come to me in my head, but they're orphans with no solid story behind them and I have to craft a plot around them.
Other times I think of a story premise and have to sculpt out the characters from vague archetypes.
But overall, my stories are usually character-driven, so I don't have complex, winding narratives and I put greater effort into developing the characters, since that's most important to me.
Both at the same time for me as well. I kinda starts with one scene or one sort of dynamic that I want to explore. It's not really a plot, just something I think could look cool or be an emotional scene. Then I fill the scene with characters, and they are just ocs for a while. There's no real plot outside of the scene or the dynamic, even though I might get a couple more ideas for scenes and stuff. I'm just creating the characters at this stage. Then I start worlbuilding, and finally I start fleshing out the story line, usually by tying together all the loose ideas and seeing what I need to do to make it into a fully realized story.
I care about characters foremost. Good characters carry a good medium.
To me, bad characters are must worse and less bearable than a bad plot.
A bad plot can be overlooked if the characters are good and believable.
I care, for my stories, more about the characters and their personal stuggles more than about the overall plot.
I tend to write in the third person. Focusing on the overall plot first. As a general out-line then gradually expanding it. I also try to think of the ending first. I'm a newbie writer to be honest and I had some synopsis ideas I thought I could try and develop, to see if one of them (Monster Idol) could be turned into a film / games project (We can all dream! ). I have pitched to a few small companies but they didn't have the budget for my idea, even though they liked it. Other companies didn't accept submissions. So I joined Wattpad a month and a half ago and Tapas nearly two weeks ago. To see if I can get feedback.
I do a mix of both. Sometimes it’s the character and sometimes it’s just a rough premise of the main conflict.
With that, I usually try to write a chapter or so, introducing my MC, getting a feel for the idea in my head and deciding if I want to continue it. It’s also how I scratch the creative “itch” in my brain after I get a new idea. Then, I set away from my idea and I think about whatever I’m fuzzy about still—either the plot or the characters, sometimes both—and I start detailing how I want the rest of that to go. If I have a good internal understanding of my characters, I don’t usually write their detailed character descriptions until I’m on my second draft. But I always make sure I’m at least familiar with what their flaws, their strengths, and their ticks are. Everything else just kinda follows.
Idk if this works for most people tho, because I am one of those people that remembers their dreams a lot, and I can guide my thoughts with reasonable success to dream about my WIPs and characters so that my subconscious does the work while I sleep.
Neither - premise first. Then characters and what plot could fit both of them together. Characters are fun but they can be only OCs, and a plot can "require" characters you don't want to make. But if you think of a premise like, "this cursed cookbook turns people into dishes if not followed correctly", you don't have a story around it yet, but you can start formulating who'd be fun to interact with this object. THEN, what would work best with this combination: a terrible cook wrecking havoc around town? A master cook that wants to create a masterpiece despite all risks? A beginner, who feels responsible after someone they liked turned into a hot dog?
Your start needs to have the heart tying all together, or it's just separate pieces that might be nice individually but don't quite fit.
Characters. Most of my stories have really weird casts of characters because they were created separately and then I stuck them together and built a plot around them. A lot of times the overarching plot comes secondary to character writing with me; I love writing dialogue and thinking about their relationships and dynamics.
Mhm. I always focus on the characters before the plot. Half of the story really goes to the OC(s), their personalities, and motivations. The other half goes to the plot itself ) or if it's a slice of life, then the episodes come second.
I like to do character studies of characters that gives them the true depth they need in order to adapt to the plot of the story. How they react to certain moments in a story is vital and in my opinion their reactions must be tonally consistent with their personality traits.