RpNation

I love my characters, I also love the stories they are involved in. I feel you can't have one without the other. To me, they are equally important but everyone has their own tastes.

you need plot, environment and characters. You need all three. My problem is when one become too much of the focus and in our time Characters are the culprit.

You have to elaborate on what you mean by environment.

Time, place, location, job, is there magic, is it genre driven, is there a history, what is it, etc. Everything that ever was and is the the characters interact with from the way people act to the things they put in their mouth is environment. A rich environment is transportative. Look at what Avatar did to so many in the theaters when it hit the big screen.

That may work for you, but not everyone is the same. I've had no trouble with creating a character and a plot, everything else comes with the writing.

I don't have a problem writing chatacters. Honestly, I'm a plot writer. I writer characters to supliment the plot an environment to fit. Character creation for me is a no brainer if you know how to hit all the right emotional notes. My problem is that it is all EVERYONE ELSE seems to be able to write. And because of the lack of focus on the other two crucial pillars their awesome characters fall flat. I don't think them bad writers, just unfocused. Environment dictates what characters can and cannot do aka "the rules of the world" characters live in the world and are a part of its history and the plot tells us what they will be doing based on what can and cannot be done. You take away even one of these and the whole thing falls apart.

Huh!
Contrary to you, I write plots to supplement the character interactions and arcs. I agree that setting and plot is important, but my priorities instead lie with the character chemistry, what the heroes' emotions are, and how the trauma that generally comes with an action-packed, dramatic story affects them long term. Interesting.

That great. I believe all writers gravitate to one degree or another on one of these homefronts to conjure their stories. Like Ehasz's Avatar: The Last Air Bender environment was at the forefront, then characters and lastly plot and what makes it magical is you can feel it through the story. The setting is so rich. I'm not saying character writers are bad (those who have them in first place vs the other two) but when their limelight outshines the other two to the point of irrelevance. Look at Sugar's Steve Universe. Might as well be a character study with an elaborate backdrop. And I like SU, but I'm not go I ng to pretend it all good writing.