The Spectrum Character-Driven and Story-Driven

I've been thinking about the classifications of character-driven and story-driven for writing. I can't help but find these to be worthless labels. Stories are not simply character-driven or story-driven; they're both. Any given story is going to have a certain amount of action and a certain amount of characterization.

If you had a story that was purely character-driven, it would read like character bio: Clara Schwartz was Welsh on her mother's side, Chinese on her father's side, and married to a German. Her 5'5" frame was not impressive to her peers, but it was more than enough to keep her children in line, at least until they hit puberty. Interesting though Clara might be, she's worthless until she does something.

Conversely, a story that was purely story-driven would read like a screen-play: Campbell drove his car to the grocery store. He bought three pounds of haddock and two pounds of potatoes. He then drove home, cooked the fish, and fried up some potato chips. He made four dishes of this meal and gave one to each member of his family sitting at the table. Campbell here is a generic blank. There is nothing about him that we know, so here's nothing we can connect with or care about.

There also comes the fact that most characterization implies action and most action shows characterization. Clara married a man and she also had kids who needed some discipline. Though the action is not explicitly written, one can still see these things happen by reading the descriptions. We learn about Campbell by analyzing his actions. He drives, lives near to a store, eats fish nd potatoes, and has a family that eats with him. Sure, he is still largely a mystery, but we slowly gain an idea for who he is, even if conversations or narration doesn't explicitly tell us.

Any decent story needs a certain amount of action and a certain amount of characterization. To call a story character-driven can only mean that there is more characterization in it, and vice versa for story-driven works. Don't focus on labels. Focus on telling a good story. Let the scholars apply the labels.