Do you prefer setting up first of start with the characters?

Did the Chief know he was speaking to a rock? Thanks for the boost V-R! Happy holidays!

 

Each to their own.
I have read novels with the most amazing settings but flat characters and plot - I have persisted with that book to find out more about the setting but once I've finished I'll never pick up that book again.
I've read Fantasy and sci-fi books which as a genre is famous for 'blow your mind' settings, where the setting have been very basic. But the characters are so well written and interesting I find I can't put the book down. Those are the books I read over and over again.

So, for me it's all about the characters before anything else.
Merry Christmas.

 

The story I am working on currently started out simply as a Gamemaster exercise, and went from there.

You think one Mary Sue is bad in the exercise I was using my own game characters to fill in as the adventuring party. I was using them to give me a feel how to fill out the campaign area.

I know each of those characters personalities intimately, as I have played them all.

To attempt to avoid problem I created an almost generic fighter arms man character.. and made him, Tod, the protagonist.. and leader of the party.
Though I also added other non me, party members whose races come straight out of paranormal romance fantasy, which as a DM is an experimental intrest of mine.

It got to the point though were the ideas of the story, was more fascinating then the campaign detail I had been trying to generate.

So in my case the character detail came first and the story and relationships are coming after.

 

I think most of my story ideas start with a plot or setting, and then characters form around that. Though of course there have been stories of mine where I had a specific character in mind and then created a plot/setting around their specific backstory/attitude. But for the most part, I think of a setting/idea first before I come up with characters. But, by the end of it all, the characters become the most important aspect of the whole process.

For example, my current story started with me thinking: "What if there was a world where a religion had young girls taken from their family to serve as priestesses?" and then I thought of how this societal tradition would affect someone, and that's how I came up with the main character's initial plight. Always knew I wanted a story where a phoenix was a god of sun/fire and where the world had a warm climate and a desert, so this pieced together nicely.

 

Character, and his/her/its motivation. For example: "Sometimes, you just have to build a table." is the opening line of one of my many, many novels which will never see print but I like it. Then I go on to set the scene and describe the character as it relates to building this table so a little of both really.