Character

As a very young person interested in creative writing, I learned an odd fact. Writers tend, at the beginning, to create characters similar to themselves. Unfortunately, writers are largely sedentary and passive people, more interested in making observations than in experiencing stories, which means their characters may end up with the same difficulty.

I think I see what it meant, and not only in my own writing. I've begun dividing stories into character-driven, and plot-driven. Some authors write stories in which either a main character or a combination of characters creates a fascinating and complex story. Other authors create a character, usually a variation on a stereotype (as most characters are), and then throw things at them (usually bad things, like pianos and bolts of lightening) just to watch them squirm, I suspect.

Before Derrida rolls over in his grave, I must admit that several stories have found positions in the spectrum, but not entirely of one sort or the other, and although I am inclined to favor character-driven plots, man vs. man and all that, as being somehow the result of more skill (perhaps because they require a much more detailed familiarity with human nature), event-driven plots require a stronger grasp on the laws of probability.
Maybe I think that although humans fill the whole scope of action and attitude rather evenly and are defined by their rebellion, events obey certain laws almost always without fail. A writer who can keep both in mind, I think, might be able to put together quite the masterpiece.

Any volunteers?