The Inner World of Characters

But for all the similarities and all the things a writer can learn from film, movies and fiction are essentially different. The film is at heart about what happens, the external world. But any novel worth its salt is, in the final analysis, about the inner world of its characters. Things happen, but it is the meaning of events that is most important. Fiction is built to explore the inner world of a character that is its stock in trade. It is far more difficult to do so in film. The greatest novels have always had it all, you know: theme, character, place, language, and plot. Suggesting to a student that any one of those things doesn't matter so much-well, a student ought to
get his money back. (An Interview with Les Standiford by Steve Glassman. Standiford is the founding director of the MFA program in writing at Florida International University.)