A novel thought

I hear there are two main approaches to fiction writing; plot driven and character driven.

What I mean by this is that a 'plot driven' story tends to focus on exciting, action-driven writing populated by characters that were probably created with a personality constituting of five, single-word bullet points (RE: 'adventurous, philanthropic, strong-willed, moral, hot-headed'). From my reading, people attribute this kind of writing with 'male fiction' and rightly so; I'm painting with a very broad brush here, but I would say action films fall into this category, and what kind of films do men generally want to go and watch? Still, I'm not condemning this type of writing; a good plot-driven story that springs to mind is the Matrix.

The second method, 'character driven' seems to have a basic, generic plot but creates characters that to me seem very human. They have goals, preferences and their errors not only include failing to achieve the plot's aim (as the characters in the first scenario often do), but often failing in terms of being a good person. They take two steps backward for every step forward; they are not perfect archetypal cut-out people. Obviously, for this reason character driven writing runs alongside 'female fiction' because generally, women take more of an interest in people and their personal lives than men do. The Last Unicorn is still a book I value for its characters.

My point to this is a thought that occurred to me recently - surely combining the two; an excellent plot with fantastically real, fleshed out characters, would create some kind of 'super story'. But after about half an hour of trying to make this work in my head it became clear to me that it possibly cannot be done. I doubt I was alone in this idea; that there exists no examples to my scant knowledge of somebody marrying the two together suggests so. In my mind, one aspect will ultimately suffer; developing a good plot leaves little room for development of your characters and vice versa. It was as though within the predefined 'space' I had created for a novel, both were opposing forces that expanded like balloons to crush and eventually burst one another.

In my previous endeavours to write I have always been irritated by how flat and lifeless my characters are as opposed to the plot and this prevented me from moving forward. Perhaps, as a female writer, I should concentrate on the second approach. After all, creating characters is what I enjoy doing the most, thus it makes sense I ought to be exploring their lives rather than attempting to squash them into a story they want no part in.