As for real influences on my writing, I'd have to go with Steinbeck. Although, again, I don't think anyone would ever mistake my stuff for his, he has a kindness and benevolence toward humanity that I aspire to in my own work. As a kid, Mad Magazine, Jules Verne, Ian Fleming, and Ray Bradbury probably had more to do with me wanting to be a writer than any other influences. Then I work characters. I think that strong characters can carry and, in fact, make a strong story, but it doesn't work quite as well in reverse.
Plot is merely the mechanics, the logistics of telling the story.
It's much easier to plot, and certainly to write dialog, if you have strong characters with distinct personalities. I spend less time worrying about my character's past than I do about how they speak and how they think. That axiom has served me better than any single piece of advice on the craft. I learned discipline, and that it was a must for a novelist, but I had suspected that before I started. I'm not sure I really know anything now that I didn't know then about writing, only now I know it practically rather than academically.