What is characters in a short story

Is it an important part of the plot or theme? Or is it just a backdrop against which the action takes place? Does the setting change?

If so, how? Study the time period, which is also part of the setting, and ask yourself the following: When was the story written? Does it take place in the present, the past, or the future? How does the time period affect the language, atmosphere or social circumstances of the short story?

Characterization Characterization deals with how the characters in the story are described. Ask yourself the following: Who is the main character? Who or what is the antagonist? Are the main character and other characters described through dialogue — by the way they speak dialect or slang for instance?

Has the author described the characters by physical appearance, thoughts and feelings, and interaction the way they act towards others? Are they static characters who do not change? Are they dynamic characters who change? What type of characters are they? What qualities stand out? Are they stereotypes? Are the characters believable? Do the characters symbolize something? Other short stories are composed of a great deal of dialogue.

When writing dialogue, the writer should keep it simple: Only include dialogue that develops the story, moves it forward, reveals conflict, develops the character, and says something important about the story. The writer should not include insignificant, frivolous, unimportant dialogue in a short story. The writer employs the literary device of stream of consciousness to reveal memories, what the character thinks and feels.

Virginia Woolf often employed this technique in her short fiction. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure—a ghostly couple. Oh, no. And then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for oneself, the house all empty, the doors standing open, only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm. For short streams of consciousness writing, the writer can use italic to notify the reader that the content is stream of consciousness.

Example: Steve thought to himself : I cannot go on, I cannot take one more day of this stress, this oppression, this hellish life.

In summary, short stories require a main character who experiences conflict, has motivation to change or achieve a purpose, who experiences revelation, who is altered in some way as the story progresses, or who experiences an epiphany by the end of the story. The writer can deploy different methods of characterization to reveal the character—dialogue, action, description, stream of consciousness.

The writer deploys dialogue to advance the story, reveal character, reveal conflict, develop the plot. Tags: antihero , character , characterization , dialogue , dynamic characters , flat characters , primary characters , protagonist , secondary characters , static characters , stream of consciousness , writing short fiction.

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Notify me of new posts via email. Blog at WordPress. For example, a story about a prostitute who tries to start a new life by going to college will have a different set of tensions, conflicts and resolutions than a story about a truck driver who kills a hitchhiker and tries to make amends for his crime. A writer creates a convincing character by giving him a particular motivation or desire. As the character follows his true nature and struggles with his inner motivations, he begins to resemble a real person.

The way that the writer chooses to reveal his characters varies. Some writers rely heavily on outward appearances. For example, a character may have a hunchback or some other deformity, which implies his evilness or antagonism. Because characters are such an important element in short stories, the kind of character that the writer presents is also of the utmost importance to the development of the story as a whole.

A character is a person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action of a short story or other literary work. Henry The setting of a short story is the time and place in which it happens. Authors often use descriptions of landscape, scenery, buildings, seasons or weather to provide a strong sense of setting. Henry A plot is a series of events and character actions that relate to the central conflict.