 Short Stories: November 16, 2010 Issue [#4080] |
  Short Stories
This week: Make Me Care... About Your Character! Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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Hi everyone! I'm Jay's debut novel is out now! and I'm your Short Stories Editor this week!
From last month:
I usually don't have the patience to write more than 5000 words at once, but every once in a while, I like to push myself over the crazy-edge.
In anticipation of next month (National Novel Writing Month, known to sane people as "November") I re-read an old favorite writing book of mine: The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them) by Jack M Bickham.
Some of Mr. Bickham's advice comes off a bit stilted as it has been necessarily generalized for a wide range of authors, but he has a lot of interesting and helpful things to say about plotting-- and he says them with force.
In last month's issue, I addressed some techniques for creating suspenseful plots. But what are those well crafted plots without well-reasoned characters? I've spent a lot of time recently on the different things that make and break characters in my own writing, and I feel like there are lots of other folks in the same boat this month, whether you are participating in November, er, in National Novel Writing Month, or simply tuning things up to get them prepped for editor's desks come January First. (Surely I am not the only person resolving not to be so darned chicken about submitting stories to be published come 2011?)
But I digress. 
Indeed, while the plot is the story, important too are its characters. Referring back to Jack Bickham's 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them), in Chapter 7 we find the following:
One of the toughest jobs we ask of our readers is to see characters vividly and sympathize with them.
It's an "amazing leap of faith or intuition" that we ask out readers to make, says Mr. Bickham. We are asking the reader to see our characters as best we can convey them, and all we have to offer on this note are words.
The reader does not know the writer's characters as the writer does, and indeed it would be weird if the reader did! The act of characterization that we as writers take on is a tall order-- we have to create compelling and memorable people to populate our settings and put our plots into motion... and not only that, these people need to be vibrant enough that they leap off the page. Hopefully, one assumes, into the memory of the reader.
As a general rule, good characters have the following traits. Some of them are culled from Mr. Bickham's assessments and the rest are things that I personally try to inject into my own characters and that I look for in the stories that I read (amateurs and pros alike: I don't suffer poor characters!)
First and foremost: Primary characters are bold and have specific, goal-oriented personalities. In a word, these characters are driven by their desire for something. No one wants to read about "wimps," people who can't make decisions or have no motivation. Readers can detect that lack of motivation and are repelled by it. Plot continually moves forward and idle characters will drag the story backward.
As a corollary of the above, Mr. Bickham urges that the writer not use "real" people in fiction stories. If you must use someone as an influence, make sure that your uses of that real person's personality are a caricature of the original. Personality traits that we see in the people in our lives are sometimes vague and influenced by deeper happenings. In a short story, the reader doesn't have an unlimited period of time to be "won over" by a character whose complexities are seemingly contradictory. Their motivations and ideals have to be plain to the reader. That's not to say that you can't create complex characters-- merely that by necessity your characters will need to be more straightforward than your friends or family are in real life. Paint in broad strokes-- a person who is merely brave needs to become courageous.
Good characters have believable flaws. (No, being an orphan does not count as a character flaw!)
This tends to crop up more in amateur fiction than it does elsewhere, presumably because orphans have a necessarily short stick dealt to them? In any case, an unfortunate background is really not enough by itself to create a compelling and believable character. It needs to go farther than that. Our characters are a product of their pasts, but they also overcome their pasts in a much more linear and understandable way than an average person might.
Name your characters wisely. I can't be the only reader who gets absolutely exasperated by bad character names. Names set an expectation for the reader. I personally recommend short, terse names for heroes and primary characters, though not necessarily in every single situation.
A fiction character needs to be plausible. I'm not sure exactly how to put this into words, but here goes. Probably the single biggest issue I have with many short stories is that their main characters are simply, for some reason, not completely believable to me. Sometimes it goes back to the believable-flaws bit, but sometimes, there's just something that doesn't click. In short fiction, characters need to be direct. Complexity of development should be saved for longer works-- in your flash fiction there isn't room to explain the saga of how your protagonist came from a poor farming community and excelled in college to become a big-city executive. In a short piece it doesn't work. The background needs to fit the character; since we spend less time with a character in short fiction, that character is not going to develop as fully for the reader.
Make the blanks easy to fill in-- one of the few times I would counsel to simplify something in fiction writing, honestly, but there you have it. 
This is far from a complete list, but merely meant as a reminder of things to look for in your writing and in the stories you read. Question the characters and see if their motives, dreams, fears, and story add up for you.
This Month's Question.... We discussed names, plausibility, flaws, and goals...
What other characteristics of good characters can you think of?
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
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Feedback from Last Month's Issue:
"Short Stories Newsletter (October 20, 2010)"
Nomar Knight 
Outstanding newsletter. I enjoy reading tension filled stories that keep the suspense going. It's a shame you didn't write more. Your smooth way of putting things made me want to read more. Thanks for sharing. I'll anxiously await your next appearance.
 Thanks Nomar! I hope this week's edition suffices!
emartin317
Answer to this months' question:
I'm not afraid to have my characters suffer. Whether it's receiving bad news or killing them off completely, knowing that bad things can and will happen builds the tension. I hate reading something where you know halfway through that the character will definitely win at the end - there's no incentive to keep going.
Exactly. No one wants to read about a character who actually gets what they want right away-- that's really flat and boring! Bickham addresses some of that in a different chapter, but it bears mentioning here... we identify with our characters because of their struggles and their difficulties, not because things come easily to them.
Markymark
I really enjoyed the letter on writing and how to build tension and suspense. I tried a prologue for a book and got some nice reviews, which prompted me to keep on with the idea.
My concerns, at least some of them, were answered by your piece, thanks. I have a question;
how long, or is there a standard length, for a short story? i'd like to develope the prologue, and i think as i'm very much a novice, that a short story would suit my abilities.
I would be grateful for any advise and help.
markymark
My advice-- dive right into the story. You'll know how long the story is when you're done writing it.
Put another way-- there are a wide range of short story "lengths" out there, from the 25-word 'hint fiction' to stories in excess of 10,000 words (but still under the range of something like a novella, say) and there are not really a lot of hard and fast rules about how long or short a short story needs to be.
As a general rule, I would say that short fiction typically has one major overarching plot line, possibly with subplots dependent on length and genre requirements, and usually the cast of characters who are critical to the plot would be a limited number. If your story is longer than that or has a chorus line of secondary characters and subplots, or some other factor that makes it exceptionally voluminous, you may want to expand it into a novella.
Feedback from "Short Stories Newsletter (September 22, 2010)"
LJPC - the tortoise
Hi ~j! Thanks for the great newsletter. I agree with you. In this modern society, people have less time and many want to read little items rather than novels. Also, I believe it's a great way for authors to test their ideas and decide if they want to expand them. You chose a great bunch of stories for your highlighted section. Have fun reviewing them!
-- Laura
Thanks Laura! I agree completely... there's something about short stories that resonates with my attention span!
NurseWriter
I just loved "Old Jim". Thanks for posting these I will be sure to check more you have enjoyed and review them. Lorrie
Glad you enjoyed them, Lorrie! I always try to pick good reads for every edition of the Short Stories newsletter and I hope this week's stories appeal to you as well!
Well, that's all for this month! I look forward to seeing your answers to This Month's Question.... We discussed names, plausibility, flaws, and goals...
What other characteristics of good characters can you think of?
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