In the beginning of your story you have to grab your readers’
interest and sustain it till the end. Our hook is our character.
Readers keep on reading to find out more about the character. To
see what he’ll do in the story; how he’ll solve his problems.
What his goals are and whether he’ll achieve them.
And because our character is the reason readers become hooked on
our stories, establishing him at the start is a must in a short
story. And it is essential to establish him at the start because
we don’t have the capacity in our limited word length to
introduce him at our leisure.
The bond between readers and character has to be developed
almost immediately.
You might have a few characters though. How do you decide who
your main character will be? A main character is one that drives
the story.
Think of it this way… If we were to take him away, there will be
no story because it’s his story we are telling. The story will
unfold by what is happening or what has happened to him.
When you establish who your main character will be, the next
thing to do is to find which of your characters is in the best
position to tell the story. Will your main character tell his
story or will you give that role to another character?
This is what we call Viewpoint and what we’ll see in more detail
in proceeding chapters.
Your main character isn’t necessarily the one who is telling the
story; he might not even appear in our story ‘physically’ but
will be there through the thoughts of others. So the viewpoint
character might be a secondary character.
Whoever is telling the story is the viewpoint character.
The viewpoint character gives the coloring of the story.
Whatever this characters says, we will believe. It may or may
not be true, according to the main character, but because he
isn’t there ‘physically’ to voice his opinions, we will have to
take the viewpoint character’s word for it.
In a novel you can play around with viewpoint. You can have
several viewpoint characters. In a short story it works best
with one.
So your main character, whether he’ll be telling his own story
or someone else will be doing it for him, has to be established
at the start of your story.
Having said that, let’s see the reasons why the main character
may not be telling his own story...
•Perhaps our main character is one that readers won’t sympathize
or empathize with.
•Or the main character will not view highly with our readers
•Or the viewpoint character knows all the facts and can tell the
story better
•Etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let me give you an example of a secondary character telling the
story of a main character…
Let’s say your secondary character is a psychiatrist and the
main character is the patient. Depending on what’s going to go
on in the story, we’ll have to choose who’s in a better position
to tell it. In this case, I will choose the psychiatrist.
I’ve done this because the patient is confused, being the one
with the problems. The psychiatrist knows all the facts and his
opinions will make things clearer to readers.
So, as the secondary character (the psychiatrist) unravels the
story, we’ll become involved in the main character because it’s
the main character’s story that is been told.
This may get a little confusing to the beginner writer. As they
write they will have to keep in mind that the secondary
character, although he’s telling the story, is NOT our main
character.
The secondary character is there to do perform a task. He’s only
the voice. It’s the main character we’ll become involved with.
A secondary character doesn’t play such an important role as a
main character does. Therefore, information about secondary
characters should be kept to a minimum. It’s not his story –
it’s the main character’s story and the spotlight must, most
times, be kept on the main character.
Take the above example for instance. It’s no relevance to the
story how the psychiatrist started his career or where he
received his diploma – what’s important, is what he has to say
about the main character, his patient.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Introduce your main character straight away, as close to the
beginning of the story that’s possible. Enable your readers to
form a bond and that will keep them hooked.
Is your main character established at the start of your story?
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