Character growth in short stories
Feb. 21st, 2007 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosipheleeOne of the things I find most frustrating (and sometimes most rewarding) about writing is the story that won't get off the ground. For the last couple of weeks I've been struggling with a story about Lynx and Lia during their early years in the Ninth Legion. I've written out a careful and detailed plan, and sketched out the background information. On the surface, it seems to have all the ingredients a short story needs - a problem to be overcome, fun worldbuilding, Lyn and Lia being snarky and Saisorhi having porridge fights. Unfortunately, it's just not working.
After the second beginning fizzled out, I sat back to decide what was missing. It was then I realised there was no central theme to the story. I tried to work out what unifying theme might link up the various plot elements, and still found nothing. So I went back to the characters. After all, all stories grow, in some way, from character actions, and themes should develop that way too, as an integral part of the story.
That was when I realised that there was no character growth involved. Lyn and Lia were as they tend to appear in story snippets, a tight, competent partnership. There was no room in the plot for them to make mistakes or to misunderstand each other. They were presented with a problem and then they were going to solve it in an entertaining way, proving their critics wrong as they did so.
And I'd been under the impression they grew out of their Mary Sue phase ten years ago.
I've been toying with the idea of writing a few standalone short stories about these two at this age, before they get all angsty and depressing. The more I think about it, though, the more problematic character growth seems. I know how their characters change over their entire arc, but within a small space of time, it's harder to show how events affect them personally. I can't dump an angst-ridden life change on them every few weeks - even for me, that's just mean, not to mention fake.
Thinking back on character-centred series I've enjoyed, most of them have been novel length. I love Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series, for instance, and McCone definitely does change over the course of the series, sometimes slowly, sometimes massively after particularly tough situations. Novels, however, allow for very subtle, incremental changes, because you have the space to explore them, and to link them to more dramatic changes in a number of other characters who may only appear in that one book. In a short story, you can't get away with that - your maximum cast is so much smaller that your protagonist has to carry the bulk of the emotional arc. Unlike snippets, however, that emotional development has to be there in order to create a satisfying, complete story.
I know there are plenty of sword-and-sorcery stories that do succeed, but I don't have any to hand. I'm going to try writing a different story first, going right back to the beginning to their partnership, but I'd be intrigued to hear people's thoughts. How do you guys deal with the emotional development of frequently recurring characters?
After the second beginning fizzled out, I sat back to decide what was missing. It was then I realised there was no central theme to the story. I tried to work out what unifying theme might link up the various plot elements, and still found nothing. So I went back to the characters. After all, all stories grow, in some way, from character actions, and themes should develop that way too, as an integral part of the story.
That was when I realised that there was no character growth involved. Lyn and Lia were as they tend to appear in story snippets, a tight, competent partnership. There was no room in the plot for them to make mistakes or to misunderstand each other. They were presented with a problem and then they were going to solve it in an entertaining way, proving their critics wrong as they did so.
And I'd been under the impression they grew out of their Mary Sue phase ten years ago.
I've been toying with the idea of writing a few standalone short stories about these two at this age, before they get all angsty and depressing. The more I think about it, though, the more problematic character growth seems. I know how their characters change over their entire arc, but within a small space of time, it's harder to show how events affect them personally. I can't dump an angst-ridden life change on them every few weeks - even for me, that's just mean, not to mention fake.
Thinking back on character-centred series I've enjoyed, most of them have been novel length. I love Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series, for instance, and McCone definitely does change over the course of the series, sometimes slowly, sometimes massively after particularly tough situations. Novels, however, allow for very subtle, incremental changes, because you have the space to explore them, and to link them to more dramatic changes in a number of other characters who may only appear in that one book. In a short story, you can't get away with that - your maximum cast is so much smaller that your protagonist has to carry the bulk of the emotional arc. Unlike snippets, however, that emotional development has to be there in order to create a satisfying, complete story.
I know there are plenty of sword-and-sorcery stories that do succeed, but I don't have any to hand. I'm going to try writing a different story first, going right back to the beginning to their partnership, but I'd be intrigued to hear people's thoughts. How do you guys deal with the emotional development of frequently recurring characters?
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 11:14 am (UTC)I have to say I'm am appallingly lazy when it comes to character development, but I guess that's just because I have so many. I let them grow on their own - they seem determined enough, so who am I to disagree?
But then, plot so rarely forms the basis of my short stories. As with most of the things I do, I let it be character driven, and the plot drags along behind, whimpering for attention. Which is why I so frequently can't stand my tales.
The only thing I can think of is that when I want to get to know my characters better, or explore their relationship with each other, I tend to force them into conversation. However, with these two, if you already know how they work together, why not separate them? I don't mean for anything major or for any length of time, just a conversation, or two. Sometimes ordinary moments are the most interesting for developing characters. Sit them down, give them a cup of tea, and try and force them to hold an almost same conversation with a featherduster. Now that would be an achievement ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 01:48 pm (UTC)The big central characters do most of their development offstage or in little glimpses in other people's stories, which may be why I'm finding it tricky to put them in the foreground. They're usually much more elusive.
I usually start a story with a situation and let the characters drive the process of changing that situation. I think with this one I had such fun coming up with the situation that I overlooked the character aspects a bit.
Hmm. Conversation might work quite nicely *plays with alternative plot ideas* Or describing one of them from the other's point of view. Thanks :)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 11:36 am (UTC)Let me rewrite some of Wings to Fly and maybe I'll be able to even think about starting to answer that...
no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 12:07 pm (UTC)It leaves the reader questioning. Even if they have not read of Lynx before, a story that contains a seed carries its mark. There is something in there that stays in the mind.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 07:46 pm (UTC)Bear in mind that what characters do on their non-angsting time off makes them just as much them as what they do in a crisis...