Short Story Craft, Part 2: Character

In preparation for the 2020 RMFW anthology, I’m doing a series of blog posts on elements of short story craft. Last month I covered the basics of plotting your short story. Now, let’s talk about your characters.

If plot is the skeleton of a short story, characters are the muscle. They move the plot forward. They bring the story to life. Without realistic, three-dimensional characters, your story is just a pile of bones. But how do you shape such characters, especially in the limited space of a short story?

My first tip is to keep your cast tight. If you try to cram in a dozen characters, like you would in a novel, you won’t have room to develop them. Instead, stick to a handful of characters and take your time developing each one. This means both positive and negative traits, clear motivation and goals, and just the right amount of backstory. Remember, quality over quantity: a few strong characters are much better than a dozen weak ones.

Your strongest character should be your protagonist or point-of-view character. While novels can support multiple POV characters, most short stories have only one. This character is the beating heart of your story, the reason readers care, the source of emotional impact. Spend plenty of time on her. Give her an internal arc alongside your story’s external plot. A short story doesn’t have room for the full, complex character arc you see in novels, but that doesn’t mean your main character has to remain static. Strive for some small, focused character change. Have her face a fear, overcome a flaw, or learn something new. Give her a different outlook on the world at the end of the story. This will ensure readers leave your story with a sense of meaning.

Minor characters—neighbors, schoolteachers, department store clerks—are necessary to populate your story world and make it feel authentic. These characters can be less developed, even one-dimensional, as long as they’re distinct. Beware character soup, where minor characters feel so bland and similar that the reader can’t tell them apart. It helps to focus on one trait for each character. This trait should not be clichéd or stereotypical, or merely an interesting quirk. Instead, it should reveal something about the character’s personality, motivation, or goals—the industrious neighbor who loves her garden more than her family, the officious teacher who’s always sucking up to his boss, the brilliant department store clerk who’s using this job to put herself through law school.

Don’t forget: characters are the muscle of your story. Each one should have at least one role (preferably more) in the plot. Use them to advance your plot, create conflict, or reveal something about the main character. In revisions, assess each character to determine what purpose they serve in the story. If you can’t find a purpose, give them one—or give them the ax. If you have two characters who feel a little weak, try combining them into a single more well-rounded character with a stronger role in the story.

We’ve covered your characters’ internals, but what about their exteriors—how they look, what they wear, where they live? A few details will flesh out your characters and make them feel more real, but a little goes a long way. Don’t mire readers in paragraphs of description. You may know your character is 6-foot-2, heavyset, with curly salt-and-pepper hair, and that he wears a navy-blue suit and loafers—but your reader doesn’t need all that information. Instead, choose a few key details to help readers envision the character and reveal something deeper about him. “He stood tall and pin-straight, without a gray hair out of place” paints this character as regal and commanding. “He slouched into the room, an old mustard stain on the collar of his suit” paints an entirely different picture.

Hopefully these tips will help you as you populate your short stories. Keep writing and revising—anthology submissions open May 1^st!