VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 14:34:12 02/15/05 Tue GMT-5
Author: Roger
Author Host/IP: blvb01.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca / 198.103.40.3
Subject: Plot vs. character

My stories are unabashedly plot-driven. The story is about what happens. Incidentally, things happen to the characters in the stories, and they are changed, for better or worse. Sometimes not a lot of change happens, but we get to see some unexpected angle on a character. I write characters who, I believe, act in ways that are consistent with my mental picture of the character (as author,) and don't act in ways that are inconsistent with what the reader already knows about them. Many of my stories are very short (1,000 to 1,500 words,) deliberately to fit short-short story markets.

So, if someone is whining about character development, just what do they mean? I don't have much character development in a 1,000 word story? Maybe that's because I only have 1,000 words to tell the story, and I have time to tell you that the character is afraid of centipedes, but don't have room to tell you that it is because her wicked stepmother locked her naked in a closet full of them when she was five.

I know there are supposed to be character-driven stories, but I'm not sure what that means, or if I am reading one.

So. How do you do character? To me it seems it should be a matter of showing your actor in situations where he does or does not do things, or says or does not say things. I have read books that included reams of reflections about the hero's father or Sister Schleswig-Holstein at the convent school, most of which doesn't advance the story much. I just decide what my characters are like, and let them go at it.

Don't know if I phrased that whole thing very well, but I am a little puzzled by this.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Post a message:
This forum requires an account to post.
[ Create Account ]
[ Login ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.