Article category: Creative Writing

Creative Writing

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 support on reading to find out much just 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 accomplish 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 about immediately.

You mightiness have a few characters though. How do you decide who your main character wish be? A main character is one that drives the story.

Think of it this way… If we were to take him away, there wish be no story because it’s his story we are telling. The story wish unfold by what is happening or what has happened to him.

When you establish who your main character wish be, the next thing to do is to find which of your characters is in the better position to tell the story. Wish your main character tell his story or wish you give that role to another character?

This is what we call Viewpoint and what we’ll see in much detail in legal proceeding chapters.

Your main character isn’t necessarily the one who is telling the story; he mightiness not even as appear in our story ‘physically’ but wish be there through the thoughts of others. So the viewpoint character mightiness be a secondary character.

Whoever is telling the story is the viewpoint character.

The viewpoint character gives the coloring of the story. Any this characters says, we wish 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 wish have to take the viewpoint character’s word for it.

In a novel you can play about with viewpoint. You can have some viewpoint characters. In a short story it works better with one.

So your main character, whether he’ll be telling his own story or person else wish be doing it for him, has to be established at the start of your story.

Having aforesaid that, let’s see the reasons why the main character may not be telling his own story...

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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 head-shrinker 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 wish choose the psychiatrist.

I’ve done this because the patient is confused, being the one with the problems. The head-shrinker knows all the facts and his opinions wish do 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 wish have to support 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 just about secondary characters should be unbroken to a minimum. It’s not his story – it’s the main character’s story and the spotlight must, most times, be unbroken on the main character.

Take the above example for instance. It’s no relevancy to the story how the head-shrinker started his career or wherever he received his sheepskin – what’s important, is what he has to say just about the main character, his patient.

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Introduce your main character straight away, as close to the beginning of the story that’s possible. Change your readers to form a bond and that wish support them hooked.

Is your main character established at the start of your story?

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Articles category: Creative Writing

Creative Writing