When I write a story, I sometimes try to tell too much of it at the start. I know who my main characters are, and I know I must introduce them right away. That’s the number one rule of storytelling. But in my haste to get all the major players on stage, I tend to hurry the plot along. I usually try to get it going in the right direction on page one, and then end up dumping a lot of information on the reader.
No one likes to read info dumps.
My solution is to have only three main characters: 1). The favorable lead—the protagonist and hero of the story; 2). The least favorable lead—the antagonist or “bad guy” and foil of the story; and 3). The favorable helper character who aids the favorable lead character. This character can be a best friend, a lover, a mentor, etc. Each of them has their own story to tell, but it’s the favorable lead character’s story that I must focus on telling.
Of course, I could introduce their stories, one by one, each in a separate chapter, if I were writing a novel. But I’m mostly a short story writer, so I need to get them on stage as soon as I can, usually in the first or second scenes, along with the main problem that disrupts the favorable lead’s life and hooks the reader’s interest. Any other character I bring on stage is a minor character and has a precise to-the-point objective and a short and limited stage presence.
Because my stories are short, so must my characters’ physical descriptions. I don’t describe as much as I used to but tend to hint at appearances. I don’t find it necessary to show eye color and hair and clothing styles unless they’re crucial to the story. As readers, we have our own biases of peoples’ appearances, so if I bring a brown-haired fifteen-year-old young man onto the stage, we instantly see him how we want to see him. And so, I leave it at that unless there’s something significantly unique about him that must be revealed.
Once my main characters are on stage, then I show lots of action and employ dialogue to reveal essential information. Both slow down the trip to the story’s end by increasing the story’s word count substantially. That’s when I must make things interesting and exciting for the reader and to tease and hint at events to come and not tell too much and give away answers to any mysteries that need solved at the end.
It’s an art to create good stories, much like knitting together fine clothing that looks sharp and fits well.
Thank you for joining me in this look back at another post from my 2011 archives. Until my next post, peace and love.
Steve, 6/3/2024
This post “2011.5.16 Writing: Short Stories” copyright © 2011, 2024 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.
Steve Campbell Creations 
When I taught students how to remember characters in books, I said write their name. Then record how they survive, their relationship to another person in the story, and something unique or important about them. It helps if I restrict myself mostly to those items in the character description.
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I like your approach. I sometimes tend to know too much about my characters that their actions no longer surprise me. It’s not always true, but my characters excite me most when I know less about them.
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