How to Write a Short Story with Only One Character
It is possible to write a very good short story using only one character and here’s how.
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While I was a teaching assistant at the University of Pittsburgh I taught short story writing. Many of my students who were 18 to 21 years old were taking my class to get a writing credit in English. They didn’t want to be writers.
So, with writing being as difficult as it is and with my students not being sure of how to write a short story or not even wanting to be short story writers a lot of them wrote autobiographical stories where the only character in the story was the student. This usually meant I read a lot of short stories that were painfully self-conscious and painfully claustrophobic. The writer never got outside of the protagonist’s head.
What to do? What to do?
Well, I was a new instructor, never having taught a class in anything; but I did have years and years of experience behind me as a writer who had over 50 flash fiction publications and articles about writing flash fiction under my belt. I mean other publications had published me. I had not published myself. So, what had all these publications taught me? What advice could I give to my writing students, who did not want to be writers, about writing short stories with only one character in them? I had to grade their stories. I was not going to give a good grade for a poorly written story. What could I tell my students that would help them get good grades in my class even if they turned in stories with only one character?
A good story comes down to conflict. If there is only one character in the story, that character had better be in conflict with the self. An argument had better be going on inside the character’s head.
The resolution of the argument will be the resolution of the story.
Writing a flash fiction, sudden fiction, micro-fiction, postcard fiction, mini-fiction and regular-length short story with only one character is not only possible but with a new, aspiring or an experienced writer it can be very rewarding, too.
My blog is the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette
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August 19th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Inspiring piece. Keep up the good work
August 20th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Lady Syxess, some of my students got to be very good at writing short stories. A few had talent. Several students who handed in stories with one character realized that it was easier to write stories with at least two characters and the two-character stories were more reader friendly.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Writing with only one character sounds a little boring, and I’m not sure if the reader would be enticed. Still, you bring up a good point.
April 1st, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I perceive the advice as ridiculous pablum. Formulaic nonesense: crisis/conflict leads to climax/ resolution. It doesn’t have to be that way……………..
Fiction is what YOU create of it: not some antiquated formula.
You can write a one character short story; of course you can; butthre has to be something inspiring or thrilling or captivating behind the narrative…..and the commercial Academy probably won’t approve……..but then again: I don’t know any morethan anybody else so…….take your chances?
September 4th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
To Short Stories and Charlie Sutphion;
Boring? I hardly think so. Take a look at To Build a Fire by Jack London.
Formulaic? B.S. That’s the word people use when they waste half their lives trying to write “original”, “experimental”, and “plotless” dross that no one want to pay for or read. Try baking a cake without a recipe or taking a road trip without a map. Gimme a break.
April 1st, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Hmmm, so if you are not “formulaic” then you are trying to be “original” and also to create “‘plotless’ dross”. Do you really think so? And if so, is that so awful–being original? Dross–that word is even less creative than formulaic, I fear. I don’t bake but frequently hike in the woods (alone) off trail and without a map (and with ticks): I find it enjoyable but don’t expect anybody to watch me do “it” or to read my work. I have not broken yet and if I have wasted half my life, that’s okay…………….. PS: My first post was a little on the “ranting” side