Adding this type of dimension makes the antagonist sympathetic to the reader, which is a much more interesting read. The mentor is the person who wisely guides the protagonist in some way. The mentor is experienced and helpful. Every protagonist must have a mentor. This is because the protagonist is not perfect and all-knowing.
The mentor teaches him how. The mentor often serves as the moral standard by which the protagonist is judged. The sidekick is the loyal companion of the protagonist. Most protagonists need a supportive friend. The sidekick may also serve to symbolize the theme.
A sidekick should be loyal but not to a fault. Allow the sidekick to have doubts and process through them as he accompanies the protagonist on the journey. The skeptic is the voice of reason, and often reason conflicts with emotion which may be personified as the sidekick. The skeptic may provide logical counsel for the protagonist but will not stand in his way.
Not necessarily. The above characters represent the primary and secondary characters in your story. You can start by answering these questions:. Remember that not all characters need to be explored in detail. Some characters, like a mailman or a passing stranger who only offer a few words, are used mostly to define the setting or develop the protagonist.
It's fine if the lesser, tertiary characters in your story are flat. However, if these lesser characters continue to appear in your story and interact with your protagonist, it's crucial that you add more dimension.
Otherwise, a flat character can quickly turn into a stereotype. Writing a stereotype is lazy, and your readers will feel cheated. A compelling plot may entertain your reader, but it's the characters that live on long after the reader has closed the book. The reader may forget plot details no matter how fun or surprising , but they never forget a well-written character.
Use the above tips to create a set of memorable characters. No story would be a story without characters to define it. With this in mind, the most important question you must ask yourself when editing your story is simply: Which characters should I include in my story?
As the character follows his true nature and struggles with his inner motivations, he begins to resemble a real person. The way that the writer chooses to reveal his characters varies. Some writers rely heavily on outward appearances. For example, a character may have a hunchback or some other deformity, which implies his evilness or antagonism. Because characters are such an important element in short stories, the kind of character that the writer presents is also of the utmost importance to the development of the story as a whole.
In general, characters are found in three forms: individual, developing and static. An individual character is round, many sided, and complex in personality. In short stories, protagonists are typically individuals. A developing character is a character who grows throughout the story. Flat characters, are less well developed and have fewer or limited traits or belong to a group, class, or stereotype. Fern in Charlotte's Web. A character foil, is a minor character whose traits contrast with a main character.
The lamb is young and naive as Wilbur, but she is smug instead of humble. Anthropomorphic characterization, is the characterization of animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena as people. Skilled authors use this to create fantasy even from stuffed toys Winnie-the-Pooh. The characterizing of inanimate objects from tiny soldiers to trees and so on is represented in Andersen's works and particularly in the ballet, The Nutcracker.
Animal characters in realism are best when the animals act only like animals as in The Incredible Journey. Dynamic characters are rounded characters that change. Wilbur as the panicky child. It is true Is it true they are going to kill me when the cold weather comes? Later: "Listen to me? She cannot accompany us home, because of her condition. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that I take her egg sac with me. I can't reach it, and I can't climb.
You are the only one that can get it. There's not a second to be lost Please, please, please, Templeton, climb up and get the egg sac. This desperate plea does not come from personal need. Further, he tells Templeton to "stop acting like a spoiled child. Other dynamic characters are:.
Static stock characters are round or flat characters that do not change during the story. Charlotte is the same wise and selfless character at the end of the story as at the beginning.
Folktales, fairytales, and other types use static and flat characters, whose actions are predictable, so the listener or reader is free to concentrate on the action and theme as it moves along toward an often times universal discovery. Chronological order is when a story relates events in the order in which they happened. Flashback is when the story moves back in time. Dreams are easier for children to understand because of their experience with them.
Flashbacks are more problematic. Conflicts occur when the protagonist struggles against an antagonist villain that goes against the protagonist , or opposing force. Conflict and order make plot. The author creates the conflict by describing one of the following types of interactions. Tom Sawyer's fear of Injun Joe and guilt, can't sleep, fear of talking in sleep, ties mouth shut, struggle with moral responsibility even in the face of danger.
A Wizard of Earthsea , Ursula K. Le Guin. Ged struggles against the flaws in himself, as the shadow, must make himself whole. He will now live his life for its own sake, not for hatred, pain, ruin, or the darkness of evil. Child will probably call it "will Wilbur live? Kit Vv. Lack of conflict. A story that lacks struggle, lacks suspense, lacks alternatives, lacks a sense that it had to happen, and therefore, satisfaction.
All the reader can say at the conclusion of such a story is "So what does that prove? A Wrinkle in Time shows Meg on a powerful planet saving Charles Wallace, person-against-person conflict. The author builds the plot, character, Double Fudge by Judy Blume has a different sense of conflict. There are little incidents that happen throughout the book but nothing of significance to anyone but Fudge and maybe some family members.
However, the reader's attention is maintained by an attachment to Fudge and his struggle with childhood. Rising action. The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Steady action maintains the same amount of action through out the story, rising and falling from time to time. Rise and fall action , the action rises to a climax and then trails off. Suspense is what makes us read on. Charlotte's Web : Wilbur's fate.
Will he live? Will Charlotte run out of words? Is Templeton too selfish to help? Will Wilbur win at the fair? Can Charlotte go? Lose to Uncle? New category? Dead pig! Templeton bites tail Foreshadowing is the planting of clues to indicate the outcome of the story. Not all readers will be alert to these. Some may notice them subconsciously and describe their inferences as guesses or feelings.
Charlotte's Web. When we first meet Charlotte we are told that she eats living things and the friendship looks questionable. But White adds, " Another clue is when Charlotte assures Wilbur, after he learns of the slaughter, with, "I am going to save you. The thrilling and the startling. Achieved at the expense of the character and the idea.
A writer must be careful with sensationalism, so as not to weaken the character or theme, to balance suspense over action, and then hint at the outcome, as not to overpower small children but provide relief as needed. The peak and turning point of the conflict, the point at which we know the outcome of the action. Children call it the most exciting part. In Charlotte's Web when the pig survives. The Borrowers when the boy ventilates the fumigation.
Resolution is the falling action after the climax. When the reader is assured that all is well and will continue to be, so the plot has a closed ending. If the reader is left to draw their own conclusions about the final plot then the ending is open. Many adults as well as children are disturbed by open endings. Coincidence is when events that happen by mere chance.
The Incredible Journey has some coincidental events that remove credibility from the plot. First, a handwritten note blows into the fire and leaves the housekeeper baffled. Therefore, she does not know that the two dogs and cat have struck out on their own, and does not search for them.
Later a crumbling beavers' dam gives way at just the right moment to sweep the frightened cat downstream. Later, a boy hunting for the first time with his own rifle, saves the cat from a lynx with one remarkable shot. Sentimentality is a natural concern or emotion for another person. The way a soap opera or a tear-jerker plays on its viewers.
Black Beauty , by Anna Sewell is told by the horse and stuffed with sentimentality. The head hung out of the cart-tail, the lifeless tongue was slowly dropping with blood; and the sunken eyes.
But I can't speak of them, the sight was too dreadful. It was a chestnut horse with a long, thin neck I believe it was Ginger; I hoped it was, for then her troubles would be over. If men were more merciful they should shoot us before we came to such misery.
The rapid pace of folktales does not allow time for tears by false sentiment. We do not anguish over the fate of Rumpelstiltskin, when he stamped his feet and split in two and that was the end of him. The most destructive element from the over use of sentimentality is not boredom, but the fact that the young reader, faced with continual sentimentality, will not develop the sensitivity essential to recognize what is truly moving and what is merely a play on feelings.
If, after all, we regard the death of a pet mouse with the same degree of emotional intensity as the death of a brother, we have no sense of emotional proportion. By contrast Katherine Paterson, in Bridge to Terabithia uses a wide range of emotions that children wrestle with or the genuine sentiment that a small child, reading or being read to, experiences during the relationship with Charlotte and Wilbur.
The child fed only on such surface sentimentality as soap operas, the average television program, and early Walt Disney, with their sterile and stereotyped pictures of human beings and their distorted sensationalism with simplistic solutions, risks developing emotional shallowness.
Progressive plots have a central climax followed by a resolution denouement. Charlotte's Web and A Wrinkle in Time are examples. Episodical plots have one incident or short episode linked to another by a common character or unifying theme maybe through chapters. Used by authors to explore character personalities, the nature of their existence, and the flavor of a certain time period.
Backdrop setting is when the setting is unimportant for the story and the story could take place in any setting. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. Milne is an example of a story in which could happen in any setting.
Integral setting is when the action, character, or theme are influenced by the time and place, setting. Controlling setting controls characters. If you confine a character to a certain setting it defines the character. Characters, given these circumstances, in this time and place, behave in this way.
The Tail of Peter Rabbit is an example of how the setting is an integral part of Peter's behavior. Charlotte's Web is another example of an integral setting.
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