How to deal with character descriptions in a connected stories anthology

[HuckPilgrim]

So I am trying to figure out how to do an anthology of connected stories. I have a few stories for the anthology and all the stories take place in the same town, and feature a lot of the same characters. However, each story is from the POV of a different character. So I'm trying to figure out how to deal with introducing each character and character descriptions, especially in subsequent stories where a character who has already been introduced in an earlier story comes back into the current story.

On the one hand, if the story is from a different character's POV, I feel it can be helpful to offer that character's description of the recurring character, as long as that description 1) doesn't conflict with earlier descriptions and 2) offers some new insight, either into the character offering the description or the character being described.

On the other hand, I'm not sure. It seems like a bad choice to strip out character descriptions, because somehow it feels like it would degrade the story that's losing the description. I'm not even sure what else can be done.

Have any of you done this or seen it done? I feel certain I've seen this sort of thing done before and it usually includes a bit of overlap, but I am having a hard time thinking of exact titles.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have a series of six stories, some short, others novella length or longer. I wrote each one as a stand alone story, to a point. I did write one short story that kind of tied them all together, in the middle of the series.

But, each story has character descriptions or what little I tell about a character in each volume as they take place in different times and place, just the characters are essentially the same, but not really. The names are the same, but each person in each story is a little different or not. Confusing? You bet.

And...

I have another series...so far six lengthy short stories with the same characters, same everything. I didn't feel the need to re-describe each character. If you want to know about a character, read the series from the beginning.

And with an anthology, why re-describe a character who was introduce in a prior story? If the reader doesn't have any retention of what they read prior to the current story, then maybe she shouldn't be reading...at all.

Of course this assumes the group of stories will all be in one place, published as a single item with many parts. Or they will be chapters in a story posted here at lit.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

And with an anthology, why re-describe a character who was introduce in a prior story? If the reader doesn't have any retention of what they read prior to the current story, then maybe she shouldn't be reading...at all.

Good point! This was exactly my thinking. Why bother?

I think the only reason to do it is if the new story is from a different POV than where the character in question was originally described. And then the challenge is to offer a new description that doesn't contradict the earlier description, and also gives the reader some additional information, either about the character being described or the POV character doing the describing.

 

[sr71plt]

I write a lot of recurring characters in stories that either are closely or loosely connected. I put enough character description in each one for the story to stand alone, as I'm sure they often do with readers. I do try to vary the phrases characterizing them and I don't describe them in great detail anyway--not much more than enough to connect them to the storyline and differentiate them from other characters.

When I know I'm going to do a recurring character across a lot of stories (like my Clint Folsom in the many-volumned "Death in . . ." detective novel series, only some of which are posted to Lit.) I try to bring new insights into the character's personality and experience/baggage in successive books--again as they serve the storyline of that particular story/book.

 

[lovecraft68]

In F Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series which I think is over ten books by now, he describes Jack in each one as well as the recurring characters. My thought is what is this is the first book someone picked up?

But if its in the same book and they are short then I would imagine the person should recall what they look like and maybe you could do a brief retell subtly, "Dave glared at me, his blue eyes blazing' to remind me of eye color...etc...

 

[Hypoxia]

I submitted two anthology-type Incest pieces for a Hallowe'en contest: A Taste of Pumpkin & Candy and A Taste of Spirits. Pumpkin & Candy merely collected three short pieces and didn't really work as a whole. Spirits contains a half-dozen disconnected stories within a framing device: tales told around a campfire. Readers seemed to like that technique.

I have a cycle of stories set in a certain neighborhood (the Sellwood district of Portland OR) with some supporting cast inhabiting the tales but no real connection between the main players. If I were to try to novelize the whole, I'd use some similar framing device, maybe everyone gathering at a local tavern to tell lies. The A Taste of Lemonade sub-cycle has three POVs telling their slightly-overlapping versions of the events; no framing device was necessary.

For your anthology you could merely leave the descriptions as-is; or, do a bit of context editing to ease-out any redundancies. I'd keep the framing as thin as possible.

 

[RejectReality]

When you're writing individual stories with connections, you need to treat each as if it's the only story in the collection the person is going to read. So, on with the descriptions.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

But, if it's anthology, why?


1. a book or other collection of selected writings by various authors, usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject:
an anthology of Elizabethan drama; an anthology of modern philosophy.

2. a collection of selected writings by one author.

They are all in the same place, collected together for reading. Why re-describe?

You don't describe the character in each chapter of a book. Why would you describe the characters that will appear in anthology over and over? Now if the anthology was published as a serial, then yeah, just like in the old Superman TV series. At the beginning of each episode they described Superman.

I once read a series created by David Drake called The Fleet. It was a 6 book (paperback) series. It was a collection of short sorties by different authors about the same subject The Fleet of the human confederation. Several of the stories were about the same people. If I remember right, they were never described more than once, when they initially appeared in the series.