Single Character Stories

[TxRad]

Oh the problems only one character causes. No one to talk to except ones self, which after a while gets to be silly. Everything is either action or thought.

But does this limit the story or does it just make it more difficult to write?

 

[AchtungNight]

Wouldn’t know, I’ve never done a story with just one character. “Girls Dorm Blues” comes close, but there are also Elena’s flashbacks and imaginary friend to consider. Leap of Faith reveals said friend may not be entirely imaginary.

 

[Omenainen]

I only have one, and I didn’t find it complicated. Then it’s not a very long or complicated story.

We are just editing a story we wrote with AwkwardMD which is set in post-apocalyptic world (zombies and lesbian romance, what could be better?). It definitely was difficult in that the only interaction was between the two protagonists, there was no other people to bounce off from. So that’s not the same but similar

To summarize, yes it makes the story more difficult to tell. I suppose especially if it’s from first person.

 

[Rob_Royale]

A solo story. Interesting idea. It does have its challenges I'll say. The setting would be the whole story rather than the characters.

 

[mildlyaroused]

I think the difficulty comes more from the micro-level writing itself (the prose, language use, structure) than wider limitations on the story.

It's very difficult to write a story with one character, which doesn't read like "They did this... Then they did this. Then they did this." (Or "I" did this, as it may be). Dialogue, multiple character names, and the dynamism of a fictional world inhabited by multiple other entities are all super useful for breaking up long passages. They allow more things to happen around the character rather than them just doing something, then something 2, then something 3.

Obviously this doesn't mean it can't work. It absolutely can. I don't think the use of a single character limits a story much at all. It changes the story, but it doesn't limit it. Your thoughts alone throughout your latest 24 hours are complex enough, layered enough with conscious and unconscious motive, to fill an entire novel. Your world is a character in itself.

So to me, it is the second option: more difficult to write.

And it is more difficult to write. The line between showing and telling, the line between monologue and things left unsaid. If an author isn't careful then the repetition of a singular person's thoughts and actions can build up like lactic acid. Fatigue is hard to avoid!!

 

[TxRad]

Here is the story that brought this thread about and yes, I'm working on a sequel.

Getting Away

Keeping the flow moving along helps.

 

[MyBareTorso]

I have done solo stories, but they've always involved masturbation and flashbacks....pretty close to home, so not too hard to write!!!

 

[Rustyoznail]

What happens if you have a friend called Wilson with you? Are you truly alone?

 

[Devinter]

Only one I've written was a masturbation story, and it wasn't good enough to actually get uploaded in the end. Unless you'd count my Letters and Transcripts entry, but that's still an email being addressed to a second (albeit unnamed) character. I've also done a story in which one of the two characters was completely mute, and not communicating in any other form either really. (Except with "body language" ) - That one was interesting to write! Can recommend.

So yes, it is certainly more difficult to write a single character story - but those kind of challenges can be fun, and I believe you can still create an equally impactful story in the end. Best of luck with that second part!

 

[TxRad]

With all those packages, why was it he only found the one volley ball? He should have had a whole bunch of friends like Wilson.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I had fun writing this one: The Lollipop
My approach was inner monologue with the conflict centered around the fight between her sexual desire and her prudish upbringing. Sort of a shoulder devil / shoulder angel conflict with self.

 

[TxRad]

Wet wasn't a single character but it was a major conflict of good girl / bad girl. Who will win.

 

[lovecraft68]

Oh the problems only one character causes. No one to talk to except ones self, which after a while gets to be silly. Everything is either action or thought.

But does this limit the story or does it just make it more difficult to write?

Great topic. I have a femme fatale novel in the works and part one is finished its 38k and like your topic the entire thing is from her POV. She does interact with other characters, but none of them are important, some are people she kills, a phone conversation with the person who sets up her missions. The rest is all her internal struggle with why she does what she does, and when she receives a concussion in a fight, she finds herself hallucinating about her traumatic past which is what sent her into a life of violence to begin with.

I don't think any of it is bad, its a good story, but staying in one person's head for so long with no one else to bounce to for a breather isn't easy, and at least to me, it makes the story seem monotonous.

 

[TxRad]

Yeah, keeping it from being too shallow and introverted is a problem.

 

[StillStunned]

What counts as single-character? A ghost reminiscing about her life as a Viking warrior? An obsessed voyeur addressing their neighbour in a monologue? A 2P POV where the 2P interacts with a 3P, but only physically because the 3P is asleep?

 

[TxRad]

A story that starts with one character, the one character carries the whole story, and ends with one character.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Oh the problems only one character causes. No one to talk to except ones self, which after a while gets to be silly. Everything is either action or thought.

But does this limit the story or does it just make it more difficult to write?

I’ve done a few short ones of these, mostly related to toys or masturbation. At under 3k words, it’s sustainable. Not sure I could keep such an approach for, say, 30k. I like dialog.

Emily

 

[SimonDoom]

Only sort of. One of my recent 750-word stories is told from the POV of a man on a lunch break on a park bench watching a woman and speculating about what she's up to. She's in the story, but she never speaks or interacts with him other than smiling once.

 

[intim8]

But does this limit the story or does it just make it more difficult to write?

Yes, and yes, but I believe that real creativity comes from constraints. There's certain stories that can only be told with a single, isolated character.

 

[yowser]

You drove me into overthink mode, congratulations.

Agree that the degree of difficulty rises, no question about that. All in the head.

Still trying to wrap my head around definitions, however, my first thought was it would have to be a masturbatory monologue or diary type of entry. (None.)

But then, maybe a voyeur experience related, with no interaction but just narration, the description of a witnessed event seen (or overheard?) A couple.

All my letters and transcripts offerings might qualify? (Although they are obviously directed at the recipient, but still just one character's thoughts.)

And then my two first-person POV monologues, from penis POV? No dialogue, just musings. But those surely don't qualify....

You got me.

 

[TxRad]

Yeah, I love me some dialog and then there is no one to talk to. It takes a big arrow out of the quiver.