# A protagonist in a short story?



## ACraZ (Feb 16, 2014)

By short story I mean a sometimes non-linear, not going to branch into many chapters, kind of story; when you are trying to convey a certain moral, message, feeling, or emotion.

With a short story like that I find myself wondering if I should even really address the protagonist, let alone describe them. It seems like they are just the narrator and guide through whatever your message is. 

What do you think? In a short story is the protagonist important if they are not the sole message of the tale?


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## Conker (Feb 16, 2014)

I suppose I'm of the feeling that readers are more apt to relate to characters than specific messages or morals, so that should apply to shorter pieces of work as well. 

But short stories and smaller bouts of writing are more open to creative...well, motherfuckery is a fine word  so maybe it doesn't matter.

Since the main character is the one narrating and the one driving the message though, I do think he/she should be more than a simple cardboard cutout. 

I don't read enough short stories to be super helpful I'm afraid. My other advice is to pick up a collection and give a few a look to see what works for others and apply accordingly.

Edit: I've given this a bit more thought and realized that Lovecraft gets away with idea-driven short stories. His characters usually don't have all that much going on to them. They aren't completely blank, but in some cases, they come very very close. But his freaky ideas and mythos carry his narratives. 

he is writing horror though, and there usually aren't any real messages or morals to his works. It's just "here's a box with a creepy narrative in it" where the box is the blank character. Eh, shit metaphor there.


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## ACraZ (Feb 17, 2014)

Usually characterization of the protagonist is important if you are trying to get your creative motherfuckery (that's my new favorite term) across through the fella, but is it really necessary to describe a character that, most likely, will not come up in any other story? 

If you are trying to make the reader absorb whatever you are writing for would it do more harm than good to illustrate the protagonist and possibly distract from what's important? Like Lovecraft: he did horror and, from what you are saying, didn't go into the vessel too much so that you put yourself into the situation, the horror, instead of seeing some guy in a scary place.


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## Tica (Feb 17, 2014)

it sounds like you are trying to write a poem, speech, or sermon, as opposed to a story.


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## ACraZ (Feb 17, 2014)

Tica said:


> it sounds like you are trying to write a poem, speech, or sermon, as opposed to a story.


It would probably be more like a poem than those other things...

Here, this is what got me thinking of this whole topic, it's something I wrote recently and not too long:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12733472/ 

I'm trying to figure out this stuff (because god knows high school doesn't teach anything more than grammar...) and thought maybe someone else here was thinking of the same.


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## Tica (Feb 17, 2014)

ACraZ said:


> It would probably be more like a poem than those other things...
> 
> Here, this is what got me thinking of this whole topic, it's something I wrote recently and not too long:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12733472/
> 
> I'm trying to figure out this stuff (because god knows high school doesn't teach anything more than grammar...) and thought maybe someone else here was thinking of the same.



yeah I'd describe that as either a prose poem or flash fiction.


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## Conker (Feb 17, 2014)

ACraZ said:


> Usually characterization of the protagonist is important if you are trying to get your creative motherfuckery (that's my new favorite term) across through the fella, but is it really necessary to describe a character that, most likely, will not come up in any other story?
> 
> If you are trying to make the reader absorb whatever you are writing for would it do more harm than good to illustrate the protagonist and possibly distract from what's important? Like Lovecraft: he did horror and, from what you are saying, didn't go into the vessel too much so that you put yourself into the situation, the horror, instead of seeing some guy in a scary place.


Well, there aren't any real steadfast rules in terms of how you frame a narrative or craft one. I just got done working on a narrative poem with no real main character, just an "I" voice that follows things around. Idea was more important than him, as it were.

So go with the flow. I do prefer character driven things, and I have read character-driven short stories, but short stories are cool in that you can play around and not need to worry. I had a professor who refused to believe that, but fuck him. 

Basically I just flipflopped


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## ACraZ (Feb 17, 2014)

Tica said:


> yeah I'd describe that as either a prose poem or flash fiction.


Right.

The original question now? :3

Yeah Conker, if I believed everything someone tried to teach me, well for one thing I would think furries were a lot creepier than they are, and certainly wouldn't really have much of a place to discus things like this.


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## Conker (Feb 17, 2014)

ACraZ said:


> Yeah Conker, if I believed everything someone tried to teach me, well for one thing I would think furries were a lot creepier than they are, and certainly wouldn't really have much of a place to discus things like this.


Yeah. And at the very least, even in an academic setting, you should be allowed to experiment. Finding out what doesn't work on your own is just as valid as learning what does work from a teacher. Probably moreso.

If what you go with winds up being more poetry than anything, then fuck it: poetic license says LET THERE BE WHATEVER!


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## Hooky (Mar 6, 2014)

I think that with a short story, one can only convey a finite quantity of plot. If anything, the characters are the story. 
Nevertheless, focus on what's necessary for your story in particular.


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