So you want to write a short story? Do you have a clear protagonist? You need to determine as to who will carry your short story from the beginning to the end. It is clear that you would have a hero and a heroine if you are writing a love story. But it does not usually work like that. It is not so easy. A hero in a love story could gradually or abruptly turn out to be a villain. That will certainly make for an interesting short story.
Creating a major character to give strength to the story is up to the author unless you are borrowing a known character from other stories or from current events or depending upon the obvious aspects of generic protagonists. For example, you could borrow Arjuna or Hanuman from the Puranas to be part of your short story. You would not need to take away too many sentences to develop these characters within your manuscript.
What if you take a renowned Olympian gold medalist champion athlete and turn him out to be an antagonist? Wait! That is actually been done in real life. A good protagonist could also be in conflict with a powerful antagonist or could be at conflict with oneself or with the image that the people have about them. You would need to be careful in such situations to avoid contradicting yourself by the time that you complete your story.
The principal character notes could be written up separately as your reference guide and will help you to stay truthful and faithful to continuity with the protagonist and the antagonist if you decide on including them in your next short story or in a series. There could be more than one protagonist or antagonist and the author could turn them into a good collective team, for e.g. commandos or school students.
Before =
(2) Does your story have a beginning and an end?
Next =
(4) How to begin writing the Story?
Bharat Bhushan, 12 July 2021
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