Writing a Story 2

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Placing all the events in chronological order (not the only way to do it, but the simplest) should give us:

• A FRUSTRATING INCIDENT WHICH CAUSES THE EVENTS
• THE DECISION TO ROB
• THE ACCIDENTAL KILLING
• THE DISCOVERY OF THE MURDER
• THE ATTEMPT TO FLEE
• THE FINAL MISTAKE
• THE CONSEQUENCES OF ALL THE EVENTS

NOW, how many characters do we need?

Before you read on try to answer this question yourself.

OK? I think we need:

1. THE ROBBER/MURDERER
2. THE PERSON WHO IS ROBBED
3. THE PERSON WHO IS MURDERED
4. THE PERSON WHO DISCOVERS THE ROBBERY
5. A POLICEMAN OR SOMEONE WHO IS IN A POSITION OF AUTHORITY OR POWER

In fact, if we make numbers 2 & 3 the same person we could increase the excitement and reduce the number of main characters. In a SHORT STORY 4 is enough.

We can, of course, have any number of minor characters to make our story more realistic, to populate our fictional world: bystanders, other policemen, locals, etc. But only 4 characters are essential; only 4 should take up a reasonable amount of space.

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