Bigger

Happy Friday, everyone!

You know what else I like about novels?

They have...

Bigger Characters

Remember last week, we talked about characters in short stories, and how small they tend to be? Short story characters only have a little bit that they want to do, only a limited number of things they'll let you, the writer, do with them.

That's not so with novels.

1. All. The. Things.

While short story characters only have a little bit that they want to do, novel characters have so much to do that it often doesn't all make it into the book. We get to build them into bigger people, into fully fleshed out beings that really feel alive — and we get to make a lot of them.

Unlike short stories, these characters generally have an expansive goal to reach. They're not just taking on one simple task or revealing one tiny part of their lives. They're living on the page, carrying on their lives and struggling to reach the ultimate goal. They battle against their enemies, they fight for what's right, and they're raw and real on the page.

In my experience, there's just no way to fully get there with the characters in short stories. We can get close, but it's not the same. 

2. Count it.

Aside from the mass of things they want to do, there's also a lot of them — and I do mean a lot.

Novels, due to their size, can contain a far greater number of characters. We have main characters, protagonists and antagonists, minor characters, supporting characters, and background characters. All of them have their own lives, and though some of them are the tiniest things to our stories, they're all still there and they're all still very much alive to us.

For me, that's part of the fun of novels. I get to create as many people as I wish, even if they're only going to be "on stage" for a five second role, and we get to know each other.

Maybe that sounds weird, but you know how they are. Our characters are the voices in our heads, and sometimes they're all fighting to get out.


Don't heed them all the time. Sometimes it's better to take some time off.

[love]

{Rani Divine}


P.S. I'm finishing book #13 today.