Message Board Topic 4/27

[Comsie]

Normally, when most of us go through our day, we come into contact with a lot of different people. College roommates, co-workers, parking attendants, friends, family, teachers, classmates, and the occasional cute boy working at the coffee shop! If we had to literally write down every single person we talked to or had to interact on a daily basis...I'm sure we'd come up with at least 50 to 100 people, easy. (Then again...I'm a city boy! Hehehe, so it might be different here)

 

However, when you read the stories online, the focus gets minimized to surround just the few main characters that are involved with the current plot. And that's a GOOD thing, right? I mean we can't go writing a story with 100 characters in every chapter, that would be insane!

 

But the question this week is...can an author cut out so many background characters that pieces of the story seem to be missing? I mean, in teen fiction especially...do you ever find yourself asking, "Where are the parents at?" Why are they never around? Where are all the other classmates while they're having this secretly 'gay' conversation in the gym locker room? Where are the teachers? And if they're two boys that are falling in love...do they have any friends at all? Where are THEY? Do they have any kind of impact on the story at all?

 

What do you guys think? Are there 'missing' people in these stories as a whole? Or is it better to just keep a tight story and focus on the feelings and interactions between the two main boys and leave the rest of the world as 'background'? What do you think?

[Graeme]

The answer depends on the type of story. In some stories, you don't need to know about the other people around.

 

However, in the majority of stories the author should indicate something about other people around the main characters. Parents are good example -- I don't know how many times I've read a story and wondered what happened to the parents? They never seemed to be there....

 

Similarly, any time there's something going on in a public or semi-public place, there will be other people around. If the main characters are just having a conversation, then the author can ignore them. If, however, the main characters start making out, then I would expect the other people around them to react, and the story should show that reaction.

 

When the other people interact significantly with the main characters, or if the other people are key people in a situation (eg. parents), then the author should make at least some mention of them. Leaving them out gives the impression that something is missing, while adding them in can often only require a sentence or two.