Forums » The Lounge » Read Thread

I'm curious about this topic. Is it possible to create a story without the element of character, concrete or abstract? Thoughts?

no

Depends what you mean by story. If you mean, can you create a storygame on the CYS website. Yep, but it will be a game with no story. Like 8 goals, 28 rolls. If you mean, is it possible to create a novel without characters... I don't think so. I guess it'd be possible to create a work of nonfiction without characters, like a travel guide or something, where you exclusively talk about places. But a story? What would the story be about? I mean, any people or even animals that were even mentioned would be a character. You have an empty room in an abandoned house and a mouse scurries across the floor, that mouse is now a character.

... I mean, I guess you could write a short story set in a post apocalyptic world where all forms of life have been wiped out, and the story just describes the objects that have been left behind... But to write a story like that without even alluding to the life that used to exist would be difficult. And to write a full length novel based around this premise would be almost impossible. Not to mention extremely boring.

Sounds like it would read like a codex in the same vein you see in RPGs where it's just a history list of various places, beasts and such without the specific people.

Can you expand upon what you understand a character to be first, definition and all, just so we're talking about the same things. For now I'll vote yes.

I can think of 2 so far.

16 words by Gower and this story: "For sale, baby shoes, never worn".

16 words has characters.

Oh yeah I forgot about "Nemesis", "Ghoul" and "Tramp" among other characters. I guess 16 words does have characters

What about the "For sale: baby shoes, never worn". That one doesn't have any characters, since only the readers sees a double meaning in the story, but there's nothing explicitly stated. That could count as a characterless-story.

The person selling the shoes, maybe?

Good point. hmmm...

How about this? It's really crude, but I think it's a completely character devoid story aside from whatever impression the reader takes.

"To be or not to be, that is the question. If be, much sadness. If not be, then nothingness. Sadness worth being? No. Therefore, not be. Goodbye."

But there is something speaking, yeah?

Huh, missed that one. Good point. I guess it isn't possible to write a story without characters. No matter how I think about it, there's always at least one character present, even in the most bare-bones stories.

How can you miss that Hamlet is speaking in a play named after his character?

lol

I would argue that in the second one there are characters implied.

It wouldn't be easy, but I don't think it's impossible. You'd probably have to figure out a way to tell the story almost exclusively through the setting.

Anything that invites the reader to relate to it or has a conflict centered around it is a character. A rusty gate is a character if the reader wants it to survive a hurricane.

Yes, exactly.

I'm with Enter (damn, did I say that out loud): what do you mean by "character?"

Certainly you could do it with non-human characters. You could even do it with objects that can talk and interact. If you wrote a story about a flower that grew from the ground, would the flower then BE the character? Under those terms, anything you write about, the main topic is the character. With that definition, no, because without a main topic, you're just a gay monkey slamming keys on the keyboard.

Depends on what is a character and what is a story.

It's an interesting question.

You could write a story about objects instead of people but if they do anything it implies characteristics. If events happened to them it doesn't but it isn't a story, rather a non-fictional account or a history. I don't think you can have a story without sentient somethings and that implies characters and characteristics, I think the two are linked by definition in the same way plot and settings are irradicable parts of the story. Even the short story "baby shoes" implies the characters of the baby and parents while Hamlet's soliloquy, on its own doesn't have characters but isn't a story, I think it's a very short philosophical essay or musing.

Hey, there's Will!

Hi Will!

Hey, there's my fellow fan of the number 11 :D Hi Ogre!

Well maybe try using a boolean instead.

What do you mean by that?

Just some stupid programming joke.

oh, nice.

This was a test. Characters are symbols used to present information.

Damn, I took the bait lol.

Are you suggesting acoustic storytelling? O_o

All other forms are demonic.

ALL forms are demonic

MotherFUCKER.

lol fag

What about interpretive dance? ^_^

Ever listened to music, motherfucker?

Fuck you Milton

I briefly toyed with the idea of a story involving robots that were not sentient but simply followed certain protocols and directives without question. The idea was that the player character would have to try and figure out what each robot's internal set of rules were and take advantage of loopholes in those rules. Of course, the character you control would certainly qualify as a character, but I wonder if mindless, rule following robots could be considered as characters. After all, they would be closer to extremely advanced roombas than anything else.

Like Mizal said, even a rusty gate counts as a character (even if it does nothing) if you create enough emotion surrounding it. So I'd say yes, they do.
Also that sounds like a very cool storygame idea

Not really? Especially in a choose your own adventure. Even if narratively you don't have any characters in your story, I think the reader would technically be a character. You could definitely try it though! It would be really interesting to explore I think