THE SHORT STORY III: PERSONA
Just wanted to follow up on my earlier comments on Persona – Persona being one of the core elements of the Narrative Component of our short story formula.
Anyone who reads my fiction knows that I usually write in the first person and the Persona I deploy runs towards the trenchant. I use a strong Persona for all the obvious reasons – when used well, a strong Persona gives you an enormous amount of profluent1 bang for your buck.
On a profluent level, Persona in and of itself can (1) bind a story together and give a tonal characterlogical coherence. Persona, if charming enough, can act as (2) a profluent accelerator, compelling readers to turn the page. With enough pull (or rizz, as the kids say) Persona can also (3) help answer the crucial question that haunts all stories – The Why Is This Story Being Told question. Usually in traditional fiction that question is answered by the story’s conflict (or plot) but Persona can (4) be a substitute for formal plot or obvious conflict – the person telling the story becomes the “story.2” Similarly, a good Persona (5) gives a writer the time, space, and opportunity to build other effects in the story — atmosphere, mood — before bringing in the big guns of conflict, because sometimes you want to let a story settle, sometimes you want a story to be, before you go all instrumental. And finally (6) a good Persona connects readers to the fiction at the deepest level, creating a limbic bridge between the scratches on the page and the heart-minds of the readers.
Ultimately, a good Persona creates belief (in the Tolkien sense) which I prefer over suspending disbelief, which is a weird way of talking about how a reader connects to a work.
Whenever I’m crafting Persona I review a checklist I’ve put together of all the qualities / effects that are vital for strong Personas. Not all of these will be used for every Persona or every story, but they’re worth keeping on the table because if writing has taught me anything, it's that you never know, right? (I will have to tell you about my checklist obsession one day, and why checklists are invaluable tools for writers.)