A short story can have as few as one character or as many as you want. As all the action will be focused around a single event, scene or short time frame, you will want to limit your story cast accordingly.A short story can have as few as one character or as many as you want. As all the action will be focused around a single event, scene or short time frame, you will want to limit your story cast accordingly.
Your story should contain as many characters as needed to properly tell the story. Also, you might have one active character who is constantly thinking about other characters (in the past tense). These other characters play a passive but pivitol role in the storyline and plot.Your story should contain as many characters as needed to properly tell the story. Also, you might have one active character who is constantly thinking about other characters (in the past tense). These other characters play a passive but pivitol role in the storyline and plot.
I am not a fiction writer but we have several friends who are professional writers of books and also movie scripts. You can actually write a short story with no character at all or maybe no animated character like an object that was going with the flow of the river. But the most common of characters in stories, be it short story or novel, is the hero and the villain. And if you are a good writer, you can expand it to 3 with the 3rd party as the love interest. But I don’t think there is a limit to the number of characters of a short story because you can even make a group of people as the main characters.I am not a fiction writer but we have several friends who are professional writers of books and also movie scripts. You can actually write a short story with no character at all or maybe no animated character like an object that was going with the flow of the river. But the most common of characters in stories, be it short story or novel, is the hero and the villain. And if you are a good writer, you can expand it to 3 with the 3rd party as the love interest. But I don’t think there is a limit to the number of characters of a short story because you can even make a group of people as the main characters.
