🚀 go-pugleaf

>Have you ever tried to write a story in which there is only one
>character, all by herself?  I've been working on such a story and am
>finding it more difficult than I have ever imagined to give the story
>any grip.  Stories are interesting because of some central conflict,
>and it's bugger-all difficult to have a conflict with only one
>character (unless she's schizo or something, and this one isn't).
>     Has anyone out there ever written or read a story in which there
>is only one character at all?  Was the story a success?  I'm curious to
>know if I'm the only one who has trouble doing this.


This is a hard problem.  Most of what we find interesting
in a story is a character's interactions with others.  You
might try to make the character's environment into a second
character, or maybe personify some aspect of the character
that would create an internal conflict.  This sort of thing
can be accomplished without the character being "schizo",
but you should keep in mind that fiction very often skews 
characters/viewpoints in the direction of schizophrenia, because 
in general, normal people do not ususally make the connections
that characters do in a story.  Stories (at least those that
attempt to be "literary") are generally about extraordinary 
experience, as opposed to the mundane.

Good luck!


			Robert.