After many years of procrastinating I've finally gained the confidence to start writing again. As a way of slowly developing my writing skills I thought I would start with short stories as i generally tend to note down ideas that randomly pop into my head. I wanted to know from others how much character description they go into with short stories. I have started to read a few different short stories to get an idea from other authors, but it seems to be generally that it is more about getting straight to the plot and its development rather than going into too much character detail?
Short stories are not reduced novels. Short stories are not easier to write than novels. But I do think it is a good idea to practice and improve your skills by writing them. As your new to short story writing, I would suggest you don't think too much about character and plot. The first thing to do is to read a lot of short stories. I'm not a big fan of Hemingway the novelist but as a short story writer, he was one of the best I also like stories by PG Dick. I would suggest you try to rewrite the stories you read. Make changes, different time period, the ages or sex of the main character. The art of short writing is not about descriptive writing but developing shadowed were unsee dangers lurk.
A good story--novel or short--will blend all the character detail, backstory, description, et al inside the plot. None of the elements are mutually exclusive, meaning the plot doesn't have to stop in order for character details to be introduced. A lot of newer writers have a tendency to start a story by introducing the character in a vacuum, perhaps thinking that the reader MUST KNOW all the relevant information before the story can begin, lest they become confused or disinterested. It's a common "mistake" the falls under the larger umbrella of info-dumping, over-explaining, over-describing, etc. I fall into the same trap all the time. Better to let the story happen and trust the readers to pick up on the characterization cues as they occur.
I huge red flag in stories is putting your character(s) in a front of a mirror, and describing themselves. Don't do it, it will weaken your story. Avoid info-dumps by sprinkling important backstory/characterization, world building, throughout in little tid bits, avoiding mass story stopping chunks of explanations of things. The hardest part of shorts, is that you don't have the length to really dive far into backstory type stuff, and most forget to really solidify the character in favor of skipping straight into conflict/action. Makes for a dull read in my opinion when authors don't bother to try and at least give the characters a well rounded feel to them, or stock single trait each member of the cast. (Mind you there are full novels/series that do this too). Real people are dynamic creatures (silly as they sometimes can be), but have a full range of emotions and thoughts outside of a singular track with little to no variation. Plot is driven by 'conflict' (or more of an event or minor thing) that gets characters interacting and resolving things. Drama can be the driving factor, or all out chaos and mayhem, so no overall set standard for getting the ball rolling in terms of 'conflict', since some stories kinda are dismissive and solve everything way too easily that it all crumbles before much can actually happen.
There are lots of ways to implement description into plot. Like if it's a romance, have the guy talk about the girl's eye color, at some point in the story. Or have a short character struggle to get something from a shelf. Give the character a nickname that has to do with a physical characteristic. Something like that. But really, personality is more noticeable in the mind than looks. Readers often view a character's image through their personality, and that's generally the way to go.
Don't mention it if it's not pertinent to the story for a start, just low key mention it in passing if it's strange enough for your narrator to notice it. Assume your reader is your narrator. People project their own ideals when they read stories, use it to your advantage. You can always do multiple drafts. Exercising imagination is one of the fun things in fiction.
Showing rather than telling when it comes to characterisation in short stories could be one way to go, show their personalities though habits and how they interact with others. An old injury might come up through the absent minded rubbing of the spot when a character is deep in thought, insecurity might show through a character pulling the hair from behind their ear to partly cover their face when they're around new people. Maybe something like that?
