I need to write a short story / one shot in which the main character's three brother's find out the truth about a traumatic incident in his past - but I'm not sure how to go about outlining it! Should it be one by one or do they all find out together? Why do they end up finding out now instead of earlier? I'm so conflicted about it, any ideas or thoughts would be helpful
These scenes can be a lot of fun to write, but when you’re dealing with more than one character finding out a secret, the reactions can become overwhelming. Focusing on one character at a time seems like the way to go, but then you end up writing similar scenes back-to-back as each character is told the secret. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you prepare:
How Do My Characters Discover the Secret?
This is a pretty basic question, but it will start off the whole process. Does something happen in the main character’s life that compels them to finally share the secret? If that’s the case, I would imagine that he’d gather them all together and tell them at once.
Your other option would be them discovering some kind of evidence that either hints at or blatantly reveals it. This could be physical evidence, like documents or other items, OR it could be a third party telling them what happened. Whether they find out one-by-one is up to you. Once one of them has obtained some kind of clue that this traumatic event has happened, they would proceed in one of three ways:
Go straight to the main character and ask him about it (prompting a one-on-one conversation)
Go to one or more of his brothers to see if they knew (they’d likely then go to the main character as a group)
Keep it to himself until something causes him to speak up
How this ultimately goes depends on the characters’ personalities and their relationships with each other. If they’re the type that hates confrontation, they may be less likely to bring it up to the MC directly. Some characters may bluntly tell the MC that they know, while others may try to coax the MC to confide in them so they don’t have to reveal that they already knew.
If things have been strained in the relationship, they may not even tell the MC that they know and simply let the news give them understanding and empathy for everything their brother went through.
So see, it all kind of depends on who these characters are.
What Kind of Scenes Do You Want to Write?
Short stories allow you to somewhat let your plot influence the characters you create. If you wanted to write a dramatic one-shot where all the brothers have found out and are coming to the MC to address it, then you would obviously craft characters that would confer with each other before taking it to the protagonist. If you wanted to write a series of scenes where each brother finds out the secret, then you would adapt their personalities to fit this situation.
For the second circumstance, where you’re writing each brother finding out separately, I would strongly consider whether their reactions will be different enough to make for unique scenes. Not only should their emotional reactions be different, but the brother’s method of revealing should be different. Unless you’re making a point about him rehearsing what he’s going to say, you should vary his words and sentences in each reveal. Consider different settings and think about other topics he might discuss with each brother before or after the reveal (to lead up to or ease out of it). How would each conversation change the way he approaches the next one?
I hope this helped you outline your short story!