Cardboard characters

[drevil915]

I know that cardboard characters are usually the last thing you want to read in a work of fiction. But I'm at a point in my novel's story where I think that cardboard characters are actually a good thing.

Let me explain:

See, there is a lengthy sequence where my main character travels with a bunch of other people. I've made these "other" people completely lifeless and cardboard on purpose because I need to show how society has deteriorated and everyone is against you-which are common feelings to everyone at one time or another.

So I was just wondering your thoughts on this.

-Jason

[Siddow]

As long as the MC is a fully-drawn character, I don't see a problem. Unimportant characters (those without a storyline) don't need to be full.

[Jamesaritchie]

I still want characters who come across as real. I'm not big on metaphor, and to me, a cardboard character is a cardboard character. I doubt very much I'd read it and say, "Hmmm, these characters are all cardboard. Obviously the writer is trying to show me how society has deteriorated and everyone is against me."

It's never what the writer has in mind that matters, but what the reader gets from the way the writer does his job.