What do you call a story without a main character?

[realSean_Murphy]

As in like a story without a main character, or even any other character. The story itself is really the only thing being told, it itself, the plot, the setting, the characters put together are the things that make up the story.

[joannekwan]

So like an ensemble movie with a bunch of stories going on at the same time?
I'm finding it hard to wrap my head around a narrative without some sort of character.
Like even in an environmental piece showing the destruction of a forest, the forest is the subject and the main character in a sense.

[realSean_Murphy]

I'm finding it hard to wrap my head around a narrative without some sort of character.

That's kind of why I asked this question.

Like even in an environmental piece showing the destruction of a forest, the forest is the subject and the main character in a sense.

I guess so..

[Kayke]

Yeah based off of your title I was going to say "ensemble cast" but...
I can't really think of a story without ANY characters to latch onto. Something that comes to mind when I think of something more focused on story (or feeling) and not characters would be like the stories told in Fantasia... but like @joannekwan said something like that would still have characters in a more broad sense.

[seraphimcomics]

Seems like we're headed into very theoretical territory. Can an abstract painting have a story? Or does it simply portray mood, and provoke thought. I am open enough to consider these things stories. Even something stream-of-consciousness still has an emotional or mental through-line that can be followed.

[Doubtcent]

Sounds like a history textbook.

The moment you just state the facts of what happens for a story without any characters, keeping the focus only on what happened, you lose all sense of what makes stories different from historical timelines.

Unless you come up with a totally different concept on how to deliver this story, you should ask, why would anyone want to know what happens in your story without characters? What is a story without characters? That's sort of like asking what's a story without a setting or theme?

Even if the story really has no "characters", there will be objects or other things in the story that people will imprint on if there is a cohesive plot. If there's no plot then why even tell the story?

I really don't know how to answer this quandary. It's certainly different, but I'm not sure how to make it work.

[JessJackdaw]

Ahh well, this is a tough one... Hmm. There is such a thing as Environmental Narrative. It is usually used in tandem with other narrative styles but in some video games, it is used as the backbone to drive the story. Games like Flower, Inside, Limbo, and Journey involve heavy use of environmental storytelling to convey meaning to the player.

In a sense environmental narration can have many characters but more of the focus is on the world and how the characters interact with it.

This might be closer to what you mean, but I'm not sure. XD

[tayo_rafferty]

I think a story must have a character of some nature. Maybe the protagonist is a boot or a tree or 'the rain' or a sheep but it (the story) must have a focus even if it is a loose focus or an abstract tale.

[Jewe11s]

So a story without people at all?

I was thinking of perhaps a story that focuses on a timeline of a nation of people or the story of two alien races but even then the major groups in question could be personified into characters of sorts.

And that means no 'life of an inanimate object' either... And even a narrator of some sort could become a 'character' depending on how you define it.

Yeah that would be rather abstract indeed.

A story told through sounds or scents or sensations or even an isolation of sensory input would make a fascinating performance art piece.

[indagold]

If it's no character at all I have no idea, and never seen it in much comics. Maybe some really super avant garde ones. I guess that fits it, just call it avante garde or post modern. Or rock simulator.

[Inspector_Spinda]

well depending on execution, it is either unfocused, an anthology, or very thoroughly developed