What is true of a flat character?3/2/2024 ![]() ![]() ![]() I was told over and over again (if not in these words) that I needed to have a change arc protagonist. This led to a lot of questioning and challenging of "writing rules" on my part (though that was mostly internal). But for some reason, some of the information didn't seem to work into my story or apply to the favorite stories I was drawing inspiration from. I took writing classes, went to conferences, read books, and tried to soak up any piece of advice anyone could give me. ![]() What I didn't know, and what no one could explain to me, was that all these protagonists were steadfast/flat-arc characters. I had an idea for a story I wanted to write, with a protagonist that drew inspiration from some of my all-time favorite protagonists. My (Helpful) Personal History with Steadfast, Flat-arc CharactersÄespite wanting to work in the writing industry since I was seven, I entered the writing world like anyone else: naive. Now, let's talk about some of the misunderstandings and myths about the positive steadfast character. For the sake of this article, I will be focusing on the positive one, which is more common, and may do a future article that focuses more on the negative version. A positive one will hold onto a true worldview throughout the story, while a negative one will hold onto an inaccurate worldview. Now, you can have positive and negative steadfast characters. Today, I'll be switching between the two. For much of my experience in the writing world, protagonists who don't have much of an arc have been frowned upon or treated as "lesser." The term "flat-arc" reminds me of that. "Flat-arc" sorta sounds like there isn't really any growth or movement, which isn't exactly accurate. It conveys that the character must struggle to hold onto something (after all, one is only "steadfast" when there is opposition) While "flat-arc" is more common, I prefer "steadfast" for a few reasons: This character has also been called the "steadfast" character, which is what Dramatica Theory calls it. The most common term for this character is the "flat-arc" character. First, though, we need to visit our familiar pit stop on writing terminology. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |