In Defense of Static/Flat Characters
I feel like there’s a stigma around flat characters. Ensure your characters are fleshed out; you don’t want them to be flat. What’s wrong with being flat? I ask, if only to object, but in all seriousness, there’s a time and place for just about everything in this world, and there’s a time and place for Flat Characters as well as static characters. There is nothing wrong with a static character. They’re not good or bad, they just exist and how we use them can be great and add to our story or not so great and make our story drag and feel lackluster. Backing up a bit let’s define our terms:
A flat character, according to Bardiaca: Flat characters are two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work.
While a “A static character is a type of character who remains largely the same throughout the course of the storyline. Their environment may change, but they retain the same personality and outlook as they had at the beginning of the story.” According to masterclass, it goes on to explain the difference between the two which confused me for a bit but it was a part-to-whole fallacy situation. The article said that
“The term ‘static character’ is often confused with ‘flat character’, and while they do overlap, they are not the same. A static character is one who doesn’t undergo any significant change in a story, whereas a flat character is a one-dimensional character who isn’t layered or deep — rather, a flat character just has one or two traits that make up their whole personality. Flat characters are almost exclusively static characters, but not all static characters are flat — many static characters can be interesting and round.”
So now that that’s settled we can use each type of character deliberately in our stories. I’m guilty of always talking about how things are 2d but need to feel 3d, but 2d is okay in its time and place. If you had a story where you knew everything about everybody that would get complicated pretty fast. I like to think of static characters as characters who have already gone on their journey. They are who they are, when you see them their journey is not relevant to the story. Their past has defined them in a way that they will remain throughout your story. No hero’s journey here. And flat characters are defined in kind of the same way.
They’re more common than you realize because they are associated with older media and we generally just accept older media. Older books have a lot more flat/and or static and round characters with subtle hints of a combination of dynamic characters. Take Sherlock Holmes, and Heriot Port, as well as Cinderella, even her good morals, kindness, and elegant demeanor does not change throughout the story. Nancy Drew is still Nancy Drew, a girl amateur detective. They are just flat and some of them are static, there could be an argument made for the roundness of them, but the thing is they don’t change. Sherlock, Heriot, and Nancy always solve the case with the same brain they started with. Cinderella in the Disney movie doesn’t struggle with maybe being just a little cruel to get back at her stepsisters, no her kindness remains strong, unchanging. Their personalities are not complicated, pushing them outside the realm of round characters, but I’d argue they’re close to the entrance of it.
Now the media and the books we consume are focused on having round and dynamic characters. A masterclass article on round and flat characters said it better than I can:
“One literary term often confused with ‘round character’ is ‘dynamic character,’ and while they both go hand in hand, they are different concepts. While a round character is a character with a complex personality, a dynamic character is one that changes throughout the course of a story. Hence, a character can be both round (interesting) and dynamic (changed).”
Today we’re focused on that dynamic, changing character that is well rounded because we’re constantly consuming content and these two elements help connect to the reader more, that is why you will see me and others emphasize it, but we shouldn’t forget about that Flat character and static characters, they didn’t do anything wrong. They have a time and a place. I’ve seen stories where everyone is important, everyone has to have a spotlight, and we have to know everything about them, but that makes things confusing as I’ve said. That’s where the utilization of flat/static characters comes in. They aren’t complicated, that’s what makes them hard sometimes to write because they aren’t complicated, they are just a few things, you don’t have to think much about external factors and internal conflict that’s driving them, they aren’t being driven, they’re just walking along. You can think of Flat and static characters who can embody the themes of the story, just like side characters. Side characters carry themes, but they are fleshed out, they can have internal conflicts that interact with the main characters, while the themes that the flat character holds will be flat but still meaningful. They are immovable themes for the Main characters. They influence the plot and the Main characters without overtaking them.
Flat and static characters, just like Main characters, need to be crafted with the intention of being flat or static.
Now go forth and write, I believe in you!
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