Even someone who has lived the most mundane of existences experiences deep emotions and possesses a multi-faceted personality. Any person you stop on the street is able to tell you a long, fascinating story of their life. Consider the real world: real people are never simple. Some make the mistake of thinking that if a character is a “simple person,” then they are a simple character. They're your pedestrians and single-appearance seat fillers, two-dimensional characters who often appear only once to serve the purpose of adding atmosphere or showcase some type of human behavior that only needs to be displayed once.Īnyone within your main character cast, though, should fall into the category of “complex character.” These minor characters are often not even named. These are not your central characters-your Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Bennet, or Luke Skywalker. There is a place for these characters and it is the background. These are not meant to be memorable characters and if they have complex personalities, they are not important to the story. To me, simple characters are those for whom character development is not important. This is not entirely true, though there is some merit to it. One might argue that a simple character is a bad character. Is there such a thing as a “simple character”?

Your character goes through the motions of the story and you wonder why this interesting, unique character you’ve worked so hard on is missing that luster you imagined. Those personality traits you meticulously picked out for them just aren't showing up. Sometimes though, it's a main character who has a full arc, but something's wrong.

Sometimes a flat character shows up as a minor character who may or may not have a full character arc. and suddenly you find that they aren't working. You’ve named them and given them a colorful past, as well as lots of fun personality traits.

What is a flat character in a story