The problem is that they’ve gone too deep with a unique character that doesn’t fit into any genre conventions. It’s page after page of pure gold, but then the author hits a snag.

The author has created an interesting, one-of-a-kind character, and the story takes off.

If you can’t answer these questions about your character’s motivations with certainty, you should take some time to figure it out before moving on to other parts of the story because if you can’t understand why your character does what he or she does. Most minor characters in literature are flat because they do not change throughout the story and play a very small role. Minor characters do not have as much screen time and most often support the major ones. Major characters usually have a lot of screen time, and we get to know them very well. In literature, there are two types of characters: major and minor. In some cases, a flat character can actually enhance or perfect an already strong plot by adding an extra element or two.įor example, if you happen to be watching a movie that involves a mystery, it can be fun (and even helpful) to watch for a character who sticks around just long enough to be distracting but not long enough for you to really learn anything about them. It’s possible that filmmakers design certain characters to be this way deliberately. They may be more memorable than characters without much screen time, but they often lack any real substance. These are the folks who walk in and out of the story, performing their function and then vanishing into the background again until it’s time for them to reappear. A flat character, on the other hand, is one who lacks depth and seems to have been created with a singular purpose in mind.

Definition of a flat character