What is a Flat Character Arc?

K.M Weiland, author of Creating Character Arcs, has this to say about the flat arc:

… the flat arc is about a character who does not change. He already has the Truth figured out in the beginning of the story, and he uses that Truth to help him overcome various external tests.

In comparison to a positive change arc, the difference in a flat character arc’s Second Act is that the emphasis is not on the protagonist’s discovering and confronting his own inner misconceptions. Rather, the Second Act in a flat arc is where he will be discovering the Lie embedded in the world around him.

The Third Act is where we find arguably the greatest similarities between the flat character arc and the positive change arc, since in both types of story the protagonist will have a full grasp on the Truth by this point. The primary difference, of course, is that the protagonist in a flat character arc will have already been in possession of that Truth almost universally throughout the story.

Hmmm. Did that make sense to you? I had to read it a couple of times to get the gist. The “Truth figured out in the beginning”? The “Lie embedded in the world around him”? So, I kept reading other resources to find out more. As I read, I encountered additional phraseology that I had to puzzle out. Terms like “Crucial Element”, “Focus Element”, “Direction Element”, and more!

Weiland writes that “the fundamental principle of character arc is lie vs. truth.” The Lie the character believes and uncovers in a change arc is under the radar. It is a bedrock belief the character holds. “I’m worthless.” “I’m God’s gift to women.” And so on. That misconception is revealed and dealt with (the Truth), thus effecting character change. This Lie needs to be connected to the story organically. If the story problem and the Lie don’t connect, the story is not as compelling.

In the flat character arc, this doesn’t play out. There are still Lies and Truths, they just don’t affect the story solution substantively. Remember, the Steadfast Character knows the truth from the beginning.

It turns out that the flat character arc goes by many names and is the second most used arc for main characters. You might see it referred to as the “testing arc” or “Main Character Resolve”, or “Steadfast Character.”

It also turns out that the Steadfast Character tends to see the story conflict not as “me against the obstacle”, but rather views the obstacle as the problem by itself, apart from the Steadfast Character. The Steadfast Character moves elements around in the story to restore balance and is unaffected by the move of elements, though the story is impacted for the better.

Most antagonists in our books have flat character arcs. They are who they are. They have a job to do—disrupt the life of the main character—and they do it without changing who they are or seeking/gaining insight into themselves or others. We’re not surprised by the lack of growth of the antagonist, in fact. We expect it.

But many protagonists also demonstrate a flat character arc, and we’re fine with that in a deftly handled story. Think Kinsey Milhone, PI, the main character in Sue Grafton’s Alphabet mysteries. Kinsey knows who she is and what is True. There is little character change within and across books, but she uses her character traits to solve the crimes. Her moral compass is clear to her as are her talents. She gets ‘er done!

Dramatica.com, in their dictionary of terms, says a steadfast character “ultimately retains his essential nature from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.” They also go on to state, “There will only be one Steadfast Character in every story.”

That’s very directive, isn’t it? I wonder why that is the case. Maybe because conflict is not deeply developed when two major characters remain unchanged by events and circumstances?

Or the story conflict could be developed when the two steadfast characters are on opposite tracks. If one is on the right track, and won’t change but has to deal with someone on the wrong track, who also won’t change, isn’t that conflict enough? I wonder what it would be like to write a story flouting the “rule” of only one steadfast character? One would have to “win” (whatever winning would mean), so why not?

However, in that scenario, each Steadfast Character would have the Truth from the beginning and each have the Lie, so maybe that’s why it wouldn’t work. If both know the Truth, where is the conflict? Aaarrgh! See why I am still confused and working on this principle of only one Steadfast Character?

From what I’ve read, the Lie must be uncovered and discounted by the Truth by the end of the story. Maybe that’s not possible with two Steadfastians!

One important aspect of the Steadfast Character’s possession of the truth early on is the role of doubt. Perhaps the character isn’t 100% sure of the Truth or has trouble accepting the Truth to move on in life. Adding in doubt, even if fleeting, includes a new level of tension. Being open to questioning Truth is human and can result in second guessing or hesitating at critical moments in the story.

One important role for the Steadfast character is shis possession of the Truth inspires and props up others. Also, by the end of the story, though heesh may have had doubts or even wondered if the Truth were worth the battle, the Steadfast character will come out on the other side believing in the Truth even more strongly and support others in believing it, too.

The Steadfast Character sounds like a very interesting challenge, encouraging the writer to delve even more deeply than the positive character arc requires.

Have you written a flat character arc story? Tell me aobut it in the comments section.

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Writing a Negative Character Arc

Antagonists need not be the only negative characters in your novel. Sometimes your protagonist takes a downward turn. In fact, your actual antagonist may well be an example of a flat character arc (which is next week’s topic).

That’s because to be in a negative character arc, the character must devolve from one state to a more negative one. A downward instead of upward arc. But there must be change as in the traditional positive character arc, aka, the hero’s journey.

Anti-heroes may be an example of a negative character arc, if the anti-hero was transformed by events from a neutral or positive stance to a negative one over the course of the story. For example, Walter White, from the “Breaking Bad” television series, is thrust by circumstances into finding a way to provide for his family when he finds he is dying. The only way he can see is an illegal one, and it is a path particularly well-suited to his positive-trait talents. He shifts his focus from good to bad gradually, reluctantly (at first), until he becomes an evil hunted by the FBI.

Other instances might be a character—good, normal, Mr./Ms. Bland—who becomes a vigilante searching for revenge for one or more perceived injustices. The character devolves from a law-abiding one into a character who justifies shis behaviors as necessary to right wrongs. When one’s child is harmed, parental outrage can be turned to revenge-seeking. When a guilty character is released without punishment, an average character can be turn into a vigilante seeking justice.

One interesting way to portray the negative character arc is to make the character manipulative to the point where heesh is an unreliable narrator. Your reader doesn’t know whether to trust what heesh is being told. Are the character’s perceptions accurate? Is the character justified in pushing the envelope or even destroying the envelope? Is what heesh is doing as wrong as the wrong being righted? Is your villain convinced of shis own rightness even though the world views shim as wrong? Has heesh lied to shimself.

As a college student, I saw the film, Bonnie and Clyde. My friend and I left the theater and didn’t say a word to one another for a couple of blocks. For me, it was the first time I had recognized moral ambiguity. The good guys were brutal murderers of the bad guys. And were the bad guys really that bad? They were normal folks who turned to crime during the Depression when jobs weren’t available. I was stunned that the answer wasn’t clear as it typically was.

The devolution of Bonnie and Clyde had to be believable. Walter White had to see no other options. A deft touch is required to write a negative character arc, which is likely why most of our villains have a flat arc.

Some have written that the negative and positive character arcs play out the same way over the three-act structure. But instead of confronting shis greatest flaw/fear and overcoming it, in the negative character arc, the character succumbs to it and becomes even more evil/immoral/depressed. 

K.M. Weiland put it very well. “In a word, the negative character arc is about failure, and this becomes nowhere more clear than in the Third Act. If the positive change arc is about redeeming self and the flat arc is about saving others, then the negative character arc is about destroying self and probably others as well.”

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Character Arc in a Series

Over the years, at conferences and online, I’ve asked others who write series how you deal with a character arc everyone insists must be there. In a standalone novel, the requisite character arc is expected and easy to do. But what about character arc in series writing?

It is only recently that I have come across some good answers to my question. Just to be clear, the question I asked was is there a long character arc, spanning the series or is there a series of book length arcs that might be related but that are accomplished by the end of each book?

Well, the answer appears to be, “Yes.”

K.M. Weiland, whose book is pictured above, has written extensively about character development. She says there are two choices: An arc for the entire series OR multiple character arcs across books in the series.

Well, I kinda knew that, but now what? When I asked the initial question (over and over), I really meant HOW do I write the character arc.

Weiland and others have lost of suggestions no matter which way one goes. Weiland is a big three-acts-in-a-novel person, so she offers her suggestions from that context. Character arcs across three or four books, she says, just means manipulating the time line (for character development) using that structure across books, not within.

That’s probably one reason we see books where our hero/ine hits the dirt in book two or three before salvaging shimself in the final book. The character, to change, has to encounter obstacles severe enough to force shim to change, for better or worse.

Ultimately, character change, to be real in a novel, must be intimately connected to the core values in a story. So if the value is that real family need not share blood to be family, then your character must not understand or accept that in the beginning, but encounters obstacles that reveal that to shim. Weiland calls it the Big Lie the character believes but must abandon by the end of the series.

In a series, the change in the character is incremental. A big shift starts the change process, disturbs status quo, interrupts ennui. In succeeding books the change continues but can be more gradual.

Some series are really just one long novel, like The Hunger Games (thus the three-act structure works well). Others are really standalones, but written as a series; connected to one another but the plots are independent. Thus, the long character arc goes across books all the books versus a series of smaller, but related, character arcs in each book, as I do with my culinary series. But underneath the smaller character arcs is the larger one set up in my first book. Alli struggles with what is family and she struggles with self-worth going back to her abandonment by her family. By book six, I need her to have finished that cycle.

For me, the smaller character arcs in each book present a special challenge. How can they be substantive enough without eclipsing the overarching theme of family and identity?

The best way, according to what I’ve been reading is to tie each smaller arc to the main conflict in the story. For example, in book five, Tequila Mockingbird, Alli discovers that a neighbor is a mockingbird, someone pretending to be who she is not. Alli feels this way all the time. She has suffered from Imposter Syndrome most of her life. Therefore, she has empathy for a woman who may be a cold-blooded killer. In that book, Alli needs to accept herself and how she presents herself to the world. That’s a great small character arc consistent with the long arc.

Sarah Dalziel says there are five keys to creating a character arc in a series. The five keys are: Consistency, Changing Traits, The Dissatisfying Arc, Every Character Needs a Flaw, and Write It Out.

In a nutshell, Consistency is obvious. Once you change your character, don’t retreat to the previous person. Keep shim the same across books for revealed traits.

Changing Traits allows the author to focus on different aspects of the character in each book. Perhaps your character is impulsive and learns to be more reflective in a book (and then is consistent with that in following books). In another book, your same character might have the trait of fear of something that is overcome by dealing with an obstacle in the book.

Dissatisfying Arc shows a devolution of a character, usually the villain, but not always. Think of the Anti-Hero Walter White in “Breaking Bad.” Good man goes bad. At the same time Walter is devolving, loser Jesse is evolving. Very interesting character arcs.

Every Character Needs a Flaw is also obvious. Lack of trust can lead a character down wrong paths and into greater difficulties. Trusting everyone can also lead the character astray. Find a trait for your character that can be tied to the main conflict of the book.

Write It Out means planning the character arc for the series is as important as plot planning. Know the character and develop flaws and consistent traits that you can play off.

See how focusing on one of these keys in each book can allow a different character arc within the series?

Another way to envision the character arc in a series is described by Veronica Sicoe.

She describes three types of character arcs: The Change Arc, The Growth Arc, and the Shift Arc. The Change Arc is analogous to the Hero’s Journey that is the most commonly employed character arc.

The Growth Arc has your character being a new improved version of who heesh has always been; essentially the same, but better. The Shift Arc is a variant of the Growth Arc. In the Shift Arc, your character “changes his perspective, learns different skills, or gains a different role.” So, the character may not be “better” at the end, but heesh is definitely different.

Using Sicoe’s definitions, I can see how across a series, you could use these three to show a character arc without it having to be tied to a long arc.

I hope this gives you some ideas to chew on. I’m going to be addressing additional aspects of developing character arcs in a few follow-up posts. What do you struggle with in developing your character arcs?  Come back and join the conversation.

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