What is a flats character?

Answer 1

A character who can be described in a few sentences

A flat character is a character who does not grow in a play or movie or other literal device. Ex. Romeo his main purpose in the play is to love Juliet: it does not change. A flat character is a character without depth or dimension, like a cardboard cutout. Editors and readers want to see characters who are fully developed, who give the illusion of being real human beings, someone you could actually meet. Human beings are wonderfully complex individuals. We don't exist just in the moment. We have a past and hopes and fears for the future. We're not consistent or always predictable; we change throughout our lives and sometimes from minute to minute. We can be selfish and generous, brave and cowardly. Even our best friends never know us completely. We have depths and levels that few people ever see. Humans have families and friends, jobs and hobbies, likes and dislikes. Each of us is unique, yet we have many things in common even across generations and cultures. It's our human "sameness" that lets us empathize with characters who have radically different lives than ours. That's one of the pleasures of reading; we can be anyone, anywhere, any when while we are immersed in the pages of a book. A flat character has one dimension. They are filling a space in the story and have no life outside their function. Stereotypes are flat characters. Villains who are totally evil are flat characters. Heroes who always do the right thing and never have doubts or fears are flat characters. Characters who exist only to aid or hinder the main character are flat characters. Not every character in a story has to be fully developed (given a past and future, family, friends, interests). We often interact with people we will never know. We may or may not notice the clerk at the store, the couple sitting at the table beside us. We may know a little or a lot about our neighbors and coworkers. We know more about our family and friends. But we can never know everything about anyone. A good novel gives the illusion of life. It has all types of characters: main characters who are fully developed, minor characters who are partially developed, very minor characters who are not developed, but can still be individualized.