Character Craft: Round vs. Flat Characters
You may have heard the terms round characters and flat characters. Even if you haven’t, you’ve definitely encountered both of these types of characters. Round characters are often touted as better, but the truth is: There’s room for everyone.
Let’s kick this off with understanding what these terms mean, then we’ll get into how to develop these characters.
What’s a round character?
A round character is, first and foremost, complex. They’re multidimensional. They’re flawed. They have contradictions.
A round character is often dynamic, which means they usually undergo a significant arc of change. This doesn’t mean that only your protagonist can be round.
A round character is less predictable and can surprise your reader (realistically, of course).
What’s a flat character?
A flat character is often one-dimensional. In other words, they serve a specific function in the story.
Flat characters often remain static throughout the story, which means they’re not undergoing a significant arc of change. This doesn’t mean they can’t change at all, but it’s not spotlit or life-changing.
Characters who are more predictable tend to be more flat.
For example: In a murder mystery, the detective is a round character (we know their trauma, their flaws, and how they change). The panicked witness who only appears in one scene to scream, "I saw a tall man!" is a flat character. The witness doesn't need a backstory; they just need to deliver the clue.How to make characters flat or round
Knowing what these types of characters are like is only 20 percent of the journey.
We have to craft these characters.
Let’s start with crafting flat characters, because they’re often easier. I’d like to invite you to start with one question:
What is this character’s purpose?
They can have lots of purposes, but some examples include:
The Messenger: Revealing information to the reader or the protagonist.
The Support: Providing a specific skill or emotional beat for the hero.
The Local: Populating the world to make it feel lived-in (like the extras in a movie).
Since flat characters don't have deep internal arcs, give them one strong external trait: a unique way of dressing, a specific vocal tic, or a constant habit. This makes them pop for the reader without requiring a 5-page backstory.
I deeply recommend avoiding making protagonists and antagonists flat because they are the engines of your story; if the engine is one-dimensional, the plot usually stalls.
A flat antagonist can feel like a cardboard villain. To keep the stakes high, your antagonist usually needs as much roundness as your hero; they need their own (albeit different) motivations and logic.
Let’s talk about round characters. These characters require a lot more work, but it’s also, in my humble opinion, the most fun pre-writing task of writing fiction.
For round characters, I’d like to invite you to start with this question:
What does this character desire?
I don't mean they want a piece of cake (yummy as cake usually is), but deeper, more universally human desires, such as:
Subsistence: The need for food, shelter, and physical health.
Protection: The need for safety, security, and care.
Affection: The need for love, friendship, and intimate relationships.
Understanding: The need for knowledge, curiosity, and learning.
Participation: The need to be part of a group, to cooperate, and to have a sense of belonging.
Idleness (Leisure): The need for rest, play, and peace of mind.
Creation: The need to build, design, and engage in creative self-expression.
Identity: The need for a sense of belonging, self-esteem, and understanding of one's place in the world.
Freedom: The need for autonomy, choice, and independence.
Source: Manfred Max-Neef
Round characters can have more than one desire, but there should be a primary desire. And what’s most fun for the writer? The character may not fully understand this desire at the start of the story.
Let me give you an example of a character that seeks belonging above all (8. Identity). This character may think what they want is for a parent to approve of their career choice, but what they really want is to feel like they’re respected by that parent, like their choices are a positive contribution, like they are seen and accepted. They want to belong.
Because this character thinks approval of their career choice is the deepest layer of their desire, they may achieve it, only to find they feel even emptier and more isolated than before. They may then self-sabotage that career and knock their life off-track.
This is a flaw, which makes them multidimensional and more real feeling to the reader.
Now, their journey could involve changing to realize what they really sought was belonging, and maybe they finally find it with their parent or they find it somewhere else. They go on a journey of change. They might even surprise the reader.
This journey of discovery that sparks change? That's what makes this example character dynamic.And, because round characters have these complex desires, their actions aren't always the logical choice; they are the 'human' choice. That is how they surprise the reader.
In order to write a character with this complexity, a writer must understand the wound they carry, which is part of their backstory. Authors must know round characters intimately, even if not everything the author knows ends up explicitly on the page in the story.
This is where writing character profiles comes in handy (it’s handy for flat characters too, but much more depth is helpful for round characters).
The Exercise
For this lesson, write two character profiles, one for a flat character and one for a round character. Write down everything you can think of that:
Establishes the character purpose and strong external trait for a flat character
Establishes a desire, multidimensionality, and the arc of change for the round character
Once you’ve established the above, you can go into more detail. Your flat character profile should be 2-3 pages and your round character profile should be 7-8 pages for a total of 10 pages (2,500 words) for both characters.
Take your writing to the next level.
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