The problem, as I see it, is that most authors don’t exactly know when their characters are flat and when they are round. The balance of flat to round characters will depend on the story and on the goals and writing style of the storyteller. A round character is full of strengths and weaknesses, conflicting emotions, changing attitudes, and a background that hints at the motivations for their actions.īoth flat and round characters are necessary for every story. A round character, on the other hand, is fully human and changes over the course of a narrative.
Basically, a flat character is a stereotype who acts in one way and only one way. With a quick Google search it’s easy to learn the differences between a flat and a round character.
The element I’d like to focus on here is character development. Since writing my first novel more than twelve years ago, I’ve learned a lot about the elements of fiction and how to use them. He was there because I put him there-because he was my main character. He saw and heard it all, from the first gunshot to the cutting of the rope on a mass gallows that ended the lives of thirty-eight Dakota men. He was present-even if implausibly so-for all the main historical events. He met and spoke with all the main historical figures from that time and place. Unfortunately, for as much as I was able to learn (and then share) about history, I knew very little about the craft of fiction. He, I decided, would be my eyes and ears a conduit to the past to share a story with readers from the present. Dakota War and Alfred was my vehicle for doing so. As a historian, it was my goal to share the history of the U.S. Alfred and his father are in fact real historical figures, but little is known of Alfred, and he fit well into the narrative I wanted to tell-a narrative of the U.S. The first fictional character I ever conjured up was Alfred Riggs, the twenty-four-year-old son of a well-known missionary named Stephen Riggs.
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