"Debunking 6 Myths about Steadfast, Flat-arc Characters"

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kitesandtrainsandcats
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27 Apr 2021, 7:13 pm

Hmm, I wonder if my story's main character couple are steadfast characters?

Quote:
"Steadfast/flat-arc characters are characters who don’t drastically change their worldviews over the course of the story. In contrast, a change character will do largely a 180 flip in worldview from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

For example, in the fable of the Little Red Hen, the Little Red Hen never changes her worldview about hard work. But in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge completely changes his worldview from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

In the writing community, there are a lot of misconceptions of the steadfast/flat-arc character (at least from my experience), which I’m going to talk about, debunk, and clarify today in this article. This information will still be useful to writers who have no interest in writing a steadfast protagonist–because nearly every successful story features a key character who is steadfast."


https://dearwriters.tumblr.com/post/649649756051816448/debunking-6-myths-about-steadfast-flat-arc


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PhosphorusDecree
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29 Apr 2021, 7:16 am

Interesting... I get the impression that writers nowadays are advised to only write "change" characters, to the point that "character development" has become a massive collection of cliches. Cue canny readers laughing as the protagonist hits all the main Character Development plot beats one after another.... So it's refreshing to see an argument in favour of complex characters who don't go through huge fundamental changes at the drop of a hat.


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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29 Apr 2021, 9:43 am

It seems that writing goes through fads like so many other areas in life do.


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Fnord
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29 Apr 2021, 9:59 am

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
It seems that writing goes through fads like so many other areas in life do.
Agreed.  In the 1970s, it seemed that every science-fiction story was required to have a heterosexual encounter that was at least implied, if not explicitly stated.

Then came the angsty, emo characters with the internal monologues expressing their own existential confusion.

Then pansexualism began to creep in ... nothing wrong with that, but you could not sell a story if a same-sex relationship was neither implied nor expressed, or if a trans-gender person was not a main character.

Then came the "wokeness" movement, wherein even the most hideous monstrosity was considered "human".

Now it is important that a story express how the least little event changes everyone involved.

What ever became of classic stories that featured simple "Something Happens & People React" plots?


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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29 Apr 2021, 10:29 am

Fnord wrote:
What ever became of classic stories that featured simple "Something Happens & People React" plots?

That sounds like at least some of what my sci-fi story is; a great destructive event happens to their nation and the story tells about what they go through as they deal with it.


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Fnord
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29 Apr 2021, 10:40 am

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
Fnord wrote:
What ever became of classic stories that featured simple "Something Happens & People React" plots?
That sounds like at least some of what my sci-fi story is; a great destructive event happens to their nation and the story tells about what they go through as they deal with it.
Any obligatory sex scenes, expressions of pansexualism, existential angst, emo outbursts, wokeness, or nothing-remains-the-same subplots?


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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29 Apr 2021, 11:24 am

Fnord wrote:
Any obligatory sex scenes, expressions of pansexualism, existential angst, emo outbursts, wokeness, or nothing-remains-the-same subplots?

There are a couple times it is pretty clear that the next thing my main characters, who are husband and wife, do is have sex.
I'll need to go look up the details of what an emo outburst is, I've not a clue.
There is emotion, after all, my characters have lost their homes and people have died.

:arrow:
The story has its origin in when I was reading a book of Star Trek short stories in the school library in 8th or 9th grade in the late-middle 1970s.
Yeah, Star Wars was a big thing at the time & had lots of neat hardware and costumes, but for story telling, Star Trek was my thing.

Anyway ...
In one story Enterprise had a chance encounter with an unknown alien ship & someone commented "the ship was beautiful".

Hmm ...
If I were to design a 'beautiful' starship out of my own being what would it look like?

A couple weeks later I had settled on a style.
Okay ...
now ...
the ship needs people and the people need a story
If I were to write my own sci-fi story, what would it turn out to be :?: :?: :?:

So began a cycle of work on the story for a couple weeks/months, put it away for several years, then get it out and repeat the cycle.

And while writing the story I have seen it become a thing which tells me stuff about the characters and their being their doing that I wasn't getting from the books on the store shelves.
I wanted more than those books told, so, I will write a book which tells me what I want to know.

And with my health being the mess it is, progress on it has been just as slow as anything else I do.
Oh well.
Such is life.

With increasing problems with my hands, computers have truly become my friend for writing and editing.
:D
After getting connected with a local creative writers group in 2018 I am working on the book a lot more than previously.
At least until health problems force pauses in the action from time to time.

There is a handwritten manuscript which has its origin back in a decade when I could handwrite just fine ...
It is not a FULL text, some sections exist only as notes for what I want to write.

Image


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PhosphorusDecree
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01 May 2021, 4:20 am

Fnord wrote:
kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
It seems that writing goes through fads like so many other areas in life do.
Agreed.  In the 1970s, it seemed that every science-fiction story was required to have a heterosexual encounter that was at least implied, if not explicitly stated.

Then came the angsty, emo characters with the internal monologues expressing their own existential confusion.

Then pansexualism began to creep in ... nothing wrong with that, but you could not sell a story if a same-sex relationship was neither implied nor expressed, or if a trans-gender person was not a main character.

Then came the "wokeness" movement, wherein even the most hideous monstrosity was considered "human".

Now it is important that a story express how the least little event changes everyone involved.

What ever became of classic stories that featured simple "Something Happens & People React" plots?


Late '70s to early '90s SF: If there is a female character at all, the male protagonist WILL have sex with them at some point. If there are two female characters, guess what?


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MidnightRose
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04 May 2021, 4:20 am

Characters just need to be interesting, and that's it. They need to have an interesting lifestyle, be charming, be crazy, something. Characters that hit generic "likeability" beats and/or have incredibly standard arcs are boring. I don't want to read or watch a character designed with the aid of a textbook. Give me someone unique to that story who is exceptional in some way, for good, ill, or just plain weirdness.