Short Story Characters

by Betsy Love

Round or flat, static or dynamic. What does that mean in terms of characters?

Round ones, not fat ones, are the characters that we know something about, okay we know more about them than we do other ones. Round characters are never stereotyped. They have personalities, struggles, values. How they react to any given situation is a result of their roundedness. On the other hand a flat character is almost never the main character. A flat character might make a brief appearance in the story--the cab driver, the waitress, the nosy neighbor next door.

A dynamic character is one who changes as a result of the situations in the story. He is the one who realizes something important about himself. Or she finds herself doing something she might not have done. We grow with this character and feel what he/she feels. Whereas a static character is one that does not change through out the story. Villains are often portrayed as static characters.

The most interesting characters are the ones we care about. Give me a reason to buy into why your character (good or evil) does what he/she does, and you'll have a great story.

I hope you'll take some time and write a short story and then submit it to my contest. You can read about the submission guidelines at:

Short Story Contest-Deadline May 31

Oh, and by the way, everything I just told you about short story characters applies to characters in all genres of fiction.

Happy Writing!