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Had a chat with my sister about character arcs last week
She said she hated the main character in the book we just read because he didn't change at all from start to finish. Made me think about whether a character has to grow for a story to feel complete. Does a flat arc ever work for you guys, or is change the whole point?
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sage_park61d ago
Does a character have to grow for a story to feel complete" - that's a good question. Honestly, a flat arc works fine if the world around the character changes instead. Some of my favorite stories are about a steady person holding their ground while everything else falls apart. You don't always need a big growth moment to make a story meaningful. Sometimes staying the same is the whole point.
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allen.amy1d ago
Yeah, "the world around the character changes instead" is a great way to put it. But here's my question though - what if the world doesn't really change either? Like in a slice-of-life story where nothing huge happens, but the character just ends up in a slightly different mental space by the end? Does that feel complete to you, or does it need more of a shift somewhere?
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