#flat arc

[uniiiquehecrt]

Anyone who thinks that characters with flat arcs are inherently “boring” are wrong and that’s just the facts because flat arcs are the most inspirational and downright powerful arc (outside of positive arcs) by showing that sticking to your positive mindset, morals, and general Truth in spite of the lies around you, the world won’t change you you will change the WORLD in this essay i will

[sirenalpha]

ngl, I feel like the term flat arc exists to cover up for failed character arcs

failed character arcs in the sense an arc was set up but didn’t reach that intended conclusion so there was no catharsis

and then people who like this character backtrack to remove this failed writing by saying actually this arc was never set up they were intended to remain as they were at the beginning

I feel like the term itself points to this phenomenon, flat arc is an oxymoronic and redundant term

an arc by definition is not flat, geometrically it is a curve so it cannot be a straight line and in narrative an arc requires change

we already have a term for a character that does not change, it is a static character

it is perfectly possible to have a static character as a protagonist but they’re typically confined to serials where the interest is not in being a character study

this is really obvious in detective mystery style stories, the detective often has a personality quirk rather than a character arc and each book or episode is essentially an anthology of crimes they solve the thing that is new and interesting is the crime not the detective changing

hell benoit blanc is practically a caricature of all these detectives and he feels flat and absurd inside his own movies, the characters with depth or verisimilitude are everyone else especially the female lead and the villain

this does not mean an arc cannot be applied to these characters, this is basically where the modern golden age of television comes from, characters who previously might not have received arcs inside a serialized television show might have been static as holding the status quo and familiarity is used to improve chances of syndication and longevity as well as just being easier to write

but the ones who receive character arcs that fail are not characters with flat arcs

if they received an arc then they did change and they are not static, being dynamic characters with an intended character arc does not mean that the arc is guaranteed to come out to be a good one, and if it does fail that does not magically make the character static and give them a “flat arc”, no they did change so they do have an arc it just wasn’t effective or thematically coherent change

[nealflitherland]

Understanding The Flat Arc (Because Sometimes Your Characters Don't HAVE To Change)

I'd like to start this entry off with a bit of good news. I recently put out my first novel! Crier's Knife is a sword and sorcery tale, wit...

I love me some flat arcs, so I figured I’d share how they work with folks who might not be familiar with them.

[harobmxbikes]

Congrats to our boy Matthias Dandois on his outstanding 2nd place in Kobe, Japan at arguably the biggest flat event on the calendar, FLAT ARK. Matthias had a heavy final battle with overall winner Uchi.