how to fix a flat character

so apparently, i have a flat character. on one critque, someone has say in there short as heck review: "I'll admit, the lack of proper capitalization makes it a bit hard to follow. To me he comes off a bit static. Does his character(ization) change during the course of the story? "

then i answered yes, he does. but since his character development is a bit of spoiler, i wish not to give too much away. to give some context, here's his personality (he's a alter ego) and other things:

Name: Nackie "archer" brown/García (or captain liberty)

Age: 17

Appearance: very dark brown, spiky hair and khaki colored skin, wears reading glasses regardless of the situation. His outfit is an open button shirt with a long sleeved, white shirt underneath it. His frame is underweight with a noticeable lack of muscle mass. His superhero identity on the other hand, stands at around 50ft tall with a build similar to a comic book superhero (but a tad bit near up to eleven). His dark purple hair reaches past his shoulders and his chin is chiseled. He wears something similar to a masked wrestler with an American flag color scheme and googles.

Personality: to say that Nackie was the world's greatest man would be a full blown lie. Nackie is a coward and for good reason. When navigating the dangerous world that is life, sometimes, it makes sense that Nackie took the flight option in flight or fight. He avoids anything that has the slightest hint of conflict in it, preferring not to get involved because of threat of violence erupting. It doesn't help that he has a major case of self-esteem issues. He believes that he can't stand up for himself since his timidness is hindering him from his confidence.

When he's not sulking about his worries being a small guy in a big world, however, he has a large fondness of comics and everything wrestling related. He also has a tendency to be a bit of a cute dork.

But as captain liberty, his confidence grows along with his ego. He's headstrong if not full of himself. Which, can lead to him underestimating the kaiju he fights. He has his fair share things to be wary of. Swinging from mood to mood, liberty would be happy in some moments and frustrated in others or even full on angry in a millisecond. The mood swings can cause some to be alert since well, he's a titian of a man. We wouldn't want him going a rampage now do we?

Abilities: as I've stated before, he can grow up to 50ft in height with the added bonus of super strength and plasma manipulation (like plasma breath and plasma fist). his fighting style is mix of wrestling you see in wwe and a bit of martial arts, which comes in handy when you beating the crap of monsters for a living.

Weaknesses: Nackie, as I've say in this sheet, has low self-esteem, which are unfortunately connected to his powers. If he's angry or stressed out, he begins to grow in size. Whereas, if he's unhappy, sadden, or his self-esteem leaves him, he shrinks. Although captain liberty has impervious skin, certain metal alloys can do damage to him which explains why Beowulf has them in stock in case he goes rouge. His large size can get in the way of his movement due to his reluctance of hurting people or destroying property. And, his overconfidence blinds him from seeing the actual danger of the situation.

Goals: Nackie doesn't have much of a goal but he does dream of finally gaining the recognition he longs for such a long time. Later on he wants to find out about the whereabouts of his birth parents, who had a connections to both Beowulf and Biogenix.

Motivation: the reason he even does all this is in hopes of finding a cure after he finds out that constantly dealing with kaiju most of the time he nearly ruining his life. If he finds his birth father, maybe he might know a way to cure him. unfortunately for him, his father can’t find the solution to his plight.

For his first goal, as a boy, he wanted to be as famous and well recognized as his role model, el libre but never managed to get that wish due to his constant self-esteem issues.

(note, i didn't want to add the backstory since i felt it was too cliched. if anyone was lurking in hero critique, maybe you had basic idea)

do you by any means find anything flat about him?

I won't tell you whether the character is flat or not, for I am not a literary critic.

I will, however, say this: I've read your description and I don't really find the character interesting. They are, that's kind of it, I guess they have powers because you mentioned that. And you mentioned their looks, whatever, don't care.

Yeah, that's basically it. This might or might not be what the critic meant.

sigh, anyone else?

That depends on your work. If its like a really short story, you don't really need a round character. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol had nothing BUT flat characters and its one of the most beloved stories ever.

The best way to really see how its going would be to just write something with the character. I can read descriptions from now until doomsday, but until I see how they interact with their world, I, nor could a bunch of people can really tell if a character is flat or not. After all, what's shown in theory and what's shown in practice are two different beasts.

If you get a short written with them, let me know and then I can tell you for sure. Be fearless, throw it out to the wolves and see if its strong enough to come back.

Keep in mind that characters that start flat can become round and vice-versa. Maybe the person doesn't really even need to be round at the moment.

edited 16th Mar '17 8:45:56 PM by J_Graves

Just a few random ideas on him:

His superhero alter-ego and his normal self are so fundamentally different they're essentially different characters. Worse, both personalities basically boil down to one trait; either "overconfident hero" or "nerd with low self-esteem". Nackie is, according to you, a coward who doesn't stand up for anything, so why the hell should we root for him? He has no real ambition. No skills. No positive attributes whatsoever. Hell, even his motivation is "get the villains to leave him alone". Oh, and his greatest desire is to "be famous", but he doesn't have the initiative to even try to achieve this. At the end of the day, a person with no good qualities is almost as boring as somebody with no bad ones. There's a point where you sail right past "underdog" and straight into "just pathetic" territory.

this is isn't exactly fixing him. I'm not trying to say I'm feeling attacked but I feel it was harsh. it was well warranted but harsh. which is funny, considering I most people seem to like the villains I've made rather than the heroes. maybe it felt refreshing or I haven't made a relatively decent character. it quite honest sucks. but, I'm here, for one thing, tell me, in your owns way and opinion, how the hell can I fix him? make him more rounded? add hobbies, more goals, and wishes? make it that the alter ego have a similar personality?

these are things I can do, I just don't know how to approach them. save for the last part which I can do after someone honest to god finds a way to fix this mistake. but as I write, now I know feel like I need to stop writing heroes and take a break from the internet. I just feel like I'm not good enough.

and lastly, before you say, hey why not do it yourself, I'm not expecting you to write my story for me. I want suggestions, jumpstarters, ideas that I haven't heard or are refreshing.

Once again, Springhole comes to the rescue. But since there's not much to work with here other than 'he's either a shy adorkable nerd or a brash idiot', you probably have a better idea of where you want him to end up as a character and how. A big part of what makes characters rounded is they act like how a real person might. You can easily imagine what they might be doing outside the story, what they think about when they're alone, what you'd talk to them about, what kinds of people and things would pique their interest, what would put them off, how they show that they're interested or put off, and how they think through and solve problems that don't necessarily pertain to the plot.

But you know what? Maybe you do need a break from idle internet browsing. So that you can write. Because in my experience, I didn't understand know how my characters ticked until I tried writing them and had to think through all of the different ways they could handle a given situation. How they in particular could respond to a given action or line of dialogue, what parts of the world around them they take time to notice and how they perceive them, what's going through their head at the moment and how it affects all of those previous things, and of course, their motivations for the current scene, part, and overall, and how all of those little scene-motivations and bits and pieces build on each other to show characterization, the state of the world around them, and the story as a whole.

You might be able to preemptively come up with some things that could round the character off a bit, such as an interest/hobby, some relationships^note not just of the romantic variety- family, friends, acquaintances, enemies, higher-ups, subordinates, random people they see around, etc., or some personal views, but it's hard to conceptualize enough things to make a character actually feel round without at least trying to write them first in some form. Even playing around with your characters in some disconnected scenes, writing some short stories of varying canonicity with them, answering some situations from this thread on your own, or using the thread's situations to start you off on the previous two things is going to be more productive than asking for help on character profiles that are so thin they offer no starting points, or hoping inspiration will strike.

not much but thanks.

Come to think of it, how about you guys suggest to me situation ideas that I then make into short stories. That way, I can get better.

Note: you have to have a basic idea of kaiju to suggest anything.

You know, people who fight monsters exist even when they don't fight monsters. As such, I feel that your requirement that we need to think up a monster to fight when giving you scenarios to write is the very core of the problem you have here: if the character is only defined by fighting monsters then there's really nothing to the character because there truly is nothing other than "they fight monsters" and a few traits that you could easily consider minor.

You've described the character's clothes for whatever reason, but actual hobbies or stuff of any other kind that is not related in any way to him fighting monsters is completely absent. There's nothing on their relationships with other people, whether they have friends or how they spend time when not fighting, or what they like to do, or even what they have to do (that isn't fighting monsters). His personality you described, but I feel his description is fairly rudimentary and, all things considered, shallow and only containing things that rely to (again) him fighting monsters. For me, there isn't anything that would make the character actually interesting there, only stuff that says "well, he fights monsters". If we aren't given anything about them as people and only about them fighting monsters, well, that's kind of one-dimensional, and as much as I still want to say that I am not a literary critic and thus cannot tell you whether it is flat or not, well ... flat it does sound.

You don't need oh-so-grand scenarios to put your character in. But do have normal stuff: write a few scenes of the character dealing with normal, normal-life stuff in presumably a normal, normal-life way. This is the kind of stuff that can make your character rounder, and not yet another scene of him fighting monsters.

let me rephrase that: normal scene ideas. Doesn't matter if its fantastical or not. Just go ahead. (Cuz I have writer's block as of late)

edited 18th Mar '17 4:04:20 AM by ewolf2015

A normal scene idea for you, then: Nackie meets with his friends for lunch.

Alright. Anyone else.

I'm getting it now, I'm thinking of a scenario where nackie's get invited to lunch. there they reminisce about their various adventures, with nackie being the cause of most of them.

edited 18th Mar '17 1:54:46 PM by ewolf2015

What does he feel when he's alone? Not in a "lost in the woods" way, just on the weekend or if his parents/roommates took a weekend trip.

How does he act in mundane stressful situations? Forgetting a deadline that's due in three days, having a fender-bender, dealing with annoying colleagues/classmates?

What are his hobbies and why does he do them? Everyone likes SOMETHING, but the reasons can drive relationships as much as actual enjoyment. Does he do something because it's a shared interest with a friend or relative, or is it because he actively wants to piss them off?