A common criticism of fiction — be it in film, television, or novels — is often laid against characters seen as “flat” or “two-dimensional.” Modern audiences know when a protagonist or supporting character isn’t interesting, based on their own lack of emotional investment in that character’s journey. Rightfully fearing this criticism, a lot of new authors are compelled to ensure that their protagonist is a dynamic character. However, as many editors will attest (and as some authors will admit), there is often confusion between “well-written characters” and “dynamic characters” — which are not always one and the same.

Reedsy recently published a great post on creating a dynamic character. I am sharing the respective infographic here and strongly urge you to check out the complete post on Reedsy, where they take a look at what dynamic characters are, how they differ from static characters, what forms their narratives can take, and how authors can write them into their books.

Writing dynamic characters Infographic | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books