What is a round or flat character?

In my last post I commented the 1.1. Part "Creating characters" of the Start writing fiction -course. That part was all about how the characters form the plot. This Parts topic is "Round and flat characters" and it relies on a text from Josip Novakovich.

In my opinion these are the main points of Novakovich's text-extract:

A round character has three dimensions
The characters are complex, and have conflicting traits. 

A flat character is oversimplified.
The characters have few, predictable traits, none of which are creating genuine conflicts. 
The character is often based on a stereotype.

Novakovich's tip is that one shouldn't create characters based on one trait, one should create characters that have a certain trait (among others). According to him:

"Draw portraits of misers, but not as misers – as people who happen to be miserly."

This 1.2. Part is called "Round and flat characters". It is based on a half-page extract from a text from Josip Novakovich and has an exercise as a part of it. This time I also noticed the comments below, where people had put their own short stories and commented those of others. I liked this, but on the other hand it was rather unorganized also. Still, I enjoyed reading other people’s texts.

Now one is supposed to write a brief scene in which one portays "one of the stereotypes mentioned (shifty-eyed thief, jovial fatso, etc.) or -- one of your own" in a complex way, "going against the usual expectations."  I did that in another post.

I started my "free writing courses online" -project with the course "Start writing fiction" from the Open University. You can see all my posts regarding this course here. This is part 1.3.

Kim A. Dremreich