Story without any character development whatsoever?

It is possible. How, I know not, but it is possible. I once wrote a story that was literally a narration of events with no character, and the community (it was a fan fiction) really liked it. I still don't know how that happened.

A character did appear later on, but there was no character development. The closest it got was when the character almost sacrificed himself so someone could escape, but that event had no impact on anything else whatsoever. The character never changed.

Needless to say, that was written before I knew anything about development.

posted over 9 years ago

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Thomas Myron‭

1163 reputation 133 98 143 10

You can always have a character who doesn't develop; flat Disney villains come to mind. But the flat character is generally in opposition to the hero/ine, who does develop.

So the question is, why would you write such a story? What could possibly happen in it? If you have one character, period, and that character doesn't develop, what is that person doing?

posted over 9 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

2098 reputation 13 1143 397 1

I am actually adding a second answer based on something @user16583 mentioned.

In some long-running comic strips, characters don't age or change. Strips like FoxTrot and Sally Forth occasionally make sly meta-jokes referencing the idea that the kids in the strip have been 10 or 12 for decades. Beetle Bailey has been doing the same thing for 70 years.

But even really long-running strips have some changes: The cast of Peanuts expanded, Blondie has gotten a job, there have been new platoon members and sexual harassment training at Camp Swampy.

So while you might be able to pull this off with a series of short stories (like Jeeves & Wooster, perhaps) or a graphic novel, particularly if the stories are meant to be funny, I think you'd be hard-pressed to make it work with drama.

posted over 9 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

2098 reputation 13 1143 397 1