Do your characters have to grow?

It’s an honest question.

You might think that because I’m a romance writer and one who is always talking about goal, motivation, and conflict that I would be standing here screaming “Yes! Characters must always grow. They must always learn something and develop as a person between the front cover and the back.”

Actually… I do believe that a book is better for having characters who grow, but they don’t absolutely have to.

Yeah, you read that right.

Characters do not have to grow and change.

Are you scratching your head right now? Wondering why I’m saying this?

It’s because there are some types of stories — action-filled adventures, some mysteries, sci-fi — that can be page-turning, gripping reads and the reader probably won’t even notice that the protagonist didn’t learn something or become a better human being (or whatever) by the end of the book. If a story is gripping enough, nothing will be missed.

Does that mean that all of you who write such books are off the hook to create complicated, “real,” 3-D (however you want to label them) characters?

A story is always better if the protagonist learns something or grows. It makes them that much more real. It makes us, the readers, care that much more because we’re…