Character types you love to write

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Duchess-Yukine-Suoh, Jan 29, 2015.

  1. Yume No Okami

    Yume No Okami Member

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    Cute and funny and awesome archetypes deconstructed to show how fucked up their lives have been to get them so shy or methyphobic or ace.
     
  2. Sundowner

    Sundowner Active Member

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    I think I like writing unhinged or eccentric characters the best, it allows the for the most creativity for me. They have a lot less concern for social standards for how one is supposed to communicate to another, so anything they say is pretty much up in the air. You can always expect a nice surprise from them. All in all, they know how to break up monotony.
     
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  3. halisme

    halisme Contributor Contributor

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    I have a thing for sympathetic villains and villain protagonist. I tend to find the antagonists more interesting than the heroes if I'm honest.
     
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  4. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    My favourite character to write is a person who hides his feelings and keeps his thoughts to himself most of the time. It's fun getting this personality across, by figuring out ways to show what he's thinking and feeling, when he can't actually express himself in words. When he does speak, though, people pay attention. He generally cuts to the heart of a matter, and doesn't beat around the bush. I think I'm quite fond of that kind of person in real life. You can trust them, but it takes a long time to get to know them well, and to understand what makes them tick.
     
  5. Slade Lucas

    Slade Lucas Member

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    I usually have my main characters as being somewhere along the same lines - not exactly brave but with a strong sense of heroism and a reluctance to want to kill at all. While these are characters I love it is the villains that I really put the most thought into.

    They are often characters that you actually feel rather sorry for - their situation isn't their own fault and, crucially, they may have been driven slightly crazy by it. I love a villain who has spontaneous bursts of madness which are terrifyingly captivating to read.
     
  6. Some_Bloke

    Some_Bloke Active Member

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    The protective older sibling or parent, this depends on the situation though. If they have a genuine reason to be protective.

    Characters with pent-up anger or angry characters in general I like writing to, as I find I can use them to "let loose" my own anger.
     
  7. Triaflame

    Triaflame New Member

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    I like writing the dark, anti-social types that are never understood by anyone. You can fill their past with all sorts of nasty little plot twists and events. I also like writing those strong, resilient, 'alone' characters that hide a past by removing themselves from society. You know, the classic 'shadowy ranger in the corner of the tavern' characters. Allowing these two types of characters to meet can lead to good relationships between people.
     
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  8. GalwayGirl

    GalwayGirl Member

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    I loved creating Steven, cocky one liners, short tempered only really cares about two people, his brother and his niece and doesn't mind walking around naked.
     
  9. bossfearless

    bossfearless Active Member

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    The driven entrepreneur, someone who has his mind set on building something. I often write about wizards and necromancers and other fantastical types, but they tend to have that creative drive in them to want to construct some magnificent enterprise.
     
  10. Bjørnar Munkerud

    Bjørnar Munkerud Senior Member

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    • Shy characters whose objectives and secrets are difficult to get at for other characters and readers alike.
    • Great people who have many strengths, but in return a few giant flaws as well (like Albus Dumbledore or Katniss Everdeen, or even Anakin Skywalker), which could easily be their downfall.
    • Characters who say what they mean first, be it rude, silly, ridiculous or ingenious, and then deal with the consequences later.
    • The evil mastermind who is obviously completely out of whack, but who still has some absurd trace of logic behind it all (an extreme example being Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove)
    • The alien/foreigner/oddball who thinks everything that's strange is normal and vice versa.
    • The unshapely evil goo blob of mysterious emptiness that each good character can attach their own personal significance to and that every villain wants as their spies, henchmen, mooks and cannon fodder because they are so evil, stupid, emotionless and focused they'll never disobey or reveal any information.
    • Femme fatales and the like; characters who are outsiders, but who are beautiful, confident and know what they want, though nobody else is quite sure what that is or how they plan to obtain it.
    • Those characters who are so important that they don't take the time to interact much with the others, making them almost legendary and the subject of much wildly differing and inaccurate rumours and gossip (mild examples being Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and Gandalf in The Hobbit, another being Sauron from The Lord of the Rings and an extreme one being a goddess in the novel I'm writing who essentially plays chess with the universe and creates evil monsters just to pit them against people for fun).
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2017
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  11. GalwayGirl

    GalwayGirl Member

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    That last one sounds like interesting.
     
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  12. Chinspinner

    Chinspinner Contributor Contributor

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    Phil Mitchell, if I am writing some East Enders fanfic, or Captain Birdseye if not. I probably spend most of my time writing Captain Birdseye.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2015
  13. Fable Headed

    Fable Headed Member

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    I am not yet a writer , i would rather call myself a thinker till now. But my favorite type of characters are KINGS .
    yeah i love to think and write(mostly think) about kings . Not the ones portrayed as Lousy , Greedy or easily Manipulative rulers . The real deals , those who can Motivate armies with a single speech , Those who can turn the tide in a war by single swing of there sword , the ones for whom legendary warriors will lay their life without a second thought . Those who show what is the true meaning of the word "king".
     
  14. Bookish_Introvert

    Bookish_Introvert Member

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    Anti-heroes, sympathetic villains, and flawed heroes with dark pasts, rebels and nonconformists who point out the hypocrisy in normalcy. Pretty much anything that allows me to make my characters' lives difficult. I also got a thing for the underdog, strong-willed women, and characters with some sort of life altering disorder or disability (usually a mental one).
    I feel like these characters are the most human and the most realistic. I don't want my readers to get them right away. They aren't meant to be understood right away. I like writing about characters that make people think.
     
  15. Vellidragon

    Vellidragon Member

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    Not much of a character "type", but I have a penchant for including characters obsessed with food in my works. It's just a strange fascination of mine at work there.

    Apart from that, I'm not sure if I like any specific kind more than others... I feel uncomfortable writing immoral characters, though (at least in a serious context; I also write a comic and I have fewer reservations there due to the cartoony setting). If anything, I suppose I like writing average people, or the equivalent to average people in whatever quirky Fantasy setting I'm working with. Common folk who can't really do anything "special" and have to brave situations with nothing more less than any other random person in their world. They're typically well-intentioned and probably great to be friends with.
     

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