I think everyone has one! Mine's a cross between the " mentor" and the "performer". Usually a year or two (or 5, or 10) years older than the rest of the cast, has a big-sisterly nature, and usually has a younger female under her wing, but also has a snarky streak, and has no qualms about being flirty to get what she wants. What about y'all?
I can't really decide. I've written a wide variety and liked them all. The underdog action hero, smart-ass layabout, aimless destitute, hard-arsed motherfucker, intelligent artist, hippie adventurer, scheming serial killer... the list goes on.
I'd say all of my characters are of the half-damned type. People who need to find something worth living for, instead of merely existing.
I enjoy writing a character in a comparative position of weakness who has to contend with things/ people/ situations they cannot control; and who regardless of their actions will at some point be a victim of circumstance. I dislike writing or reading tediously over-powered main characters (or Mary-Sues), although I do have some swirling around the character I described above.
I love writing about characters who are strong with a clear goal or motive but still have internal struggles relating to their past.
I tend to create characters who are fairly weak, cowardly or pragmatic, as well as those who would rather live in decadent luxury than die in a war. Maybe it's just my own sense of "rational egoism", but I find the idea that being pawn #1,732,034 who fell on the battlefield is somehow that greatest honour in life, to be rather stupid. I also seem to have a strange fascination with tyrants and overzealous theocracies, but not just tyrants for the protagonist to shake their fist in rage at before inevitably beating them, but tyrants who end up victorious.
I like to write protagonists who are total loners. Antagonists that are hungry for power and enjoy oppressing others with past traumas that led them that way.
I love writing central characters who need a personality overhaul. The cowards who learn to get their shit together and toughen up, the strong who learn vulnerability, the selfish who learn their place etc As for their merry counterparts, the 'mentor' types or people who are naturally skilled in the MC's weak points and thus provide role models/salt in the wound, are my favourite x
I love characters who've had to struggle in the past, who may have some past trauma in life, who may have come from a poor background. I love noble characters who are sacrificial but who has to deal with their own demons, who becomes a rock for others. I love grey characters - characters who have their own reasons for doing what they do, whether it's right or wrong. In general I can't stand repressed characters though lol.
Heroes whose own preferred methods initially get in the way of their goals, forcing them to then try something outside their comfort zone. Protagonists who disagree with each other on what's most important. Villains who legitimately love certain other people and whose acts of cruelty are for the sake of benefiting said loved ones more than themselves… at the expense of everybody else.
Villains. I love writing villains. Something about villainy is so fun to write, and so freeing. Sophisticated and complex villains are my favorite to write!
The blind, mute, deaf, tasteless, and smelless character also without nerve endings. It writes itself as long as its in first person.
Characters with dark painful pasts and huge secrets they don't want to talk to anyone about, so no one understands why they act the way that they do. Usually quiet, brooding people that generally come across as rude and cold.
I have a thing for bad guys. As long as it's someone you can look at and understand why they would do the things they would do. Anti-heroes are my favorite, because it shows how human everyone really is. Also, characters that break moral ties and "become bad" I guess would be another type I enjoy writing. They are proof that even good people have a limit to what they can take and aren't perfect either. Everyone has their limit eventually.
I absolutely hate flawed characters with secret traumas that haunt them. I won't read them and I don't write them. My characters are usually competent (not madly skilled) and with a touch of ruthlessness. Sometimes a lot of ruthlessness. Basically what successful people in real life are like. Other than that they have their own quirks, likes and dislikes, as well as varying degrees of experience and social support. This last is inevitable since they range from a female test pilot to a retired Roman Centurion turned slaver.
I like writing characters who are a little gray, make mistakes, and the reader might at times wonder if they should still root for them.
At the moment, I love writing smooth-talking, quick-witted characters. To be honest, it's probably because I'm bitter about not being smooth-talking or quick-witted myself.
The child dreamer with their imaginary friend and the hero teen who seems to always be fighting or befriending wizards or dragons and the like.
Characters with huge secrets that they must keep hidden so they end up feeling like outcasts and/or Morally-ambiguous characters (eg "I know that that character's the villain but I can totally understand why he did the stuff he did") and/or Vulnerable characters (every character needs a Shakespearean flaw! The most entertaining one for me atm is this girl who's so in love with the villain that, no matter how many times people tell her that he's evil, she cannot see his evilness. And no matter how many times she tries to quit him, she always ends up returning to his side)
