Since I seriously can't play favorites with character types, here are just a few (somewhat specific) ones that I like, if someone wants to make some matches for me:

• Flawed (but still decent) parent characters: folks who don't make good decisions all the time but still really try to do right by their kids

• Humbled brats: bratty characters who get some kind of comeuppance and have to deal

• Characters who knowingly enter into bad relationships

• Well-intentioned characters who are bad at social cues (e.g. tend to say the wrong thing at the worst time)

oh yes, I actually thought of her when I was writing that, but I haven't read that many pieces with her. From what I have read though, she seems like the type that is super set in her ways and will hold onto her beliefs tooth and nail, at the expense of other things, so I think that might be a match. I will check out the piece you linked!

Going along with how Falootin did it, I can't play favorites with character types, but here's a few that I like:

-The gentle giants. Those that look like they could rip you to shreds with their bare hands--the brutes of the story, to be exact. But what you find is a rather sensitive and caring center, especially towards younger characters. Heaven help you decide to pick on them when he/she's around.

-Characters who might swear a mile a minute, act like jerks towards other people, has a hair-trigger temper--or all three, even (and more!)--but has those few people (family, friends, whoever) who he/she acts as a guardian angel towards them. He/she might even be persuaded by those people to cut back on the swearing or control the fiery temper, even.

-Big person/small person duos. It's a lot more diverse from there on--there's the big, hot-tempered guy and the little guy who acts as his pacifier; or the big girl who's athletic and the little girl who tries to emulate her but fails quite a lot. There's just something about that dynamic that works so much for me.

-People in the arts. Writers, painters, sculptors, you name them. Bonus points if they're the brightest color in the crayon box, too; that's enough with the portrayal of artists as unstable people in pop culture, thank you very much.

-Kids with strange powers. Bonus points if it's robotic or shapeshifting-related.

(I'm loving this icebreaker; keep 'em character types coming! :D)

I'm sure I'll think of some more eventually, but a few came to mind.

The Know-it-all, preferably of the non-bratty variety. Hermione Granger and Sherlock Holmes are good examples.

Bridge Characters Well, that's what I call them. Characters that are part of two different cultures/families/outlooks etc, and can see both sides of a complicated picture.

Contradictions - characters who don't quite mesh with other people's preconceptions.

I knew I'd think of at least one more before I finished.
The Detective. And it doesn't even have to be in a detective story/novel, I just love a character who sees something off kilter and needs to try to solve it.

Should we sticky this for a while, or make a link at the top or something?

It's interesting how a lot of the character types are things we write for ourselves. But that makes sense, we all write what we like. So some thoughts off the top of my head:


- Older characters who can kick your backside, because they radiate awesome.

- Characters with powers who use them in unusual and/or funny ways. Basically whipping them out for things other than dealing with baddies and monsters.

- Sibling teams. I didn't know until I started MFS, but apparently I have a thing for them.

- Characters recovering from abuse, especially emotional. Bit of a personal thing for me.

- Characters who have some favourite treasured inanimate object (e.g. The Car from the Real World AU) that they love like a person.

- This one's a bit subjective, but I've discovered recently I have a bit of a thing for everyman heroes who are likeable. I find that often they're just blank templates for the sake of relatability, but I like a character you can relate to who is still an entertaining and interesting individual in their own right. (Tangent - this is sort of what I've been trying with Jen, though I don't know how successful I've been.)

- More of a setting thing, but characters from fantasy or sci-fi cultures that aren't copies of real-world places.

- And apparently, princesses. Awesome, backside-kicking princesses. I blame all the princess-centred movies I've been watching lately. They don't have to be literally princesses, but you get the idea.

Edited at 2013-01-14 07:30 pm (UTC)

Ooh, this seems fun.

- Children thrust into difficult/"adult" situations, like dealing with death, war, a new locale or world, or a general upheaval of their way of life. Precocious children who aren't written to be annoying are great too.

- Intelligent but alien animal familiars - ones that can communicate with their partner somehow, but there's still a sort of disconnect, whether cultural or through a language barrier.

- Characters with such a rigid black/white morality code that they're willing to harm themselves (mentally/physically/emotionally) to uphold it. Characters with a strong, objective sense of justice, for good or ill.

- Unhealthy relationships (platonic or otherwise) in which both parties are to blame.

- Characters with autism/aspergers' who aren't defined by being on the spectrum. Similar to what Shayna said about psychological issues, their problems don't stem from autism but rather are compounded by it. Would prefer relatively "normal" characters, no gifted savant types. Bonus points if the character is never outright diagnosed but displays enough traits for it to be inferred. (I have a pretty keen AS radar, being on the spectrum myself).

Sorry if these are somewhat specific! I might've gotten carried away.

Okay, characters I like...

~Strong-minded, intelligent females. They don't necessarily have to be kickass in a battle, but they're not playing second fiddle to anyone, especially not when it comes to smarts. Gotta love the feminist.

~LGBTQ characters who, sort of similar to what Shayna and intothewolves said, aren't just the "token" LGBTQ character--it's a part of who they are, not all.

~Violently psychotic characters, on either side. :)

~Antagonists who do reprehensible things in the name of love or goodness. They don't necessarily have to think they're the hero of the story, just not comprehending that their motives don't justify their actions.

My three favorite character types:

- Blood lusty bad girl who just cant help it. She lives for the thrill, or simply because she is forced to survive on the blood of others and has grown to enjoy it. She is always forced to look at herself in one way or another by another character.

-The nerdy idiot. She is all for the facts and almost always disregards instinct, emotion and other variables that cannot easily be proven and thusly her only way of survival is to free herself of this. Not so easily done.

-The innocent superpower. She is young and naive, and at times this comes in a physical form, such as blindness, that allows her to be overly protected from the 'evils' of the world. She is also a wielder of power so great that she should never understand it. It is sought out by many and has a tendency to destroy innocent by no fault of her own.

Days late and dollars short, but:

• My favorite character is the smiley, polite one (usually male, usually but not always light haired (at least in anime/manga) who is secretly evil or has some kind of dark past. The politeness or friendliness is a cover for their shiftiness. (e.g., Hakkai from Saiyuki, Fay Tsubasa Chronicles, or Mikage from Kamisama Kiss)

• I love light and fluffy girl/girl stories.

• Does your story take place in a multiverse or involve dimensional/world hopping in any way? Point me to it, because those are my favorite.

Edited at 2013-04-06 03:06 pm (UTC)

~ I love minority main characters, particularly those on the LGBT* spectrum.

~ Strong female characters who don't need a man/are powerful in their own right.

~ Characters who doen't see the world in black and white; morally ambiguous characters.

~ Anti-Heros