Do you have an MC type?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
7,655
Reaction score
913
Location
Seashore
and do you ever get surprised by writing about a person who is really different from your type? I used to think that I wrote about isolated people, but the MC of my current story is very connected. She is a leader and has kin and trusted advisors. She is an orphan, so she has some aspect of isolation, but not like for example, my character who lives alone in the mountains or the bachelor who has let work take over his life. Wondering how others here see it.
 
Last edited:

TheWordsmith

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
366
Reaction score
38
Location
State of Confusion
I have lots of them. Do I have a 'stereotypical' type? Nah. I do have some characters with some of the same attributes but I think the fact that I write in so many different genres helps to keep me from falling into a rut with character types. Each MC has to confront different problems, issues, difficulties and they need to approach them in different ways. So I think that helps.

Maybe I'm schizophrenic and they are all really me?
 

guttersquid

I agree with Roxxsmom.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Messages
1,324
Reaction score
229
Location
California, U.S.A.
Nah, I don't have a type. My main characters range from a sixty-nine-year-old sociopathic killer to a ten-year-old daughter of a 1920s bootlegger.
 

phantasy

I write weird stories.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
1,895
Reaction score
259
Location
The Moon
I keep writing from the view of women at different stages of their lives. From college-age to mother to widow to single girl in her thirties. Of course each belongs to a different world and each have vastly changing temperaments. Not all are strong, not all are weak. I don't really define my character by their jobs either, sure it colors their thinking a bit, but their history and personalities trump that stuff.
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
5,260
Reaction score
2,673
Location
UK
Alpha males with long hair and bulging biceps, preferably in a profession that requires armour and weaponry. :D

*skips off into fantasy land*
 

buz

edits all posts at least four times
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
5,147
Reaction score
2,040
I keep writing about unhinged people who turn violent, or unhinged people who are already violent and try to become less violent and fail, or people who start out hinged but quickly become un-hinged. And violent!

:\

It keeps happening. I don't know what to do. :p Same damn thing over and over with different trappings about it...

Also demons and souls and junk usually factor in.
 

lemonhead

Life isn't all beer and skittles.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
944
Reaction score
130
Location
The water.
Website
www.sarahnicolelemon.com
I'd say unconventional women doing unconventional things. Not in a "fiery red-head hunting demons" sort of way because I write straight contemporary/literary. My completed YA is about an athlete (wakeboarder) who gets injured and works on a crab boat to rebuild her life. Poverty seems to always be a theme, but prb because I spent most of my life in poverty and even though I have money now I still think like a poor person. Aka, I consider myself "having money" when I live paycheck to paycheck. :) (but really I do have money, it's just my lovely, never been poor husband who tries to convince me paycheck to paycheck means we don't have money).
 

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
7,485
Reaction score
897
Location
Belfast
I used to think that I only wrote about kick ass strong women, but looking back over things, especially my last two novels, I've noticed that I tend to write about flawed people and lonely people.
 

chompers

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
2,506
Reaction score
384
No, but I noticed that my MMCs all look the same: black hair and blue eyes.

After I realized it I changed it up, but gosh, it's hard not to instinctively want to use it.
 

RhodaD'Ettore

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
111
Reaction score
7
Location
New Jersey
Website
goinpostalnj.blogspot.com
Alpha males with long hair and bulging biceps, preferably in a profession that requires armour and weaponry. :D

*skips off into fantasy land*

300 & Spartacus are my porn! LOL

I do not intentionally set out for strong women characters, it just happens that way. I wrote one story that was like 30,000 words.. and four women killed 9 men... didnt plan it... just happened. afterwards i was like DAMN! LOL
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
I probably have a type, but I still use different types for different stories. Unless you're really writing the same story over and over, and doing so has made a lot of writers very rich, character types should change with each new story.
 

Primus

Del Lago
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 4, 2014
Messages
268
Reaction score
17
I don't relegate my MC's to any defined archetype/stereotype, like a warrior who's monotone and grave or a helpless damsel. I largely let the story I'm telling along with the setting decide for me how my characters are created. I also base my characters just on common human interactions and reactions.
 

oooooh

the owls are not what they seem
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 24, 2012
Messages
168
Reaction score
5
Location
UK
Boys/young men who are mysterious/charismatic lone wolves. I've only ever had one female MC...
 

beck_magruder

Beck
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
107
Reaction score
5
Location
US
Apparently I really like dark/cynical types. I'm really bad at writing happy, innocent people. They might start out that way but they always have issues. But then, doesn't everybody? :)
 

southbel

Bless Your Heart
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 20, 2013
Messages
454
Reaction score
28
Location
Charleston SC
I write YA and when I was that age, I was the athletic, super outgoing, school spirit, lots of friends, kind of kid. However, almost all of my MCs are introverted and a bit more awkward. I love writing awkward characters. I especially like writing characters that like to buck the trend, whatever trend that may be.
 

chompers

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
2,506
Reaction score
384
Robert Baratheon has been busy in your world as well then ;)
I had to Google him. I'm not quite sure what you were meaning, but let's just say I was expecting some hubba hubba. haha
 

Violeta

All I Ever Wanted Was The World
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
871
Reaction score
95
Location
In stories only hearts can tell
and do you ever get surprised by writing about a person who is really different from your type?

Oh, hell yeah!

One of my latests WIPs has a MC that is so... different from my other MCs so far, that I just had to stop
and wonder "where did you just come from?" while marveling about this so very pleasant surprise.

I love this character to death. :ily::fistpump:hooray:
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
5,260
Reaction score
2,673
Location
UK
I had to Google him. I'm not quite sure what you were meaning, but let's just say I was expecting some hubba hubba. haha

Hahaha! No, definitely not hubba hubba ;)

Obviously you're not familiar with GoT, but there is a plotline concerned with the fact that all Robert Baratheon's bastards have black hair and blue eyes. I meant that he has obviously been busy populating your world, lol
 
Status
Not open for further replies.