Character traits or types that get you every time

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Flicka

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So we have a thread on characteristics you can't stand in an MC, but what about those you love? What traits are you attracted to?

I'll go first.

I love neurotic characters that talk a lot, especially if they're flippant and verbal and witty to hide their deep emotional pain. I also like evil characters who reveal a sudden and unexpected soft or good side - and then go back to being evil.

And you?
 

gothicangel

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So we have a thread on characteristics you can't stand in an MC, but what about those you love? What traits are you attracted to?

According to my sister, I have a thing for broken men. :D

Thinking of my MC's, she's probably right. I tend to write about tough men, who actually are quite sensitive/sentimental.
 

meowzbark

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I absolutely adore male characters who are rugged and plain. I prefer a big old teddy bear of a main who earns his living as a mechanic rather than a prince charming who wears thousand dollar shirts and has the personality of a diva.

I love female characters who don't date guy because they're good looking but in spite of the looks.

AKA...non shallow characters.
 

SomethingOrOther

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Characters with lots of flaws. Emotionally unstable characters. Weak characters. Non-neurotypical characters. Characters with a good sense of humor.
 

kaitie

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I love someone funny, but it's not necessary.

Typically depth is the biggest. I love so many different characters, though. I actually have a thing for asshole villains. A lot of times I prefer them to the good guys, but it has to be the right kind of asshole villain. If he's just a jerk I'm not a fan, but a total jerk with a hint of something underneath that? I'm all for that.

I love nerds and characters who aren't necessarily the strongest and who have to use their wits. Normalish people put in abnormal situations and being clever enough to find their way out.
 

jjdebenedictis

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I like the characters who are either good guys with a strong streak of bad or bad guys with a strong streak of good.

Think Granny Weatherwax.
 

Archerbird

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Villains here too. Not the puppy-kicking, manipulating psycho type of villain, but the type who, when considered from another angle, actually does the right thing (or something) but scares the crap out of you anyway. So yeah, good hearted villain, as mentioned by others. I also like characters who can take care of themselves and don't break down in self-pity every other page.
 
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Brigid Barry

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The characters I like the best have something horrible to them and instead of going all to pieces (think Bella Swan in New Moon), they eat some ice cream and get back up even knowing that they are going to get knocked back on their ass.

I also like women who (metaphorically) stick to their guns. If they dislike a guy because he's a jerk, they don't turn into a quivering pile of hormones the moment he kisses her. She belts him in the face.

And I like characters that had incongruous traits. Like the meek nun who can throw knives, or the super mega bad-ass man who has a rose garden at home.
 

CJ Knightrey

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I love witty and sarcacstic characters that are tough but still have a soft side, think like Dean Winchester. Or characters that are very quirky and unconventional; those that think differently and out of the box, like Patrick Jane on the Mentalist. :D
 

Lhipenwhe

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Determination in the face of adversity. It' easy to complain about it and wait for someone else to make it all better, but a character who can push through on his/her own always gets to me.
 

Chasing the Horizon

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Characters who really feel things deeply and can express that depth (even if only in their thoughts). I guess that's basically the same thing as several people above me have already said about the characters having depth and not being shallow.

I also like good-hearted characters who always try to do the right thing, but are put in situations where there is no right answer and have to learn to muddle through.
 

angeliz2k

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I always like the wounded hero who went astray somewhere along the line but is trying very hard to find his way back. I love antiheroes (Lestat, anyone?).

I also love sharp whit, one of the many reasons I deeply adore Twain and Wilde. It's also one of the reasons I love Lincoln as a historical figure--he had some wonderful one-liners.
 

thothguard51

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I have a large mix of what I like about characters. What I like about one character, (Tyrion Lannister in AGOT, witty and clever), might not work for other characters in other stories.

For me, the story sets the character and the characters traits should fit within the storyline. Not all characters I have enjoyed are rugged, witty, clever, or cutthroat. Once I zoom in on a character, I do so because of their traits within the storyline and not because it is a trait I prefer over one or the other...
 

sunandshadow

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For the love interest I adore a male character who looks freaky in some way (halfbreed visibly different from the ethnicity(s) everyone around him is, albino, piebald, or something as simple as being built short and slender in a culture where the ideal man is a tall, broad warrior). If he suffered from an unrequited crush on someone who rejects him for his looks, I'm sold. <3

For the main character I like someone who is calm-tempered and benevolently manipulative; for example a tutor or nurse who subtly channels his or her charges to do constructive and educational things rather than destructive and rebellious things. Or an adviser who tactfully talks his liege around from poorly-thought-out plans to more functional ones, leaving the liege thinking he came up with the good ideas himself. Or someone who plays practical jokes with a hidden good purpose like making the two people targeted by the jokes become friends or fall in love.
 

Raventongue

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Hmmm. I can grow to like any character pretty darn quick if they're well-constructed, and I think everyone has a soft spot somewhere for characters similar to them. Besides that, let's see...

I like quiet, soft-spoken authority figures. Particularly when they're very effective despite their soft-spoken nature. Especially someone who is shown to be tough or courageous without any fanfare.

Folks who Get Shit Done in a capitalized sense- the blunt-talkin' triage nurse, the bossy proactive character, the the rude but efficient coffee server.

At some point, and screw me with a shoe if I know why, I grew an uncommon affinity for characters who are career soldiers. I'm morally and politically opposed to the vast majority of modern military life, but I suppose it could be that they remind me of family members (yeah, I'm the black sheep).

And characters presented as formidable who are open about their vulnerabilities. I like it when it's not a contradiction, but just one more facet of a multifaceted personality.
 

Bufty

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A tad off-topic but way back in the late nineteen-fifties on TV there was a wrestler everybody hated because of his rule-breaking activities - but loved to watch!

Anyway, to my surprise, I learned his hobby was collecting butterflies. Good old Mick.

The characters I like the best have something horrible to them and instead of going all to pieces (think Bella Swan in New Moon), they eat some ice cream and get back up even knowing that they are going to get knocked back on their ass.

I also like women who (metaphorically) stick to their guns. If they dislike a guy because he's a jerk, they don't turn into a quivering pile of hormones the moment he kisses her. She belts him in the face.

And I like characters that had incongruous traits. Like the meek nun who can throw knives, or the super mega bad-ass man who has a rose garden at home.
 

veschke

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I keep tending to write people with unhealable inner pain, often due to their own failures but sometimes just the universe being a !#$%.

For reading, I like complicated people; they aren't necessarily nice all the time, they struggle morally, but they do what has to be done.
 

heyjude

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Great thread, Flicka. :)

I have a soft spot for characters who self-destruct with alcohol or drugs or whatever. Also, characters who like animals.
 

lorna_w

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Iconoclasts. People who can see the emperor has no clothes on. Curmudgeonly (even foul-mouthed about it) old ladies. Smart, wry people. Those whose response to wounding is more wryness, wit, and doggedness.

(oh dear, I just noticed that this list is pretty much my self-concept, accurate or not. I wonder if that's generally true of characters we like.)
 

Orchestra

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Orchestra should rethink the wording in his presently somewhat less than tactful, and offensive post.
I'm not sure what you mean. My preference is as valid as anyone else's and I don't think I've personally insulted anyone with my wording. I think pedophiles make great characters because in our culture they are categorically viewed as monsters and sub-humans who we don't want or feel the need to understand. To me, one of writers' main jobs is to offer insight into things we are deeply uncomfortable with. We're inclined to think of child molesters as being deeply inhuman and evil. Rendering murderers, rapists, nazis and the like as real people terrifies us but it's important if we want to truly understand the bad stuff happening around us.
 
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Flicka

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Witty self-deprecation. And intelligence.

Absolutely. And neurosis. I'm sorry, but I just love proper dysfunctionality. Not angst (and NO WHINING), more of the over-analytical, slightly emotionally unstable kind. And incessantly chattering. I love me a talkative character.
 

Raventongue

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Absolutely. And neurosis. I'm sorry, but I just love proper dysfunctionality. Not angst (and NO WHINING), more of the over-analytical, slightly emotionally unstable kind. And incessantly chattering. I love me a talkative character.

I think you just described me, lol.
 
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