Character Types

What kind of characters will populate your novel? The different types can be grouped in three overlapping categories: Role, Personality, and Inspiration.

3 CHARACTER ROLES

Primary Characters, such as protagonist(s) and antagonist(s)
Secondary Characters, which support the primaries and/or provide subplots
Walk-on Characters, such as waiters, taxi-drivers, cashiers, etc

Primary and secondary characters should only come on-screen with an agenda. This agenda may or may not be verbalized (action and subtext give the reader many clues). On that note, the other characters' agendas may or may not be at odds with the POV character's goals.


PERSONALITY

All characters should be consistent. This means they must stay true to their personality and environment. The arrogant warrior will not burst into tears if the heroine doesn't like his haircut.

That said, watch out for stereotypes. Librarians are not necessarily shy and mousy. Yours might have put herself through college by moonlighting at a strip club. Think outside the box.

Some writers group characters into three general personality types: alpha, beta, and gamma. An alpha character is strong-willed and agressive. A beta character is sensitive and low key. A gamma character is a beta by nature, but his alpha tendencies come roaring out when his back is against the wall.


INSPIRATION

One method of generating ideas for characters is to consider established character archetypes, such as The Swashbuckler and The Spunky Kid. We'll look into archetypes more deeply next week.

Another method of generating realistic characters is to utilize established personality types, such as the 16 combinations described by Myers-Briggs, or the 9 Enneagram types.

A third method of idea generation is to combine traits from people you know or other characters you've seen in TV, movies and books, or to use horoscopes and other personality generalizations as inspiration.