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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Insecure Writer

Stereotyping has a bad reputation. We try not to do it in our everyday lives to the people around us. I believee we fight against stereotyping because it is human nature as we strive to make sense of the world around us.

We see a certain type of dog and think it might be vicious. With people, we see the way a person dresses or notice their tattoos and we think something. I think my experience as a teacher has taught me to judge a person by their actions and not by their appearance. The outside package isn't always a true advertisement of what is inside.

In writing, stereotyping can make a story boring. I have some lists I picked up at a conference once that compile all the personality traits of heroes and villains. But a reader doesn't want the protagonist to be too perfect or their antagonist to be without any redeeming qualities. But it's more than that. Memorable characters are often those quirky ones.

What if the alpha male in your contemporary story always read the society page before the sports page? Could the popular mean girl in YA please not be a beautiful blonde? In how may YA dystopian novels are the main characters orphans?

So check your own writing? Are you writing stereotypical characters? What quirks do some of your main characters have?
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25 comments:

  1. rSeptember 5, 2012 at 6:03 AM

    I know exactly what you mean with stereotyping, and I want my characters to be as quirky as possible. I hope it works :) Nice post.

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  2. TonjaSeptember 5, 2012 at 9:17 AM

    I love quirky characters. I've noticed in life that people are always different than they appear. But I'm still afraid of dogs that look like they could guard the gates of hell. Better to be safe.

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  3. Ava QuinnSeptember 5, 2012 at 9:46 AM

    Great reminder, Sue. Thanks!

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  4. Cate MastersSeptember 5, 2012 at 9:48 AM

    Quirky characters are my favorite. I love trying to write against the grain, make my characters act against readers' expectations. At least I hope so!

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  5. LynnRushSeptember 5, 2012 at 9:58 AM

    Quirks are good!!!! Need quirks! :)

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  6. Alex J. CavanaughSeptember 5, 2012 at 10:02 AM

    My 'hero' had so many negative traits and quirks I had to reel them in a bit in the first book!

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  7. LD MastersonSeptember 5, 2012 at 10:04 AM

    Good post. Now I'm running through my current batch of characters in my mind looking for any dreaded sterotypes. They're sneaky little devils. Got to be careful.

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  8. Michelle WallaceSeptember 5, 2012 at 10:12 AM

    I'll be sure to keep this in mind when tackling characterization... thanks for the reminder.

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  9. mshatchSeptember 5, 2012 at 10:35 AM

    I completely agree. I'm tired of the uber popular bitchy blond.

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  10. M.J. FifieldSeptember 5, 2012 at 11:07 AM

    I do try to avoid stereotypes and if I don't, I'm trying to do that for a reason.

    My heroes/heroines tend to do a lot of stupid things because I like imperfect heroes best.

    Great post!

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  11. L. Diane WolfeSeptember 5, 2012 at 12:31 PM

    I leaned more towards stereotypes in the beginning, but learned to scale back as I wrote more.

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  12. Heather MurphySeptember 5, 2012 at 2:44 PM

    I hate stereotypes in "real life" so this is a great reminder not to include them in writing.

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  13. Cherie ColyerSeptember 5, 2012 at 2:48 PM

    What a great post. I agree, I don't like stereotypes. They often make a book predictable.

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  14. Ink in the BookSeptember 5, 2012 at 4:19 PM

    Not to judge people by their appearance, but by their actions makes perfect sense. And that's a great way to look at characters in novels, too! Thanks for the advice!
    Nice to meet you through ISWG!

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  15. Andrew LeonSeptember 5, 2012 at 10:14 PM

    I'm too quirky to know what quirky is. :P

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  16. Arlee BirdSeptember 6, 2012 at 12:34 AM

    I sometimes use stereotypes in background and peripheral characters. It's lazy I suppose, but some characters are just extras to fill up a scene and we don't need to know much about them.


    Lee
    Wrote By Rote

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  17. UnknownSeptember 6, 2012 at 3:09 AM

    How many fantasy stories have orphans for protagonists full stop? The genre can get very bogged down with stereotypes under the guise of 'tropes' and it's nice to read something that breaks away from that.

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  18. shellySeptember 6, 2012 at 7:40 AM

    Good point.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  19. LizaSeptember 6, 2012 at 8:29 AM

    Oooh! Great tip. I'm going to be keeping this in mind going forward. Thank you!

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  20. Michael Offutt, Phantom ReaderSeptember 6, 2012 at 12:45 PM

    It's hard to avoid all stereotypes. I try consciously to steer clear of most of them, but I wonder if one or two make it in there to the writing. I hope not.

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  21. Jemi FraserSeptember 6, 2012 at 9:18 PM

    So true! Stereotypes can be so annoying! I agree that teaching helps us to see past those images to the real people :)

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  22. UnknownSeptember 7, 2012 at 12:19 AM

    I usually start with a stereotype and give the character little quirks and unique traits to hopefully burst the bubble in the end. Great things to remember. :)

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  23. Golden EagleSeptember 7, 2012 at 8:35 PM

    I always find stereotypes tricky. And there are so many of them, it can be hard to avoid having a character who doesn't fit into some kind of category!

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  24. AnonymousSeptember 8, 2012 at 2:31 AM

    This is a hard one... since it's so easy to fall into that. I try to mix it up as much as possible to make it different:)

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  25. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2012 at 11:25 PM

    I work very hard on avoiding stereotypes and think I do a pretty darn good job. I retain my freedom of speech and keep from offending my audience with stereotypes. My editor helps me too.

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