Do You Have a Type?

No I’m not talking about 6’2″, dark hair, green eyes, body of an Adonis. I’m talking about the type of character you typically craft.  Is it the lonely nerdy girl with a surprisingly sarcastic wit? The stoic studly male who just wants someone to love? The all around bad ass? Do you find they always crop up in your writing somewhere, even if they’re not the main character? Do you consciously try to write someone other than your type?

Personally I seem to have a thing for snarky underestimated girls and good looking misunderstood guys. I  try to break out of the box , but the character always seems to sneak in there somewhere, maybe as the best friend or the person in need of rescue. I always feel like there has to be a little comedy relief in there somewhere too and it normally comes from a specific character.

I do think it’s important to make characters distinct and it should be more than a different hair color/style or height.  Obviously people share a lot of similar traits so it may be hard to make your characters the compete opposite of a previous persona, but you should be able to compare the two and see distinctive differences.

Do you know any writers who write the same character into every book? Does it annoy you and turn you off from reading their work?

What’s your typically type of character to pen?

 

Also, I have a poll going on over at my Facebook page about short story and cost.  Please stop by and put in your two cents!