Has an editor or critique partner said, “Your character is flat” when offering feedback on your story? Or perhaps they worded it another way: “Your protagonist didn’t grab me,” or “This character needs more depth.”

However it’s phrased, being told we’ve missed the mark on a character is a bit of a gut punch. But it’s okay. Flat characters, like anything else, can be fixed.  

A flat character is one-dimensional, lacking the depth and human complexity required to feel true to life. Not only do they seem unrealistic, they also fail to capture a reader’s curiosity or interest.

Flat characters can be written as such on purpose: a surly shopkeeper unwilling to bargain on price or the nosy neighbor trying to unearth your protagonist’s secrets. These types of characters have a small role or specific function (comic relief, mentorship, etc.) and don’t need a lot of depth.

But if an important character is seen as
shallow or boring…we have a big problem.

Characters are the heart of a story. For readers to care about them, they must feel like real people. Distinct personalities, belief systems, emotions, and histories shape them and their behavior. Personal needs, desires, struggles, and worldviews give them depth. All this, and a capacity for growth, is the magic recipe that will draw a reader in. 

What Causes a Flat Character?

Characters can feel underdeveloped for many reasons, but it often comes down to one thing: something essential about them has been overlooked. Some common offenders:

Shallow Backstory

A character’s past influences who they become, how they behave, and how they view the world around them. If a character’s backstory is missing, weak, or generic, their behavior may lack credibility or be inconsistent.

The Cure: Go deeper. Explore their past, including their emotional wounds, experiences, life lessons, fears, and insecurities.

Tools to Fix Backstory Issues: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus and One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder Tool.

A Too-Basic Personality

A character’s personality should contain specific traits that emerge because of their history/upbringing, the people who influenced them, and formative their life experiences, both good and bad. When writers gloss over the building out of a unique personality, they tend to give character ‘typical’ traits and so they come across as generic and unrealistic.

The Cure: People are complex, and characters will be, too. Spend time thinking about who your character is and why, and the traits most likely to appear in their personality. Be sure to also understand how negative experiences lead to personality flaws (and the behaviors and tendencies that go with them). Each character should have a mix of traits as no one is ever all good or bad.  

Tools to Fix Personality Issues: The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder Tool.

Over-Reliance on Character Tropes or Stereotypes

Due to their familiarity, using character tropes (e.g., the villain, reluctant hero, or absent-minded friend) can fast-track the reader’s understanding of a character’s role. But leaning on one too hard turns them into a stereotype or cliché, which is a huge turnoff.

The Cure: Use any trope generalizations as a starting point only. Do the work and make each character someone fresh. Readers loved to be surprised by interesting and meaningful qualities that elevate the character in ways they didn’t expect.

Tools to Help Fix Overused Character Types: The Character Trope and Type Thesaurus or One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder Tool.

Tunnel Vision

Characters who are only about one thing—the mission or goal, proving loyalty, success, etc.—come across as one-dimensional and unrealistic. For readers to connect with characters, they need to have relatable life layers. Relationships and social interactions. Dreams and desires. Responsibilities. Quirks, interests, problems.

The Cure: Real people can get obsessive about certain things, but they have other things going on. To give your character a better balance, imagine their entire life, not just the plot of your story. Explore how your character’s professional life or obsessions may collide with their personal life.

Tools to Help You Create Dynamic Characters: One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder Tool and The Occupation Thesaurus.

A Lack of Drive

In the real world, it can take time for us to know what we want, but in fiction, characters must be motivated and act. If your protagonist is wishy-washy about what they want or can’t settle on a goal, they’ll come off as weak.

The Cure: Characters who lack urgency when it comes to choosing or achieving a goal need to be put in the hot seat. Raise the stakes. Add conflict and tension. Make it clear that doing nothing leads only to pain and consequences. Additionally, know your character inside and out (#1) because past trauma, fears, and negative interactions will point you to their soft spots and unmet needs.

Tools to Fix Unmotivated Characters: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 1, Volume 2, and The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus.

Distanced Emotions

Showing a character’s emotion, even when they’re trying to hide what they feel, is one of the most important tasks a writer has. Emotions are central to the human experience, and readers expect a front-row seat to whatever the character is feeling. When someone is closed off or seems imperviable to vulnerability, readers find it unrealistic.

The Cure: Become an expert at showing your character’s emotions, even when they try to hide what they feel from others. Readers must always be in the loop to empathize and feel invested. Understand how each individual will express emotion in their own way based on their personality, comfort zone, and backstory.

Tools to Help You Show Authentic Character Emotion: The Emotion Thesaurus, The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus, and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus.

Inadequate Internal Conflict

A well-developed character should have inner struggles, doubts, conflicting needs, fears, and insecurities, all of which make certain actions and decisions agonizing for them. If a writer doesn’t know a character well enough, their struggles will seem generic and readers will feel disconnected from their struggles.

The Cure: Understand your character inside and out, especially backstory and unresolved wounds that haunt them (#1). Know their life, their stresses, their pain, and how loyalty, expectations, or beliefs may tear at them so you can show powerful, meaningful inner conflict. Use psychology in fiction to show inner turmoil in ways readers recognize as they’ve experienced the same tendencies themselves.  

Tools to Help You Show Internal Conflict and Psychological Processes: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Conflict Thesaurus, Volume 1, and The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus.

Little to No Growth or Change  

In any story, characters will face challenges—often life-changing ones. Even in a flat arc, where the protagonist remains steadfast in their beliefs, they should still learn, adapt, and navigate obstacles in a way that feels authentic. Primary characters who respond to every problem the same way, repeat mistakes without growth, or remain rigid in their viewpoints can feel unrealistic and unconvincing to readers.

The Cure: All roads lead back to characterization. Go deeper. Get to know your character, and why they think, act, and behave as they do. Choose specific conflict scenarios that force them to confront misconceptions and fears that lead to change and growth.

Tools to Help You Write About Change and Growth: For growth journeys and the path of change, try The Emotional Wound Thesaurus. The Conflict Thesaurus Volumes 1 and Volume 2 are packed with help to craft powerful conflict that will strengthen and support character arc. The Character Builder Tool will take all your character-building information and create a character arc blueprint for you.

You can fix a flat character. It’s worth the effort because once readers bind themselves emotionally to a character, they’re hooked. If you’re lucky, they’ll enjoy your characters so much they’ll seek out your next book, too!

READ NEXT: How to Write a Protagonist with True Depth

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post How to Avoid Flat Characters in Your Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Some characters are so dynamic, we feel immediately close to them. Everything they say, do, and think is consistent with who they are, they have a past and present, and as we share their experiences, we never have to guess at what they feel, want, or need.

This authenticity happens when the author does the deep work to understand the character inside and out. And, I’m betting they did something else, too: created a reference file about the character, a.k.a., a Character Bible. This is a great way to avoid unintentional inconsistencies and mistakes.

And mistakes do happen, because we forget things —Does Emma fear lizards or birds?—or we change our mind mid-book, and the love interest, Liam, goes from being a skateboarder to the king of parkour. Oh, and name changes? Don’t even get me started!

The point is that nothing pulls readers out of the story faster than when details shift, so implementing a way to keep each character straight in our minds is key.

The Character Bible: A Writer’s Best Friend

A character bible document will contain important details about a character, everything from their appearance, personality, and preferences to their backstory wounds, goals, needs, and secrets. It has a trio of benefits:

1. It pushes you to explore a character’s inner layers to figure out who they really are and what’s driving them in the story
2. Once complete, the bible serves as a reference tool for you to ensure everything about the character is consistent
3. Writing is easier because how the character thinks, acts, and behaves will be second nature to you.

How detailed your bible is depends on how important the character is. Some things you may wish to capture:

Appearance

What does your character look like? Do they have any interesting features that act as clues to readers as to the type of person they are? For example, hair: is their go-to a messy bun, is it chronically unwashed, or is every curl carefully tamed? Or do their clothes suggest a style preference or level of wealth? Do they have scars, marks, or defects that hint at an experience or trauma? Chosen well, specific details do a lot more than just help readers imagine what they look like.

Backstory

Your character’s past affects the present, in good ways and bad. So, who has influenced them to date, either supporting them or limiting them? What personal challenges have they worked through? What negative experiences (emotional wounds) are unresolved, leaving behind fear, biases, and false beliefs about themselves and the world?

Answering these questions will give you a good sense of what their past was like, and the most likely things they will carry forward, like emotional baggage, a sense of duty, a compulsion to fix people, etc.

Personality Traits

Every character will have a unique personality made of positive traits (strengths & identity markers) and negative traits (flaws that keep people and situations at a distance so the character can avoid being hurt by them). Think about both halves – this character’s defining positive qualities, and those that create friction with others.

Moral & Spiritual Beliefs

All characters, even the baddies, will have a moral code. Do you know what beliefs your character hold to so strongly they make decisions and are willing to sacrifice other things to stay true to them? Where is their line in the sand, and what ideas are important enough to them to protect?

Emotional Range & Behaviors

Each person expresses themselves in their own way, and characters will too. Think about your character’s individuality – are they open and communicative about feelings, or keep them inside? Are they demonstrative, or more reserved, extroverted or introverted, or somewhere in the middle? What are their quirks and comfort zones? Understanding a character’s typical emotional range helps you choose emotional responses that feel authentic.

Fears and Misbeliefs

Every character has fears that result from negative experiences, because that dark seed is planted that the same sort of hurt could happen again. So, what fear is making your character a prisioner in some way, shaping their view of the world, themselves, and holding them back from being truly happy? Do they believe they are unworthy or incapable because of this fear, and this destructive lie is one they must cast aside to achieve their story goal?

Talents, Skills, and Abilities

A character should have a few things they are good at, or an ability that make them unique. Giving your character a talent or skill that aids them when it comes to their goal (even in an unexpected way!) will create a sense of synchronicity for readers.

Likes and Dislikes

What are some of your character’s preferences…and why? Will these preferences steer their behavior in the story in good ways and bad? (Yes, the answer is yes.)

Hobbies, Interests, and Passions

What does your character enjoy doing? For a character to be realistic, they should have a few personal interests that make life more enjoyable. These may not even tie into the bigger story, but they do humanize your character to readers.

Current Situation

Just like a character has a past, they have a present, too.  Note a few details about where they live, what their family situation is like, what job they do, the vehicle they use to get around, and any routines or habits that might show up in the story. Knowing your character’s life better will give you ideas on how you can poke their soft spots (people and places they are attached to) and choose conflict that will come with personal stakes attached.

What They Want Most

Every character wants something – a goal that will make their situation better and leave them happier or more complete. This is what your character is striving to do or achieve in your story.

This goal should be something tangible or quantifiable, so readers know the character has done what they set out to do.

What They Need

Sometimes what your character wants and what they need are a bit different. Maybe your character wants a new girlfriend to get past the pain of their latest breakup, but what they need is time to love themselves better and understand why they keep choosing toxic partners. Thinking about what makes them feel incomplete and why can set them on the path of a goal that will help them grow and make them feel more complete.

Secrets

Every character has a secret (maybe more than a few!) so think about what they hide from others. Is there something that could create big problems for them if it was revealed, or does it tie into their unresolved emotional wound? (Readers love secrets, and a hint of one will keep them flipping pages.)

Worldview

How do they view the world – do they believe most people are good, or untrustworthy? Do they put others first, or look out for number one? Do they have biases, avoid certain places and experiences because they have preconceived ideas about what will happen, or refuse to listen to certain opinions that go against their own? If so, try to understand how this might tie to their backstory experiences.

Insecurities & Sensitivities

Life is not always gentle, and experiences where your character’s ego was bruised, or their emotions upended may have left them feeling insecure or easily triggered. If there are emotions your character tries to avoid feeling, or situations they stay away from because they make them feel weak, inept, or emotionally volatile, make a note. These are pointing to past pain, and you might wish to use them in the story to push them to become more self-aware so they can start a journey to healing.

This may seem like a lot to know about someone, but think of how easy it will be to write this character’s thoughts, decisions, and actions. And by writing when you down these details, you’ll have a character bible to reference when you need it!

A Tool that Creates a Character Bible for You

It takes time to uncover a character’s inner layers, we know, so we built a tool to help with that: the Character Builder at One Stop for Writers. Using psychology, it asks you the question you need to know about a character and collects the details into a profile that can be saved to your computer or transferred into certain software programs like Scrivener.

The Character Builder makes brainstorming characters faster and easier because it pulls characterization options from a giant database and shows you how choosing one detail about a character (like their job, or a personality trait) can help you brainstorm other details that naturally connect to that first detail. For example, if you decide your character is a teacher, the Character builder will show you a list of positive traits and skills that a teacher will likely have. With a click, you can add these traits or skills to the profile.

One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder will help you plan your character’s backstory, behavior, skills, goals, personality, fears, and everything else you need to know about them.

This profile is easy to update if you want to tweak something about them, and you can even clone the character profile and adapt a second one if you are thinking about this character and how they change in a series, keeping core details in place like their backstory and personality, but changing their goal, motivation, and perhaps an unresolved wound of set of fears that will play a big part in this new book.

Here’s a Character Bible I created so you can get a feel for what all the Character Builder can help you brainstorm. If you’d like to try the tool for yourself, just start a free trial. Happy creating!

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post How to Create a Protagonist with True Depth appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

What are writers chronically short on? Time.

There never seems to be enough of it as we try to get the next book written, research our publishing options, keep up with marketing, work on our platform, etc., and that doesn’t even factor in what’s happening in other areas of our life. And as we juggle, the one thing that can help us succeed more than anything else is often neglected: education to help us improve our storytelling skills.

Introducing Mini-Lessons

You guys know Becca and I have a lot to say about description and how showing the right things in the right way means readers are pulled in and will care deeply about characters and what’s happening in their lives. We’ve written books on many description elements and have even more of these in our THESAURUS database at One Stop for Writers.

This summer, Becca and I have recorded a mini lesson for each of our thesauruses, helping you better understand that story element, what its superpower is in your story, and how to activate that detail through description.

Each video takes you through a thesaurus in the One Stop for Writers database, but you don’t need to be a subscriber to benefit from these lessons or use our thesauruses (although they are very helpful for brainstorming). But if you are someone who uses them, this will broaden your understanding so you get even more value from each brainstorming list.

Bite-sized learning is a perfect match for busy writers

Life can be hectic, making it hard to carve out big blocks of time for learning. With these videos, you need about 5 (ish) minutes. Totally doable! Whether you want to learn how to describe a character’s emotions, activate the power of your scene’s setting, or understand character motivation better so plotting becomes easier, a helpful mini-lesson is waiting for you.

Here’s the playlist, or choose the topic you’d like to know more about below.

Happy writing and learning!

Grow Your Skills with Becca & Angela

How to Describe a Character’s Appearance

How Emotional Trauma Affects Characters & Their Arc

How to Use a Character’s Fears in Storytelling

How to Create a Character Readers Will Love

How to Give a Character Flaws that Will Hold Them Back

How the Right Setting Details Make a Scene More Powerful

How to Create a Memorable Character Using a Talent or Skill

How to Show What Your Character Is Feeling

How to Use Conflict to Power up Your Story

How to Write Your Theme and Use Effective Symbolism in Fiction

How to Use the Weather to Build Mood and Generate Conflict

How to Find the Right Job for a Character

How to Bring Readers Into a Story Using Textures

How to Create Vivid Description Using Colors and Patterns

How Describing an Object’s Shape the Right Way Strengthens the Story

How to Build Strong Characters & Arcs

How to Amplify Your Character’s Emotional State

Need more help as you plan, write, and revise? Join us at One Stop!

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post Improve Your Storytelling in 5 Minutes appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

I’m talking about using archetypes and tropes — characters who play a specific role in a story or who have a blend of characteristics that make them instantly recognizable: the Rebel, the Bully, the Hot Billionaire, the Chosen One…you get the idea. Readers recognize these types of characters and may even expect to find them in certain stories.

So, our job is done, right? Pick an archetype or trope, put some clothes on them and shove them into the story. No, ‘fraid not. Character types and tropes can provide a skeleton, but to avoid a stock character or overdone cliché, they must stand on their own and mesmerize by being unique.

And that’s where this thesaurus comes in.

Characters need layers, full stop, so trope or not, we want to dig for what makes them an individual, give them a soul, and make adaptations that will challenge a reader’s expectations.

What this thesaurus will cover:

A Trope or Type Description and Fictional Examples. Before we can think about how to adapt a trope, we need to know more about who they are. This overview and examples will help you know if this baseline character is right for your story.

Common Strengths and Weaknesses. A character who aligns with a trope or type tends to have certain positive and negative traits, so we list those as a starting point. But don’t be afraid to branch out – personality is a great place to break the mold.

Associated Actions, Behaviors, and Tendencies. Because tropes have a mix of traits, qualities, and a worldview baked in, you’ll need to know how to write their actions, choices, priorities, and certain tendencies…so you can then decide how to break with tradition.

Situations that Will Challenge Them. Every character faces challenges in a story that are extra difficult because of who they are, what they believe, fear, and need. A trope or type character is no different. We’ll cue up ideas to get your brains whizzing on what this can look like in your story.

Twist This Type With a Character Who… is where we give you ideas on how to break expectations, so you deliver someone who has fresh angles, and isn’t a typical stand-in.

Clichés to Avoid is where we alert you to some of the overdone versions of a type or trope so you’re aware of them as you develop your characters and plot your story.

Readers are hardwired to look for patterns and familiarity

Which is why we see tropes used so often, but good storytellers know that in 99% of cases, using one is the starting point only. We want rounded and dynamic characters, not flat ones. So, unless you require a stock character to fill a background role, any character who starts as a trope should be as carefully developed as those who did not. Readers want–and deserve!–fresh characters, so dig into those inner layers and bring forth someone unique.

Join us each Saturday for a new entry, and if there’s a character type or trope you’d like us to cover, add it in the comments here, and we’ll add it to the list of potentials!

Here are all the types and tropes we’ve covered so far.

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post Introducing…The Character Type & Trope Thesaurus! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For this reason, we’re running a series of posts on avoiding stereotypes in fiction. Written by a diverse cast of talented authors, each post highlights a different people group—the common stereotypes to avoid and how to write those characters realistically. We hope this series arms you with the knowledge and tools to write characters you may have been reluctant to write before—ones that will take your story to the next level.

By: Hyacinthe M. Miller

Where to begin a conversation about stereotypes of People of Color (POC)? This is a fraught topic. For clarity, let’s start with a definition for this term:

People of Color: Applying to non-White racial or ethnic groups; generally used as an alternative to the term ‘visible minority.’

Be aware, though, that some members of ethnic and racial groups take issue with being lumped together as POCs rather than being treated as unique. Others, however, embrace Racialized or POC as terms of solidarity and empowerment.

As writers, we have a role to play in ensuring that the worlds we create are representative of the broad spectrum of personalities, identities, traits, cultures and races in our communities. Whether we’re talking protagonists, villains, or supporting characters, let’s keep them entertaining, fully formed and authentic. What do I mean by ‘authentic’? Believable, realistic, genuine individuals. Mind you, that’s a best practice for any character you create, isn’t it?

Let’s talk about some of the common stereotypes that have been used in portrayals of Racialized People.

Angry/Hysterical/Powerless Women

There are numerous examples in print and visual media, where women are portrayed as aggressive, outspoken, shrill, helpless or downright cranky. In real life, we experience a variety of emotions – let your characters show them as well.

Angry Men

These male counterparts careen through life ignoring social norms, raging at ‘the Man’ or unspecified targets, taking personal risks, committing crimes, or abusing those who get in their way. Male and female stereotypes use similar gestures and language to convey a limited range of emotions – the steely-eyed stare, a swaggering insolence, or a know-it-all attitude that invariably lands them in trouble.

Silent Sufferers

The opposite is the submissive, ‘seen but not heard’ person of color of any gender who invariably is struggling against adversity but who is a noble role model because they carry on. Maids, doormen, taxi drivers, teachers, nurses and restaurant workers are common occupations.

Sex Objects

Portraying racialized women as attractive but tough (using their wiles and weaponry to fight injustice) devalues them. A male protagonist like Black private detective John Shaft, described as a ‘sex machine’, harks back to the trope of Black men being randy and predatory.

The Phoenix from the Ashes

Performers, athletes, or professionals are often portrayed as rising up from poverty to fame or as promiscuous, hard-edged rule-breakers. This ignores the reality that most people of color are also soccer moms, bankers, and emergency service providers working hard and living ordinary lives.

Straw Character Caricatures

These cartoonish depictions of gangbangers, career criminals, barbers and hairdressers who always have the last word, the whore with the heart of gold, the struggling single mom, the sharp-tongued taxi driver, the weary, hard-working racialized father or the deadbeat dad, the wise-cracking sidekick, flamboyant roommate, spunky girlfriend, or plucky survivor are stale tropes. The common denominator of each is lack of nuance.

What To Do

Rest assured, it is acceptable to write about racialized characters. Wouldn’t your fictional world be monochromatic and boring if you didn’t? Yes, complexion, ethnicity, physique and hairdo help define an individual, but if you take away those external identifiers and still have a realistic human being, you’ve done your job. Applying your skills to build worlds that include a range of well-crafted characters enriches the final product. We’re unique individuals trying to live our best lives.

What about, ‘write what you know’? Research and learn about the diversity of cultures, religions, and races. Leave assumptions at the curb. Join inclusive organizations. Ask respectful questions. Read the works of authors of color. Dig beyond the obvious to show your character’s true identity.

What Not to Do

Don’t avoid describing someone’s race, but make sure you’re accurate, e.g., a broad nose, small ears and full lips could describe a person of Asian or African heritage. Say, ‘Amir, a young man from Bangalore’, or ‘Tasha, a tall Black woman from Manchester’. Use names that identify their ethnic origin. Keep in mind, though, that with the globalization of relationships, someone called Sue-Lin Mackenzie could be a mixed-race woman of Korean/Scottish descent.

Don’t describe us using food terms. Instead of chocolate, almond or coffee, say, ‘light brown’ or ‘dark brown complexion’. Be aware that the word ‘Brown’ is often used by people of Southeast Asian heritage (Russell Peters).

Don’t focus on externals Iike hair styles, complexion, or physical appearance. As with any other character, include descriptors that are relevant.

Don’t be patronizing.  Unless it’s relevant, describing a Black person or person of color as ‘articulate’ implies there was no expectation that they had mastered the English language.  

Remember…

• Everyone has biases, whether about cars, food, or music.
• Words can wound. They have history and power. Choose carefully.
• Clothing as costume, artifacts and symbols can contribute to a rich, scenic world or they can stigmatize, e.g., tattoos and piercings, head coverings, jewelry, behavior, and speech.
• Competent sensitivity readers serve a role but remember, you are getting a single perspective that may not align with the lived experiences of all your diverse characters.
• Writing multi-dimensional characters requires an open mind, accuracy, and kindness. Diverse cultural perspectives can literally bring color to your writing via family events or celebrations. Whether your characters are funny or sad, strong or weak, forgettable or memorable, your readers will resonate with their authenticity.

Resources

Writing With Color: Posts on Describing People of Color
Ten Tips on Writing Race in Novels
The Do’s of Writing People of Color: Describe Your Characters
Writing Characters of Different Races and Ethnicities

Other posts in this series:

Avoiding Female Character Stereotypes
Avoiding LGBTQ+ Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Religious Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Mental Health Character Stereotypes

Discussion is encouraged, but please keep it courteous. Let’s not call out authors for past mistakes, and let’s do keep an open mind. By listening to and respecting each person’s experiences and perspectives, we can better write the stories and characters readers want to see.

Hyacinthe M. Miller is an award-winning author of short stories, contemporary women’s fiction and non-fiction. She’s been published in Borealis magazine, Herotica 7, Whispered Words, and Allucinor, The Elements of Romance anthologies. Her debut novel, Kenora Reinvented, (Investigations, Mystery and Seasoned Romance) was published in 2019. Current WIPs include The Fifth Man, book two of the Kenora & Jake series, and a literary memoir.

Hyacinthe is Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, a member of Toronto Sisters in Crime and The Writers Union of Canada and is a founding member and Past President of the Writers Community of York Region. Check out Hyacinthe’s blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook page.

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The post Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: People of Color appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For this reason, we’re running a series of posts on avoiding stereotypes in fiction. Written by a diverse cast of talented authors, each post highlights a different people group—the common stereotypes to avoid and how to write those characters realistically. We hope this series arms you with the knowledge and tools to write characters you may have been reluctant to write before—ones that will take your story to the next level.

By: Cheryl Rainfield

Books, movies, and TV shows can shape how we think about folks living with mental health issues. Yet popular media often stereotypes or sensationalizes mental health, which can harm people living with those issues while deepening the stereotypes, stigmatization, and misinformation. It helps to be aware of those stereotypes so you can avoid them in your work and make your characters more complex and realistic.

Here are some common stereotypes to avoid when writing about mental health.

Your Character Lives in a Mental Health Issue Vacuum

Your character likely knows many people living with mental health issues, even if they don’t know it. One in five US adults deal with mental health issues, one in 6 youth have experienced major depression, and one in twenty adults live with severe mental health issues. Because of harmful stereotypes, a lack of understanding, and societal shaming, many folks with mental health issues choose not to talk about them. But mental health issues are common.

Fix: Show your character knowing at least one person they care about with a mental health issue—a friend, parent, co-worker, lover—besides just themselves. If your character starts off with a void in this area, create opportunities for others to open up to them about what they’re dealing with.

Your Character is Violent Because of Mental Health Issues

The media tends to pin violence, murder, even evil on folks living with mental health issues—especially schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and psychosis. But the majority of people with mental health issues are not violent. Only 3%–5% of violent acts are made by people with a serious mental illness, and people with mental health issues are over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population. A study in Sweden found that 19 out of every 20 violent crime convictions in Sweden were committed by someone who did not have a mental illness.

Movies that depict this stereotype: Moon Knight, Split, Identity (DID), Fatal Attraction (BPD), Psycho, Spider (schizophrenia), Psycho, American Psycho, Joker (psychosis).

Violent acts are more likely to be caused by other or combined factors such as alcohol and drug abuse, being male, living in a low socio-economic household, experiencing or witnessing abuse and not working on healing, and social isolation. Major life stressors (such as losing one’s job, going through a divorce, the death of a loved one, etc.) and a lack of support during these events can also play a part.

Fix: Instead of blaming a character’s violence on a mental health issue, dig deeper into their background and current situation. Make sure they have the right combination of factors that could result in them using violence.

Love Cures Mental Health Issues

Romantic love, good parenting, support, and compassion can make dealing with a mental health issue easier, but they can’t cure these issues. The idea that love can fix these issues is dangerous because it may result in a loved one getting angry at or blaming the person living with depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia. They may even blame themselves for not being the cure.

Movies that depict this stereotype: Silver Linings Playbook, Don’t Say A Word. etc.

Fix: A character dealing with a mental health issue who is loved and supported will likely be able to cope better, but they still will live with their symptoms. Pair the love of others with additional proven strategies, such as the character improving their viewpoint about their mental health, incorporating helpful coping strategies, and/or getting support from a therapist.

A Character Being Defined by Their Mental Health Issue

A character whose life revolves around their mental health issue and doesn’t include much else is very one-dimensional. Folks can be incredibly impacted by their symptoms, but they are more than their mental health issue.

Fix: Work to make your character a full character. Consider all the past events that make them who they are and have shaped how they see their world. Show their interests, people and animals they love, viewpoints, work and/or hobbies, and other things that help them get through each day. Figure out what motivates them, what their desires and needs are, and the obstacles that cause them trouble aside from their mental health issues.

Characters with Mental Health Issues Being Crazy or Insane

Referring to or depicting a character with mental health issues as crazy or insane is not only offensive, it also spreads the misinformation that aggression, violence, and/or criminal behavior are linked to mental health issues. The character may have challenging symptoms that affect their mood, thoughts, and behavior, but that doesn’t make them crazy. And someone with mental health issues can still function well and have good mental health.

Fix: Be specific in the words you use to describe your character and their symptoms. Research their mental health issue, giving extra attention to sources who live with it. Show your character living a full life, dealing with their issues but in touch with reality and the world around them.

Characters with Mental Health Issues Are Visually Different

Anyone can be affected by mental health issues and most function well in society. They dress well in public, work at a job or as a parent, have good or good-enough hygiene, and you wouldn’t know by looking at them what issues they’re facing. While some folks with severe depression, PTSD, anxiety, etc. may struggle with hygiene, others can be on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Fix: You shouldn’t be able to tell that most folks have mental health issues just by looking at them. Talk to some people who deal with the mental health issue you’re writing about. Try to show the whole character and a spectrum of behavior and symptoms. If your character does struggle with hygiene, show them using hacks to keep clean.

The best way to avoid stereotypes is to research the mental health issue you’re writing about. Talk to therapists and consult folks who live with those issues. Read first-person accounts, credible articles, the DSM-5, etc. And remember that characters aren’t defined by their mental health, though it can affect their life and viewpoint.

More Resources:

How to Treat Mentally Ill Characters When Writing a Novel by Sonja Yoerg, Writer’s Digest

10 Best Tips For Writing Mental Illness In Fiction, YouTube video by Jenna Moreci and Iona Wayland

Writing About Mental Health In Fiction by Mary Fletcher

Myths and stereotypes about people with mental health issues

Ways Mental Illness Is Commonly Misrepresented in the Media

Other posts in this series:

Avoiding Female Character Stereotypes
Avoiding LGBTQ+ Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Religious Character Stereotypes
Avoiding People of Color Stereotypes

Discussion is encouraged, but please keep it courteous. Let’s not call out authors for past mistakes, and let’s do keep an open mind. By listening to and respecting each person’s experiences and perspectives, we can better write the stories and characters readers want to see.

Award-winning author Cheryl Rainfield (they/she pronouns) writes gripping YA fiction with heart and realism, writing books they wished they had when they were a teen. Hundreds of readers have messaged her about how her novels about queer and abused teens helped them feel less alone. Cheryl draws on their own trauma and healing experience to write; Cheryl’s scarred arm is on the cover of SCARS. They are the author of six books including SCARS, STAINED, and HUNTED. Cheryl Rainfield is an incest and torture survivor, nonbinary lesbian, and an avid reader and writer. Find them on: CherylRainfield.com; TikTok; Twitter; FaceBook fan page and author page; Instagram; YouTube; plus BookBub for book recommendations.

Cheryl Rainfield has been said to write with “great empathy and compassion” (VOYA) and to write stories that “can, perhaps, save a life.” (CM Magazine)  SLJ said of her work: “[readers] will be on the edge of their seats.”

Guest Contributor

Interested in posting at Writers Helping Writers? Review our content guidelines to see what we’re looking for and how to pitch us your ideas.

The post Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Characters with Mental Health Issues appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For this reason, we’re running a series of posts on avoiding stereotypes in fiction. Written by a diverse cast of talented authors, each post highlights a different people group—the common stereotypes to avoid and how to write those characters realistically. We hope this series arms you with the knowledge and tools to write characters you may have been reluctant to write before—ones that will take your story to the next level.

By: Becca Puglisi

One of the ways human beings are incredibly diverse is in their religious practices. There are over 4,000 organized religions across our planet, and each one has individual sects that espouse slightly (or vastly) different ideas. This makes writing religious characters a bit of a challenge.

Part of the difficulty is that religion means different things to different people. Some have a cursory religious affiliation; they embrace it on specific holy days and adopt some aspects of it, but it may not have much bearing on their day-to-day life. Writing these characters is easier because you can cherry-pick the ways in which their beliefs impact their life, and less consistency is needed.

For others, religion goes deeper, right down to the person’s foundation. It defines them, and as such, will dictate their values, morals, priorities, life choices, how they spend their money and their time—virtually every aspect of their lives. These characters will need significantly more research to identify what they believe and how it will affect their path in the story.

Despite the different religions and vast disparity within these groups, I tend to see the same stereotypes constantly being portrayed. It’s frustrating, because I know from personal experience that most stereotypes are often based in reality; many of us have run into people who fit the cliché. But those stereotypes typically represent a small subset of that people group, and when they become the normal way of portraying those people, we do everyone a disservice.

To that end, I’d like to discuss the tired and over-exposed caricatures I’ve seen so we can avoid them and represent religious folks better. Because of the variety of beliefs and ideals even within the “major” religions, I’ve decided to focus this post on stereotypes that touch on many belief systems (while occasionally referencing Christianity specifically, since that’s the one I’m intimately acquainted with).

The Compensating Zealot

This is the devout character whose religious zeal exists because of a secret they’re trying to hide. Their over-the-top religiosity is used to either distract people from their secret or tip the heavenly scales in their favor. This is a frustrating stereotype because spirituality for many believers is heartfelt, not a smokescreen.

Solution:

If you’re looking for the genesis behind your character’s devotion, consider one of the many positive reasons people turn to religion. Maybe their beliefs helped them overcome an addiction or survive a difficult stage of life. Possibly, they experienced a miracle and are passionate now about who they’re worshipping. Or perhaps the tenets of their religion encourage them to love and serve others, so they’re doing it—not out of a need to compensate, but because they believe it’s the right thing to do.

The Rabid Proselytizer

This one doesn’t require too much explanation, and if you’ve lived long enough in Western culture, you’ve probably seen it in action. For Christians, it’s the Bible-thumping, fire-and-brimstone-preaching, bully-you-into-the-arms-of-Jesus evangelist. I’m sure there are varying versions of these characters in other religions whose desire to “save” as many people as possible trumps everything else–including love, respect, and basic courtesy.

This stereotype, like many stereotypes in general, is based in reality. There are people like this. There used to be a lot more. It’s easy to fall back on this cliché because these characters make easy antagonists and scapegoats. But this fringe subset of many religions is just that: the fringe. They’re either the loudest, the most unusual, or the most confrontational, so they get the most attention. But this isn’t the vast majority of religious people.

Solution:

Research your character’s religion to get a feel for the whole range. Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism…every religion has fundamentalists, progressives, and everything in between, and each subset’s beliefs and practices will differ. As is true for most groups, the people on the fringes don’t typically represent the majority. Carefully research the range of beliefs for your character’s religion, then aim for the middle, and you’re more likely to write the character realistically.

The Culturally Irrelevant Weirdo

Another fringe representation, these are the people who are so entrenched in their religion they have a hard time relating to the rest of the world. They don’t drink, dance, or watch TV. Their clothing looks like it belongs to another century. They might live off the grid, homeschool their kids, and only marry within their religion. They’re so far removed from the real world and the people in it that they have a hard time integrating, and no one takes them seriously.

I don’t know enough about other religions in this regard, so I’ll speak for Christians on this one and say that there is a TON of personal leeway in the Christian life. The Bible doesn’t mention R-rated movies, secular music, slot machines, or martinis, so it’s up to each individual to determine which activities they can partake of while still honoring God. This means that while some Christians won’t participate in some culturally acceptable practices, others will. And even when they do refrain from (or adopt) certain practices, that doesn’t usually make them irrelevant and unrelatable.

The majority of Christians (and other religious people I know) are different in some ways than their non-religious counterparts, but they’re the same in other ways. Drawing them as irrelevant, kooky, or visibly off-kilter just doesn’t reflect most of them in reality.

Solution:

Get to know people who are part of the religion you’re writing. As you build a relationship with them, ask yourself this question: how are they different? You might find some ways (you believe what?), but chances are, you’ll share a lot of the same interests, character traits, worries and fears, desires, and goals. They believe different things than you and live their lives a little bit differently, but for the most part, they’re people you can talk to, laugh with, and walk through life with. Keep this in mind and fashion your characters after real-life religious people.

An Exception: Some cults and fringe religious movements purposely strive to keep their people insulated and separated from the real world. If you’re writing a character in one of these groups, some of the stereotypes here will be correct.

Judgey McJudgerson

Lordy, lordy. This one.

Most religions espouse some beliefs that are counter-cultural. In fiction, this translates somehow to a religious character pushing those ideas onto everyone else. The truth is, most religious people have certain dos and don’ts that are part of their life practices that they follow as a way of honoring God and others. It’s personal, so they don’t typically judge people outside of their religion for not adopting those tenets—much like military personnel don’t expect civilians to salute, and someone on a diet doesn’t expect others to eat like they do. It’s simply the way that person is choosing to live their life.

Solution:

Figure out what your character believes and how it will impact their life, and let them embrace those ideals without expecting everyone else to do the same. They shouldn’t force their choices onto others or try to guilt people into living the way they do. If someone asks why they do or believe certain things, the character should be able to engage in a respectful conversation without judging or minimizing the other person.

In Conclusion…

The answer to avoiding stereotypes with religious characters is fairly straightforward:

1. Talk to real people who share your character’s beliefs. If you don’t know any, put out a call on social media to see if any are willing to talk to you. Find a local place of worship and call them up. Most of them will be happy to answer your questions about their beliefs and clear the air. Then you’ll be armed with facts about your character’s religion rather than just hearsay or what you’ve seen in other fictional accounts.
2. Make your religious character well-rounded. Give them a variety of positive attributes and flaws. They’re going to be religious, yes, but they’re going to have other hobbies, talents, and areas of interests that are unrelated. Don’t neglect those other personality aspects, and you’ll save them from slipping into caricatures.
3. Know their backstory. Were they always religious? When did it start? What got them into it? Why this religion and not another one? Knowing their history and their reasons in this area will give you a better understanding of who they are at their core. It will also guide you in how big a part of their lives the religion will play.

Other posts in this series:

Avoiding Female Character Stereotypes
Avoiding LGBTQ+ Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Mental Health Character Stereotypes
Avoiding People of Color Stereotypes

Discussion is encouraged, but please keep it courteous. Let’s not call out authors for past mistakes, and let’s do keep an open mind. By listening to and respecting each person’s experiences and perspectives, we can better write the stories and characters readers want to see.

BECCA PUGLISI

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Religious Characters appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For this reason, we’re running a series of posts on avoiding stereotypes in fiction. Written by a diverse cast of talented authors, each post highlights a different people group—the common stereotypes to avoid and how to write those characters realistically. We hope this series arms you with the knowledge and tools to write characters you may have been reluctant to write before—ones that will take your story to the next level.

By: Drew Hubbard

When it comes to LGBTQ+ characters, some people believe that there’s “too many of them.”

According to a report done by GLAAD on scripted broadcast primetime (American) programming in the 2021-2022 season, 11.9% of characters identified as LGBTQ+. Factoring in TV shows (and movies) from across the world, I’d bet money on that % dropping considerably.

Despite the LGBTQ+ community being extremely diverse in many ways (race, ethnicity, age, ability, neurodiversity, gender identity, etc), we still see the same characters and the same stereotypes over and over again. We’d love to change that. So, to give you somewhere to start (and not overwhelm you), here are the 9 WOOOOORST LGBTQ+ stereotypes and how to avoid them.

Stereotype #1: THE PREDATORY (OLDER) LESBIAN

Problem: She’s a lesbian cougar. She has her sights on a younger woman who’s nearly always “straight” and ready to be turned. She’s very controlling, often written to pamper to the male gaze, and thus behaves like a straight man. It’s basically yuk on so many levels.

Solution: Allow older lesbian characters to be in happy, secure relationships. Perhaps she has been in one for years/decades. She could also be single and happy. Or, rather than being predatory, let her be looking to find a woman she can connect with, not dominate.

Stereotype #2: THE PROMISCIOUS GAY

Problem: All this chap is interested in is sex. A relationship sounds too hetero for him. It’s a dated stereotype from a time when being gay was kept secret. You rarely see two men being romantic together, sharing a life together, being monogamous together.

Solution: Gay (or bi/pan/queer) men can and do hold down long-lasting relationships. Yes, this stereotype does have a lot of truth (no slut-shaming here), however, it’s important to show younger people that being gay doesn’t mean you cannot find love and connection.

Stereotype #3: THE DUPLICITOUS BISEXUAL

Problem: Bisexuals are attracted to multiple genders, so of course they’re going to be cheaters, what with temptation everywhere. Vom! Pinning them down to one partner looks like they’re choosing a side, so they must assert their bisexuality card, otherwise it will be revoked.

Solution: Bisexual people can be in happy, stable, monogamous relationships. And—spoiler alert—they are still bisexual. You could literally make any character bi, doesn’t matter if they’re in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship. Plus, you can show a character being attracted to multiple genders without reverting to this cheating stereotype.

Stereotype #4: THE BODY-HATING TRANS PERSON

Problem: It’s all sadness, all the time for this poor transgender person. Not wanting to identify as their birth gender can only mean they hate their body immensely. All they can think about is removing parts of their body, there’s literally no time for anything else.

Solution: While some trans people do have gender-affirming surgery, many don’t and are still happy with their body. Still, why have a trans character going through a transition at all? Maybe they’ve already done that. Let their plot point be based on the story, not their trans-ness.

Stereotype #5: THE QUEER ONE AND ONLY

Problem: These characters are often quite easy to identify as being written by a cishet writer because they exist alone. They’re the one and only queer amongst all the straights and don’t have any queer community outside of that cishet friendship group because why would they need other queers in their life?

Solution: Queer people find their LGBTQ+ family in real life, so why not have more than one queer? (Hello, bisexuals!) If you don’t want to write multiple queers, then at least have your queer character talk about their queer friends/family/community so the audience knows they don’t exist in a heterosexual vacuum. Some LGBTQ+ people might be surrounded by cishet people at work, but it’s not unusual for LGBTQ+ people to NOT have a single cishet person within their friendship circle. We find people to support and lift us up. Let your characters have that luxury too.

Stereotype #6: THE BROKEN ASEXUAL

Problem: There’s hardly ever any nuance to asexual characters. Despite asexuality being a spectrum, they’re usually shown as broken humans who have had asexuality forced upon them because of trauma or a medical condition.

Solution: Your ace characters can still have sex—that is not unrealistic. But also they can be confident and happy with their aceness. It doesn’t need to affect their every waking moment; it’s just one thing they don’t want/need, and these characters don’t always need to be thinking/talking about how much they don’t want sex. Simple.

Stereotype #7: THE EMOTIONLESS AROMANTIC

Problem: Even though being Aromantic means not feeling any (or much) romantic attraction, these characters are portrayed as being so unfeeling that they can’t even stand having friends. They’re often literally written as aliens or robots. How rude!

Solution: Being aromantic simply means having no or little romantic attraction. It doesn’t mean they have zero feelings/emotions at all. Rather than showing an aromantic as feeling like they’re missing out on romance/love, you can show them as being happy and comfortable with their identity.

(It’s worth pointing out that although some people identify as both Asexual and Aromantic, many people identify as just one of those and NOT the other.)

Stereotype #8: THE ANDROGYNOUS NONBINARY PERSON

Problem: Being nonbinary means different things to different people, but of course enby characters are often shown as dead-centre between traditionally masculine and feminine. No nuance. No fluidity. Just an androgynous display at all times, from clothes to appearance.

Solution: Nonbinary people don’t need to show they are enby in their clothes and looks (I mean, what is the “norm” of any particular gender anyway?). They may also change it up depending on how they feel on a certain day, so rather than an enby person using just they/them pronouns, they might mix it up with other pronouns, too. There’s literally nothing stopping you making any character nonbinary. There’s no ‘one way’ to portray one’s nonbinaryness.

Stereotype #9: THE OVERSEXED PANSEXUAL

Problem: Pansexuals are attracted to the person, regardless of gender or gender identity, so obviously they are attracted to every single living human being and thus are always looking for the next hookup. Plus, there has to be that one joke about being attracted to pans. YAWN!

Solution: Pansexual people are all about their openness to be attracted to the person, so why not concentrate on that? Focus on the love a pansexual character has to give rather than focusing on their libido, which is very boring and quite insulting.

RESOURCES

As with writing any character that is unlike yourself, your best resource is talking to that community. You can reach out to LGBTQ+ people on social media to ask for their advice. And there are many online resources you can consult. Here are some good places to start.

• Bang2write! has many articles on writing diverse characters. Lucy V. Hay has even written an entire book on the topic.
• My newsletter, Pride Reads, has monthly tips, advice, and surveys from members of the LGBTQ+ community discussing what they do and don’t want when it comes to representation.
• You could also seek out a sensitivity reader. Different from a beta reader, sensitivity readers will concentrate on the potentially problematic aspects of the story, advise you on what could be an issue, and suggest how you could bring more authenticity to the characters.

Other posts in this series:

Avoiding Female Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Religious Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Mental Health Character Stereotypes
Avoiding People of Color Stereotypes

Discussion is encouraged, but please keep it courteous. Let’s not call out authors for past mistakes, and let’s do keep an open mind. By listening to and respecting each person’s experiences and perspectives, we can better write the stories and characters readers want to see.

Drew Hubbard is a screenwriter and soon-to-be-novelist who runs ‘Pride Reads’ –  a monthly LGBTQ+ writing newsletter for all writers who want to create better LGBTQ+ characters and stories.

He also offers a script feedback service and sensitivity reads. Find him on Twitter or Instagram.

Guest Contributor

Interested in posting at Writers Helping Writers? Review our content guidelines to see what we’re looking for and how to pitch us your ideas.

The post Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: LGBTQ+ Characters appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For this reason, we’re running a series of posts on avoiding stereotypes in fiction. Written by a diverse cast of talented authors, each post highlights a different people group—the common stereotypes to avoid and how to write those characters realistically. We hope this series arms you with the knowledge and tools to write characters you may have been reluctant to write before—ones that will take your story to the next level.

A stereotype is a simplification. Whilst writers CAN use stereotypes on purpose for effect, too often writers use them by accident. This makes characters feel flat and two-dimensional and can mean our target readers switch off.

There are lots of lists of female stereotypes online, but I always think it’s more illuminating to understand what elements CREATE those stereotypes. With this in mind then, here’s the top 10 No-Nos when writing female characters so we can avoid stereotypes altogether:

1) Stop Using the Word of Doom

First things first … we need to do away with the word of DOOM! That’s right, stop describing your female characters as some variant on ‘beautiful’. (Or even worse, ‘pretty but doesn’t know it’ – BLEURGH).

‘WTF!’ you say: ‘Isn’t ‘beautiful’ a compliment???’

Sure, but it’s overused in novels and short stories. It also lends to the idea women are most prized for their appearance. Whilst male characters may be described as handsome (especially in romance or erotica), it’s rarely at the expense of every other facet of their lives.

2) Don’t Objectify Female Characters

There’s a reason the internet says male writers write TERRIBLE female characters. This isn’t because male writers literally can’t write them (in fact, some of my own favorite female characters are written by men) … It’s because too many are overtly creepy about female characters’ bodies.

Even worse, many of these objectified female characters are in award-winning novels or by celebrated male writers! No, women don’t check themselves out in the mirror, feel themselves up, or walk seductively every minute of the day.

By the way: it’s perfectly possible for female characters to be sexy without only being a sex object. Consider a character like Gloria in the iconic sitcom Modern Family. Gloria’s sexy, yet she’s so much more than this.

She is a fantastic mother, plus a loyal sister-in-law and aunt. She is also clever and pragmatic, clawing her way out of poverty before she met Jay. She’s also got a hella dark back story, with LOADS of knowledge about the world and various professions: she’s been a real estate agent, hairdresser, mover, philosophy professor, businesswoman and (possibly) worked for a cartel. More like Gloria, please!

3) Stop Fixating on Clothes

If used well, clothing choices CAN be a good way of indicating a female characters’ personality, mood or class. Too often however writers use clothes to remind us of a female character’s sex appeal (see point # 2 on this list!).

Alternatively, writers may rely on what I call the ‘laundry list introduction’. This is when a writer uses clothing as a constant stand-in for personality. Tell me: what does white jeans and a black tee shirt tell us about a female character’s personality, really? Honestly: not much.

Whilst some looks may indicate temperament (Goth and hippy are stand-outs here), it’s much more interesting if they’re the opposite of what you expect … ie. a super-happy Goth, or an uptight hippy!

4) Don’t Define Her by the Men in Her Life …

Fathers, husbands, sons, male employers … we frequently see a female character defined by the men in her life in stories. They exist solely to orbit that male character and facilitate their emotions, becoming mere sounding boards. YAWN!

The best female characters are nuanced and three dimensional. They may have fathers, husbands, sons and male employers but are not defined by them.

Consider a character like Amy Dunne in Gone Girl. She is not some classic little wifey. Amy fakes her own death as part of an epic power play and puts her unfaithful husband Nick on the hook for it. The message is clear: you do me down? I will pay you back tenfold.

If you want a wife or girlfriend who ISN’T evil like Amy Dunne, consider Bianca from the movie Creed. Like Adrienne before her in the Rocky franchise, Bianca supports Adonis in the ring. But like Adrienne, Bianca is so much more. She is a musician who is losing her hearing. The way she deals with her own adversity inspires Adonis to push on through with his own.

5) … But Don’t Have Her Fly Solo Just for the Sake of It, Either

Sometimes writers want female characters to stand alone. This works well when a female character is literally alone, such as Ryan Stone in the movie Gravity. She must deal with the adversity of being lost in space, relying only on her wits to get her home. (Even fellow astronaut Matt’s help literally comes from her own psyche, as we discover from that controversial and unexpected dream sequence).

However, too often writers want female characters to stand alone because apparently having a boyfriend or husband ‘weakens’ her. This point of view is understandable if we consider how many female characters have been side-lined in the wife or girlfriend (WAG) role historically … but the WAG role itself is NOT automatically sexist, as outlined in point # 4 on this list.

Consider a ground-breaking and enduring female character like Katniss Everdeen. As well as change the world over the course of The Hunger Games franchise of books and movies, she must make a choice between Peeta and Gale.

Love triangles are often part of Young Adult stories because they are powerful reminders to teenage fans that every choice we make is at the expense of something else. What’s more, in The Hunger Games Katniss eventually chooses Peeta not only because of their shared ordeal in the arena, but because Gale is arguably responsible for Katniss’ sister Primrose’s death … the reason Katniss went in the arena in the first place.

Far from ‘weakening’ Katniss then, the love triangle between her, Peeta and Gale gives the story an added dimension. It also creates a sense of delicious dramatic irony.

6) Stop Giving Female Characters a Traumatic Past **as Standard**

Drama is conflict. This means characters of any gender may have a backstory that equips them to deal with what’s going on in the ‘present time’ of the story (whatever that means).

However, it’s very striking how many female characters have traumatic pasts … It’s almost like writers don’t believe they can become powerful without first being ‘reduced’ somehow first. Ack.

As a result, we have been overrun by female characters who have been raped, abused or neglected in some way before the story even begins.

Whilst all of those things can be powerful motivators for the right story, too often these backstories are just ‘tick box’ exercises. As the animation Wreck It Ralph jokes about the powerful female lead Sergeant Calhoun:

• RALPH: Jeez, she’s kinda intense, huh?
• SOLDIER: It’s not her fault. She’s programmed with the most tragic backstory EVER!

By the way, that movie was satirising this about female characters a DECADE ago. Time for a change.

7) Don’t Make Her a ‘Kick-Ass Hottie’

The Kick-Ass Hottie is a character like her name suggests … she will take ANYONE on and win (often whilst scantily-clad, or even in her underwear). This character’s roots can be traced all the way back to Ellen Ripley in Alien. She takes on an acid-dripping Xenomorph in her scanties AND wins!

Now, I enjoy The Kick-Ass Hottie. She’s a fun fantasy character who frequently turns up in action movies, plus some Horror and Thriller novels. Audiences and readers love her, so she’s not going away anytime soon.

The problem is not that she exists, but when kicking ass is the ONLY thing she does. Think back to Ripley here. She is an iconic, memorable heroine who is so much more than a simple kick-ass hottie.

So by all means have a sexy heroine who kicks ass in your stories (as per point # 2 on this list). Just make sure you round her out and ensure it’s not the ONLY thing she does.

8) Stop ‘Fridging’ Female Characters

Short for ‘women in refrigerators’, this trope was named by comics writer Gail Simone. ‘Fridging’ is an unholy mix of points #2 and #4 on this list. Basically, a sexy WAG character is raped and/or murdered just so a male hero can go on the rampage to avenge their wife or girlfriend.

This trope is SO prevalent that even full-on superheroes like Batman and Spiderman seemingly can’t save the women in their lives! Yikes.

By the way: ‘fridging’ is not to be confused with the so-called ‘Sexy Lamp’ test. This refers to the idea that female characters should actually DO something in your plot … but if you can take them out and replace them with a sexy lamp? Then they are not doing ENOUGH in your story.

9) Stop Thinking Female Characters Only Talk About Men

NEWSFLASH: female friendships do not revolve around men. Sure, we may talk about our boyfriends and husbands, but not at the expense of everything else.

Consider a teen classic movie like Mean Girls. While the ‘plastics’ do indeed talk about getting it on with various boys, they talk WAY more about things such as the politics of high school demands.

So even in genres where we may expect romance, we don’t have to make it ALL about that.

10) Lastly: You Don’t Have to Make Her Positive!

Sometimes feminist critique says it’s ‘misogynistic’ to write female characters who are evil or have dodgy motives. I can’t stress enough how this is UTTER BALDERDASH. Seriously!

Literally no one worries about ‘misrepresenting’ male characters generally – especially white, straight, able-bodied male characters. This is because the internet doesn’t bother itself creating fake-ass ‘rules’ about how male characters ‘should’ be represented.

If we want to ensure female characters receive the same leeway? Then we need to let there be a free-for-all instead of consistently boxing female characters in. Sure, some of the female characters will be TERRIBLE … but many of them are anyway! We have literally nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Free eBook to Download

Want more info on this topic? Download my free eBook from Amazon, How NOT To Write Female Characters. Enjoy! 

Other posts in this series:

Avoiding LGBTQ+ Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Religious Character Stereotypes
Avoiding Mental Health Character Stereotypes
Avoiding People of Color Stereotypes

Discussion is encouraged, but please keep it courteous. Let’s not call out authors for past mistakes, and let’s do keep an open mind. By listening to and respecting each person’s experiences and perspectives, we can better write the stories and characters readers want to see.

LUCY V. HAY - Resident Writing Coach

Lucy V. Hay is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. She’s been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for 20 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. She’s also an author, publishing as both LV Hay and Lizzie Fry.  Lizzie’s latest, a serial killer thriller titled The Good Mother is out now with Joffe Books, with her sixth thriller out in 2024. Lucy’s site at www.bang2write.com has appeared in Top 100 round-ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life, as well as a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK (ninth in the world.). She is also the author of the bestselling non-fiction book, Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays: From TV Pilot To Feature Film (Creative Essentials), which she updated for the streaming age for its tenth anniversary in 2023.

The post Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Female Characters appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

How characters look is a much-discussed element of writing craft. So, just how much do we need to describe our character’s appearance?

Obviously individual writers’ mileage may vary on this question. Some authors may spend a lot of time on character appearance. Others may do it more intuitively, or leave it almost entirely up to the reader’s imagination.

Coming from a screenwriting background, character appearance is a hot topic with my ‘Bang2writers’ because of casting. The ‘right’ actor for a character may refer to personality, but also appearance. For example, a LOT of people felt Tom Cruise was entirely the wrong choice for Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character!

With this background in mind then, I am going to offer up my top tips on character appearance in your novel. Ready? Let’s go …

1. Beware of ‘Laundry List’ Character Introductions

Character introductions are super-important. The first time we ‘see’ them, we should get a feel for WHO they are via WHAT they are doing.

In screenwriting, we say ‘characters are what they DO’ … but too often, writers introduce their characters just by what they’re wearing. I call this the ‘laundry list’ character introduction. Yet all of us know ‘clothes DON’T make the wo/man’!

Sometimes it won’t be clothes. Instead it may also be the way they wear their hair, how they do their make up or whether they have certain physical attributes. (For example, whether the character has big breasts … Yes, you’ve guessed it, female characters fare worst in this).

Yes, what we choose to wear CAN reflect our attitudes (especially strong looks like punk or hippy). But the fact is too many writers use this as a lazy shortcut **on its own**.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Avoid the ‘laundry list’ introduction. If you want to use clothes go ahead … just don’t rely on them to define the character.

2. Avoid non-stop moving body parts!

So if characters are what they DO, then we should rely on action when thinking about appearance. This Physical Feature Descriptive Database at One Stop for Writers offers some good hints for describing things like a characters’ lips and what they may do to signify different emotions.

However, we’re not out of the woods yet!

Whilst characters physically moving *can* be a good indicator of what they’re going through, we don’t want to rely on it too much either.

When it comes to novel writing, the psychological aspect is very important. If we reduce every character to what they’re physically doing all the time, it can adversely affect the read. Instead of an emotional connection, the reader becomes a voyeur.

This is most obvious when authors write constant actions pertaining to the body, such as …

• Eyebrows rising
• Hands on / off hips
• Nodding / shaking of head
• Smiling / grimacing
• Licking of lips
• Hands in the air or similar gestures

In other words, constant moving body parts become a ‘filler’ or worse, a stand in for actual characterization. No thanks!

KEY TAKEAWAY: Avoid your characters’ movements becoming ‘filler’ by taking the emphasis off their ‘smaller’ actions. Use them in moderation instead.

3. Beware the WORD OF DOOM

There’s one word I see too often when I read female character introductions. Guess what it is …

… BEAUTIFUL!

I call this the ‘word of doom’. (BTW, we may also see other variants of this word too, ranging from ‘pretty’ to ‘sexy’, so nice try but no cigar!).

I’m not alone, either. Check out what this A List actor has to say on the matter.

In fact, the word of doom pops up in the screenwriting world so often there are whole websites devoted to terrible casting calls, such as Miss L’s brilliant but scathing Casting Call Woe over on Tumblr. Here’s another called @femscriptintros.

Authors are not off the hook either. In recent years more and more readers have been calling out novelists for objectifying female characters like this.

Confused?? After all, ‘beautiful’ is a compliment, right?

Well, think on it this way. Female characters are often described by HOW THEY LOOK *over* WHAT THEY DO.

Yet if characters are supposed to be what they do, their behaviour is supposed to be what drives them, not how good-looking their appearance is.

Remember, a male lead might often be good-looking too, but they’re still more likely to be introduced by their character traits, than how they look. Gnash!

KEY TAKEAWAY: Avoid falling back on the ‘word of doom’ when introducing female characters. Instead of focusing on their appearance, think about their internal character traits and behaviour. Personality before gender (this works for all characters, by the way).

Good Luck!

LUCY V. HAY - Resident Writing Coach

Lucy V. Hay is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. She’s been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for 20 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. She’s also an author, publishing as both LV Hay and Lizzie Fry.  Lizzie’s latest, a serial killer thriller titled The Good Mother is out now with Joffe Books, with her sixth thriller out in 2024. Lucy’s site at www.bang2write.com has appeared in Top 100 round-ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life, as well as a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK (ninth in the world.). She is also the author of the bestselling non-fiction book, Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays: From TV Pilot To Feature Film (Creative Essentials), which she updated for the streaming age for its tenth anniversary in 2023.

The post How Much Do I Need To Describe My Character’s Appearance? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, and professional speaker. She writes educational nonfiction books for writers and fantasy books for both Young Adult and adult audiences. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her wife and son.

Take it away, Sacha…

Everybody loves their heroes, some people even love their villains. But it’s a rare author that actively loves and spends equal time on their side characters. Sure, some of them are fun to write, but they’re not who the story is about, which is why so many of them are simply slapped on and ill-thought out. Today, I’m going to help you combat that by giving you three mistakes to avoid when creating your side characters. 

Mistake 1 — Weighing Side Characters Incorrectly

Not all side characters are created equal. While some craft teachers talk about archetypes, I prefer to look at side characters in terms of their effect and influence on the story. 

Here are the three main types of side characters:

• Cameos are brief and fleeting, usually nameless or with a generic label “guard, receptionist, girl with the teddy”. They leave no mark on the story and are forgettable. Think the woman in the red dress in the Matrix, or Marvel comic writer Stan Lee’s appearances in the Marvel films.
• Minor characters are still fleeting, they still don’t leave much of a mark on the story save for transactional exchanges like a barman or a shop owner. Think Mr. Filch in Harry Potter.
• Major characters are usually scarce, only a handful of them in most stories. They have their own subplots and character arcs, they should represent the book’s theme too. Think Ron and Hermione in Harry Potter.

Too often, writers try to give minor characters character arcs, or they don’t give enough attention to a character that’s supposed to have an arc or subplot. Understanding the different types of side characters should enable you to give the right amount of page time and depth to each character.

Mistake 2 — Thinking You Need Comprehensive Character Arcs

Character arcs are easy for protagonists, you get the entire book to explore it. But side characters don’t get as much page time as protagonists. So how do you show the depth of arc you need without the side character taking over?

Well, you can’t. At least, not exactly anyway.

What you can do is create the illusion of an arc.

You’ll need to show the “what” of what they want (and the fact they don’t have it) at the start of the story. For example, early on in the Harry Potter series, we see Hermione wanting to be academically brilliant and pass all her exams. After that, you need to show a struggle to achieve the goal somewhere in the middle of your story. And, if we’re talking Harry Potter, then Hermione gets her own subplot devoted to this where she uses the Time-Turner to take more lessons than is scientifically possible. Near the end of your book, you’ll have to show the resolution i.e., Hermione passes all her exams and does well, or by the end of the series she realizes it’s not really as important as she once thought.

The beauty of a side character arc is that you can flex it up and down. Want to show a little more depth? Add another scene or two with the character grappling to change. Need to cut down your word count? Then reduce the number of scenes focusing on side character arcs.

The trick to making a side character arc work well is to connect it to the protagonist and, if possible, the theme. In Hermione’s case, her academic brilliance both impedes her friendships with Ron and Harry but also helps them at various points when she has useful bits of information about spells or wizardry.

Mistake 3 — Not Having a Reason for Existing Outside the Protagonist

To create more depth in your side characters and to make them seem realistic, use the three “whys” method.

Each side character should have:

·       A protagonist why

·       A life why

·       A scene why

The Protagonist Why

Even though you want your side characters to look like they’re full and comprehensive, ultimately, in story terms, they exist to either help or hinder your protagonist. That’s their “protagonist why”. Are they in the story to make the protagonist stop and think? To help them reflect? To protect them? Teach them? Or perhaps put obstacles and barriers in their way? You need to know what their “protagonist why” is.

The Life Why

Protagonist aside, to help create the illusion of depth, your major side characters should have something they want outside the protagonist. Do they need to come out to their family? Are they trying to get a big important job? Maybe they want to win an award. Whatever their own “life why,” if you can make it serve the story by reflecting the theme or perhaps allowing the side character’s goal to interfere with the protagonist’s all the better. For example, in the above Harry Potter example, Hermione’s “life why” is to do well academically. It interferes with her friendships in both positive and negative ways. 

Scene Why

Have you ever read a scene where half a dozen characters enter, two or three of them have a conversation, and then all six leave again? I can’t tell you the number of manuscripts I’ve read where that happens. When you have a group of characters in a scene, each character must do one or all of the following:

• Do something
• Say something
• Bring information 
• Cause a problem
• Or fix a problem

I’m sure there are other things a character could do in a scene, but the point is, they must be doing something. If they’re not engaged in dialogue, tension creation, tension easing, or action of some kind, then they’re surplus to requirements and need to be removed. Too many instances of “surplus to requirements” and you have to question whether you need the character at all.  

If you can avoid these three mistakes you will craft stronger characters. Knowing the importance of a cameo versus a major character will help you manage your cast more effectively, focusing on those characters that need the attention for the sake of your story. Remember, with side characters, it’s only the illusion of an arc you’re creating, not a comprehensive one like a protagonist. Last, try to ensure each major side character has three “whys”. Do those things and you’ll avoid the most commonly occurring mistakes with side characters and build better stories.

If you enjoyed these tips, then you can find out more about building better side characters in Sacha Black’s latest craft book for writers: 8 Steps to Side Characters: How to Craft Supporting Roles with Intention, Purpose and Power.

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It’s no secret that side characters can be amazing in their own right. Great side characters feel like real people–even if the focus isn’t on them. They have lives that exist beyond the scope of the protagonist. When they seem to exist only to help or exacerbate the protagonist, they lack authenticity.

With that said, untamed side characters can water down a strong story, or worse, steal the story. While we don’t want our characters to be exact copies of each other (unless, of course, you’re writing a story about characters being exact copies), it can be helpful to examine the main character and his or her journey to bring balance, depth, and meaning to your cast. After all, side characters are also called supporting characters, which means they are meant to support the protagonist’s journey, not take away from it. 

In her book, Story Genius, Lisa Cron explains that while we need to develop secondary characters that have their own driving agendas, realizations, and often, own arcs, we also need to create them with this purpose in mind: “to help facilitate the protagonist’s story.”

She writes, “This means that although each one of them could stand alone as a full-fledged human being . . . you’ll create them and their beliefs so they will naturally facilitate your protagonist’s story.”

Consider what role the character plays in the protagonist’s journey, and develop the character with that in mind. What kind of qualities and attitudes are going to challenge your protagonist? What does your protagonist need to learn from this person? Who would uncover a new side of your protagonist? It’s possible to fully brainstorm a side character who actually doesn’t interact well with your protagonist. But when you consider these questions and similar ones, you’re more likely to create a side character who offers meaningful exchanges. 

(Explore different types of character relationships here.)

If the character is an ally, some writers feel compelled to make him or her too similar to the protagonist. In reality, it’s often more interesting if the ally contrasts the protagonist. In Pixar’s Soul, the protagonist, Joe Gardner, has a thirst for life (jazz, specifically), but he is allied with 22, who has no desire to even be born. This contrast brings each character into sharper focus, balances out the story, and provides more opportunities for meaningful discussions. 

Likewise, if the character is an opponent, it’s often more effective to emphasize a likeness between that character and the protagonist. In Soul, Terry functions as the antagonist, trying to bring Joe to the Great Beyond. Like Joe, Terry is so obsessed with fulfilling his purpose (to count the dead), that he’s blind to the inspiring things happening around him: Joe helping 22 finally find her spark. Like Joe, Terry is also aspiring to a moment of recognition–he wants the Jerries to recognize him with an award for him doing his job. 

It may be helpful to consider much of the side characters as foils and mirrors of the protagonist and his situation. We can see how this balances out in Soul. Joe’s mom foils him by pressuring him to take a practical job. On the other hand, Dorothea Williams reflects what Joe wants to become. Dez foils Joe by letting go of his veterinarian dreams and becoming a barber. Connie reflects his passion for music. Paul foils by being someone who never went after his dreams. . . .

In a sense, each of these characters represents a different moment of or outcome to the journey Joe is on. In his book, The Structure of Story, Ross Hartmann refers to these characters as clones (a term that comes from award-winning screenwriter Brian McDonald). Hartmann writes, “a clone character . . . is a way for us to show what could, should, or might happen to a character if they take a particular path. . . . [We can] use a clone character to convey information about where the character is headed or might be headed either philosophically, emotionally, or physically.” 

The supporting cast is also more balanced when it contains different types of arcs, which tap into the protagonist’s journey. A character may change positively or negatively, or hold steadfast (remaining more or less the same) positively or negatively. In the film, Marley & Me, the protagonist, John, changes positively as he learns to embrace the adventures of domestic life. Marley, who already embraces the adventures of domestic life, remains the same, positively, throughout the film. John’s friend Sebastian dismisses domestic life to go on career-driven adventures instead, remaining the same negatively. Had the filmmakers wanted to, they could have added a fourth character who leaves the adventures of domestic life to fully focus on her career, which would have been a negative change character (within the context of the story). 

Because the protagonist’s journey also plays into a story’s theme, balancing out your cast with your protagonist in mind, can help keep your side characters thematically relevant. For more on that topic, I suggest reading “Use Theme to Determine Subplots, Supporting Characters, and Tension.” 

In any case, creating your supporting characters with your protagonist in mind, will likely lead to a more meaningful, balanced cast, and story.

SEPTEMBER C FAWKES - Resident Writing Coach

September C. Fawkes is a freelance editor, writing instructor, and award-winning writing tip blogger. She has edited for award-winning and best-selling authors as well as beginning writers. Her blog won the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers Award, Query Letter’s Top Writing Blog Award and has over 500 writing tips. She offers a live online writing course, “The Triarchy Method,” where she personally guides 10 students through developing their best books by focusing on the “bones” of story.

To learn more, visit SeptemberCFawkes.com and grab her AMAZING free guide on Crafting Powerful Protagonists. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with September below.

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