Characters Types

Characters Types

Protagonist: 

The Protagonist is the main character of your story. They are the most mentioned, the one who drives the plot, the one the readers will be paying most of their attention to. Generally, there is only one, but there can be more than one protagonist in a story. 

Antagonist:  

The Antagonist is the character that goes against the Protagonist. An Antagonist doesn’t have to be a person, necessarily. It can be a group of people, society, nature, et cetera. They don’t even have to be evil, they just need to go against the Protagonist’s motives.  

Villain:

Both the Villain and the Antagonist are opponents of the Protagonist. Though, the main difference is the Villain has bad intentions. They are evil.

Dynamic Character:

A Dynamic Character is the person who undergoes a change throughout the story, whether it be good or bad. The character’s motives or morals are different than they were in the beginning. The change is normally permanent.

Flat or Static Character:

A Flat or Static Character is the opposite of a Dynamic Character, hardly experiencing any changes throughout the story, if at all. Generally, the reader doesn’t know much about this character. 

If you have any questions regarding character types, or feel as though I’ve missed something, feel free to let me know!

It appears I am afraid of my success, the supposed inevitability of it. A piece of me finds comfort in the version of myself that settles into practicality. Why must I grow to achieve?

- @annetries-towrite

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Character Traits

An interesting trick I learned from scrolling through my Instagram feed (instead of writing) is to focus on the extremes of your character - the two ends on a character’s personality spectrum.

Take a perfectionist, for example. This person strives to be perfect all of the time, therefore, they work extremely hard. However, this person is so obsessed with being perfect that they can come off as condescending or controlling.

A character’s personality traits also depend heavily on the viewpoint at which you’re looking. Take an abusive parent. When the parent is at work, all of their co-workers may see them as a caring, respectful, and friendly person. To their child, they’re seen as uncivilized and a monster.

I’m not saying you have to use the “extremes” concept on every character. In fact, assigning only negative traits helps the reader identify who the antagonist (or villain) may be. However, giving a character both positive and negative traits helps humanize the character.

If you have any questions regarding character traits, or feel as though I’ve missed something, feel free to let me know!

sarah waters, fingersmith

“When I first met her, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there’d be room for her to stay.”

— Brian Andreas

It is said that before you start looking for your soulmate you need to find yourself, but after you find yourself you don't need to look for them. You will be able to "recognize" your soulmate, because you are aware of your own needs, priorities, perspectives and desires. And a soulmate is not someone who completes you. Too many are looking for "another half" without realizing they are already complete. In reality, a soulmate is someone with whom you can share your whole being — all sides of you; someone to open your completeness to without the fear of not being understood.