One question on worldbuilding/creating characters. I have noticed that all the main characters in your universes are SupremelyCompetent® in something. Probably because they are all adults by now, but they either had family to teach them how to flash white, is a werewolf/vampire trained in an academy/their families, is an innkeeper with extensive training, or happened to have a vengeful stepfather hell bent on child mortal kombat and SuperSpecialBlood™.
Now, I get that don’t get me wrong it’s much more fun to read about interesting people and writing always has that element of self-insert “what if I were as cool as this”. Plus, your universes are so colorful that ordinary people, well… they die. But it all just makes me curious. How do you make a character interesting without all that? Is it possible to write an average character surrounded by ExtraordinaryAwesomeness©? Just a writing prompt I’ve been thinking of lately. I guess it all boils down to what you use to make the character interesting to the reader?
This is a super fun question because it covers three character types: the extraordinary expert, the-work-in-progress, and the unlikely hero.
Self-Inserting
Let’s tackle the self-inserting first. All characters have a bit of the author in them. They are figments of our imagination, after all. If the author achieved things through obtaining education and strongly believes that this is the best path forward, their favorite characters will mirror that philosophy. If the author spent time around horses and loves them, their favorite characters may express love of horses also and the villain might kill a horse in a brutal way.
However, too much self insertion is a terrible thing for two reasons. First, it makes the main characters too similar. If the author does three series, and every character is exactly the same except for their names and hair color, things get old.
Second, if the author becomes too fascinated with the character, they may ignore or alter plot structure to get more time with that character. That’s how we get Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters who have amazing powers, incredible looks, and are special and good at everything. One of the easiest ways to identify Mary Sue/Gary Stu is that everyone who loves the character is automatically good and everyone who dislikes them is automatically evil.
If you look at Kate series, Nick isn’t Kate’s biggest fan. He will help her, but only to prevent greater harm. The series has a number of compelling characters who are not blindingly worshipping Kate and who may criticize her or just not personally like her. That doesn’t automatically make them villains.
In a Mary Sue/Gary Stu scenario any character who doesn’t admire and support the main character is automatically evil or stupid and must be punished and despised. The character becomes almost a stand-in for the author themselves, and they are now taking revenge for all the social wrongs they had ever experienced, real or imagined. When people are mean to us, we sometimes feel powerless. Well, not any more. The author of Mary Sue/Gary Stu suffers no fools and will go to extraordinary lengths to punish the offending characters and reward their stand-in in all sorts of ways.
Mary Sue/Gary Stu can be a very satisfying read once in a while, but it’s not my favorite.
Three Character Types
If you read our books carefully, you will notice a trend. All of our characters had to work really hard to become competent. Rose is a the perfect example of this.
She began practicing her flash in sixth grade. She worked at it with a fanatical devotion. She practiced for hours, in private, determined to show them all. When her mom died her junior year of high school, it only spurred Rose on. Flashing became an obsession. She practiced, and practiced, and practiced, until magic flowed from her, pliant and obedient.
On the Edge (A Novel of the Edge Book 1) (p. 31). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Nevada started working as a PI at seventeen because she had to. Kate became good with the sword because she had to. Sean leveled up because he would literally die if he hadn’t. There is a common thread there: talent isn’t enough. You have to work really hard to survive and succeed.
Even when the characters are competent at something, they still have room for improvement. At the start of the narrative Nevada couldn’t draw a simple arcane circle and by the end, she was able to unpack complex hexes. Kate ignored her blood powers, until circumstances forced her to practice them. You see her constantly training, working out, sparring, learning how to do blood magic, etc. Hugh has to learn how to be a good person, perhaps one of the hardest things any of us can do.
Catalina is a good illustration of this. She blundered her way through Sapphire Flames, stumbling from one near miss to the next, doing a bit better in the next book, until she finally became a little scary but adept Head of the House.
It’s this growth that makes the characters interesting and relatable. Our characters are mostly work-in-progress types. Some achievements have been unlocked, but there is still a long way to go. This is where a bit of the self-insertion is happening. We both had to work very hard to get where we are, and there are always more challenges ahead.
But what about writing a compelling uber-competent character without growth? That is the extraordinary expert character type. We see this a lot with genius detectives. Sherlock Holmes, for example. His powers of deduction are almost magic. In fact, Conan Doyle specifically stated at some point that his audience wouldn’t find teenage Sherlock Holmes compelling, because he would be making mistakes and learning, and the near mystical competency of adult Sherlock Holmes would shatter.
It is true. Once you humanize Obi-Wan, the mystique of the character is lost a little. Instead of a special god-like creature, he is now one of us, a flawed, sometimes confused human and his story is an entirely different narrative.
Finally we have the third character type, the unlikely hero. Unlikely hero tells the story of a seemingly ordinary person, an office worker, a farmer, someone who got caught up in a mystery or circumstances beyond their control and now must struggle to survive.
Ordinary is a bit of a misnomer. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Marais are perfectly “ordinary,” except for Mr. Marais’ intuition, which doesn’t actually help him that much. Not only they do not die, they take on the challenges the Galaxy throws at them and deal with them successfully, sometimes by applying a well-aimed can of beans.
None of us are ordinary. Every single one of us is passionate about something or good at something or knows something most other people don’t. At the risk of sounding like an after school special: we are all unique and worthy of a story.
Several years ago, there was a trend on Twitter where people asked what would happen is you favorite author narrated your normal life. Some people tagged me and I had done a number of tiny stories about tired moms, people who love dogs, and overworked teachers. You can read some of them in this post, which Mod R found with her superhuman powers. Every person can be basis for a compelling character.
The unlikely hero makes frequent appearance in literature and film. Arthur Dent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a shining example. George of Thessalonica by Harry Turtledove is another. And obviously, both Bilbo and Frodo of Lord of the Rings.
The unlikely hero has some fun subsets.
- Heart over skills – a protagonist who has no skills applicable to the situation but succeeds due to the nature of their personality and sheer persistence
- Lazy hero – a protagonist who has talent but deliberately ignores it for various reasons until they are forced to apply themselves
- Cursed hero – a protagonist who was robbed of his special powers, but succeeds in spite of that and sometimes, when their skills are unlocked, finds that they were not needed in the first place
There are more. Most of the time, the unlikely hero succeeds because they have integrity and perseverance and because they are fighting for something very important. So if you are writing an unlikely hero, my advice is to spend some times figuring out what their strengths are. Are they kind? Are they fair? Do they stand up when they see an injustice? What is it that makes them win at the end?
To reiterate, neither of the character types is superior to the others. They are used to tell different types of stories. It’s really all about the personal preference. Now it’s your turn. What kind of character type do you like? Tell us in the comments.
Work in progress is my favorite. but I read the others occasionally.
I like the works-in-progress the best (because I like to see people improve). I also like the unlikely hero and even Mary Sue/Gary Stu at times, so I guess I like all the ones that you mentioned. The type of character that I really don’t like are the “TSTL” (too stupid to live) ones where they make mistake after mistake without learning anything, refuse help and/or advice from knowledgeable people, and are overly stubborn for no apparent reason.
Thanks for the definition of TSTL (Too Stupid To Live)!
Work in progress, I like that I get to see (read) how far they’ve come.
The unlikely hero, after 9/11 I’ve realized everyone has a light(potential) inside them.
I shared a list of Kdrama tropes with my partner who kindly listens to my (badly executed) retellings of various Asian dramas and he laughed very hard at the Suuuuuuper Geeeenius description. Now he asks who is the Super Genius in the storyline. It gets used a lot these days but I consider it different than a Mary Sue like Patti’s Sary Mue/Sary Gue. I categorize a Mary Sue to be more the Candy girl who is a hardworking spunky poor young woman who has a huge heart. She’s not an unlikely hero as it is always obvious the spunky one and a rich male lead will be the point of the plot and any other female is the second female lead. I’d probably watch a Candy not get the male lead (or vice versa) at the end of the series at this point just for the creative plot needed to pull off a good (not eh, good enough! 2521 style) ending which won’t require a timelapse or cathartic crying.
Both characters are a bit oversaturated but I think the Super Genius will continue to be popular while economic futures are murky and average young people find it harder to build wealth than their parents. At least sometimes the Female Lead gets to be the Super Genius or Boss Babe which I won’t take for granted due to conservative political growth in countries producing the dramas. Perhaps I should be glad for gender equality for the Candy boys with Boss Babes? I might be burnt out on certain genres rather than character types?
I like how Curran is ok with a lot of things people would find deal breakers with Kate and vice versa. Sure, they’re both extraordinary, but also difficult. There’s romance but the books are not romances.
I found Obi-Wan far more interesting after he had been demystified a bit, so I’d say I’m not terribly interested in the extraordinary expert 😅 I enjoyed the highly intelligent, brilliant, but also incredibly flawed Sherlock Holmes of “Elementary” far more than any of the other Sherlocks I’ve seen on film, too.
Looking at my own writing, I have a distinct bias towards everyday heroes. Most of my characters are (fairly) ordinary people, who have to do a lot of work to prevent their personal worlds from collapsing.
In my reading, I’d say I’m split about 50-50 between Works in Progress and Unlikely Heroes. I’m reading through the MurderBot Diaries right now and one of my favourite things is MurderBot coming to terms with just how incompetent it is, even with all its non-human advantages, and how it continues trying to suck less even when it’s excruciatingly difficult.
Awesome, as always!
Is there a possibility to access the twitter-stories through your website, because I can`t get them through the link (Sorry, not the twitter-girl) – that would be great!
Thank you for your time!
Love and greetings from Switzerland!
Inga
Hi Inga,
The link shared is to a post on the blog, not to Twitter 🙂
off topic, but the website header on my mobile still says “Under Construction” is there still website migrating happening?
The migration has happened, but there are still a few website design areas where decisions are still being made 🙂
Thanks, Mod R. I keep seeing the “under construction” banner too.
I don’t know if it was a phrase before the writers of the show leverage coined it for me, but my all-time favorite character is the super competent person because I just love competence p***! LOL. I struggle to enjoy characters who bumble through stories.
I’ve always been fond of the underdog winning in the end, no matter if the character is ordinary folk, hero(ine) or superhero(ine).
I also like the WIP (work-in-progress) heroine… WIP heroes are good, too, but I’m really liking smart, physically-able, ass-kicking (sword-wielding?), badass women these days. We don’t see enough female protagonists in movies and TV, even these days where it’s still almost 60% leading male stories (to 31% leading female) directed by 90% male directors according to a recent documentary “This Changes Everything” on Netflix.
My favorite superhero is Stan Lee’s “a superhero with with problems” archetype. Spiderman was my very first “superhero with problems” and those problems were pretty massive, if you start with the very first comic book story.
My absolute top favorite ILONA ANDREWS series is the Innkeeper Chronicles. Mostly because they have so many different and varied sub-character types in every book, including Gertrude Hunt.
Don’t get me wrong, Kate Daniels is at the top, too, second in my list, but KD’s drama is on the darker, heavier side, where as the Innkeeper Chronicles seems to have a lot more levity despite the alien world-ending potential as compared to Kate Daniels world-on-the-brink-of-complete-destruction storyline.
Maybe it’s just that I’m not as interested in the hard-living, apocalyptic “after-earth” story. I do seem to prefer the HEA storyline, especially if there are alien ex-pats, 12-warp-points and magic treehouses with wormhole portals to such cool planets across the galaxy. Plus shifters, vampires and others (aliens) with compatible genetic links to Earthlings (humans). So fun!
So, that’s my take on the “Three Character Types” question.
Cheers!
Thanks for the excellent explanation of the three character types. I’ve enjoyed books that have all of them but I do lean more towards those with more WIP/character development. I’m re-listening to the Vorkosigan series because Miles is such a character.
I honestly think that you have just described why I love your main protagonists so much. It’s the growth along with their humanity. It gives them depth and relatability. We are all continuing to learn and only stop when we stop trying
My preferred styles are Unlikely hero followed by extraordinary expert. Mary/Gary is occasionally OK.
Currently reading a light novel isekai involving a guy whose stats are slightly above normal but has cooking skills that draw uber-powerful beasts to make contracts with him. Mind you, some of the chapters read like a cookbook.
Hehehe I read an entire webtoon about tea, and loved it. They willy nilly threw in a transmigration background in for the MC because it had to have something to hang the admittedly flimsy story on, but really, it’s a webtoon about tea and what tea goes with which snack and how whisky and earl grey are an amazing combination – I’ve yet to try, but I will! – and I thought it was great 😂
What is my favorite character type? One written by a good author. I like Ilona’s characters. I like Sherlock. I like Frodo. If the writing is poor, the odds of my liking the character dropped dramatically.
Really appreciate this write up. I love all types of characters, as long as they feel like they could be real. Though I think I gravitate more to work-in-progress characters, as long as they are sensible. Adult work-in-progress characters, who continually make bad decisions out of fear or refuse to ask for help for silly reasons, drive me crazy though, even if they eventually figure it out in the end.
Work-in-progress heroes are what I am most drawn to, I think.
Of course it depends a lot on the story and the author, but sometimes the Unlikely Hero is just too much in denial to be very fun to read (or at least all the internal monologue about “WHY ME?” gets tedious).
I have always like the Hero story – like old fashion fairy tales, where the story is about becoming a Hero (not as a superhero with huge biceps and superpowers etc) but well, as a hero’s journey.
I like either the Have To Work Hard For It, or the Ordinary Citizen fallen into extraordinary circumstances.
I think I’m not too fussy as long as character and plot merge, are well written and are engaging to me.
I’ll even tolerate a bit of Mary Sue from time to time or too stupid to live if the story catches me (it probably helps that my ASD makes it almost impossible to not finish a book once started unless supremely offended – sometimes a poor beginning can improve dramatically – pun intended 😉).
I like “zero to hero” characters like Hikaru in Hikaru no Go anime. Especially the scenes where others recognize their growth.
I like Hugh.
Any Hugh kind of character, as long as it is Hugh.
I go through periods where I like different sorts of main characters. Right now I have kind of rejected adolescent male action heroes. I’m just tired of them, and the books with them as the lead almost universally depict women as one dimensional sex objects or sweet supporting characters or tomboys.
My current preference is for a smart female lead, learning and making her own way in the world. A man may try to protect her, but she never allows herself to be dominated by him. Strangely enough (or not so strangely), these stories are usually written by female writers.
Nevada is one of my favourite characters. I guess one of the main reasons is the fact that everyone (even she herself) underestimate her at first. I love that she keeps shocking Rogan, earning his respect. For me, it’s all about the character’s growth. Like that scene in Mulan where she finally retrieves the arrow.
I like both the work-in-progress and the unlikely hero, mainly because they’re more relatable than the mysterious extraordinary expert. Those are fun as side characters, but as a main character I have a hard time empathizing.
My favorite sub-type of unlikely hero is probably the character that is dragged kicking and screaming into being a hero, and would have happily lived an ordinary life, until the plot did *the one thing* that could get them out of their rut/comfort zone and into adventure. Not coincidentally, those are also some of my favorite characters to play in D&D.
Christopher from KD series one of the most interesting characters that has stayed with me long after book ended and boy do I wanna know that story.. 😉
Ngl…I love a Mary sue. That being said, my fav characters are always the work in progress types. The ones who start out “okay enough” and then end end up bad ass! It’s why
This was great! At some point, if you have the time, I’d love to know how and why you decide to use first-person on a project vs. third.
Hey Tara, here is a House Andrews post on POVs, I hope it helps 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/writing-pov/
This is a really interesting topic (it got me to comment again for the first time in years, although I read every post). One of my favorite characters, in possibly my favorite series of all time, is Vladimir Taltos from Steven Brust’s Dragaera series. I think one of the things that makes that series so fascinating to me is that Brust often plays with format, chronology (micro and macro), theme, etc. in every book and the way you observe Vlad in any given book (to greater and lesser extents, depending on the book in question) changes depending on that. If you take the series as a whole he’s pretty clearly a work-in-progress type with a significant progression arc. But depending on what book you are reading, he can be any of the types – in one book he might seem like an extraordinary expert, running circles around the antagonists by using his skillset, while in another he stumbles from mishap to mishap and even ultimately ends in failure. It’s one of the reasons I feel like to this day Vlad is one of the most “human” characters I’ve ever read, because we feel like all of those characters in our lives. Some days we’re the extraordinary geniuses (today, for example, I fixed my daughter’s nursemaid’s elbow with the help of Google which felt truly extraordinary to me). Other days we’re the unlikely hero (or the failed one). But most days, we’re all just works-in-progress.
Work in progress
I was struggling in grad school when I stumbled upon the Kate Daniel’s series. I found a character who worked hard and didn’t compromise her integrity no matter the circumstances.
I was disillusioned with medical academics, and KD reminded me that everyone isn’t manipulative or vindictive. There are kind people out there and they make life worth living, don’t you think? 🙂
omg omg omg,i preordered Magic Claims from Booktopia Australia and just got notification that it is on its way.
woo hoo, yeah, so happy, words can’t express IN AUSTRALIA on its way
joy joy love love, cant believe
Yay! Congrats! Some of the PODs ship early!
I thought if I preordered it, maybe, by the time it got sent to Australia and then shipped to me, I might get it on release date, but early, woo hoo
I keep checking to make sure its the right book (just a little paranoia that this is too good to be true)
I love work in progress heroes as well as the occasional lazy unlikely hero. The journey they need to take before they are able to claim their happy endings are what makes it great for me.
I love work-in-progress characters.
Thank you for that breakdown. It clarifies some things in my head about a character.
WIP and Unlikely Hero. Reminds me of one of my favorite stories from childhood. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley and the prequel to it called the Hero and the Crown.
I like the work in progress like you write, but the occasional uber-competent can be fun and cathartic. Usually, I like the UCs in Animes and manwahs more than books though.
I’m afraid my favourite is the extraordinary expert. Jack Reacher comes to mind. The book version, especially the earlier books. And of course Benedict’s Sherlock.
Connor and Curran count too. And Alessandro. True, Alessandro makes mistakes and he almost dies, but we don’t hear about it until long after it happened.
When we meet Alessandro he’s already this awesome antistasi Prime.
Possibly my favourite extraordinary expert in the IA universe is George Camarine.
“That man is a menace”
Work in progress is second, providing it doesn’t take too long and it doesn’t start from point zero.
Kate and the three HL sisters had a learning curve, but they were never stupid.
Unlikely hero, even more than the WIP, shouldn’t stay unlikely for too long.
I think I quit the HHGTTG somewhere in the middle because I was done with Arthur Dent.
I quit Bilbo Baggins before page 100
Dali possibly qualifies as an unlikely hero, but since she’s also this awesome White Tiger and one of the sweetests Shifters, I love her anyway.
I feel like I enjoy reading and writing Unlikely Hero (Heart over Skills) + Work in Progress. Can that be a thing?
A person who is ordinary, called to a challenge out of the blue – they will work hard, but will have to call on their heart because they don’t have enough time to develop all the necessary skills before shit hits the fan.
All stories are “a thing” 🙂 . These are just the wider blueprints, writers always mix and match and bring their own creativity to the ecuation.