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Creating characters that follow the three R’s of characterization is the most important skill a writer can master. If your characters aren’t round, relatable, and realistic, your story is likely to fall flat. You can strategically plan out your characters, their traits, and their roles in a story to help create a cohesive cast of characters that your readers will latch on to. That’s why it’s important to understand the different types of characters in literature.

Let’s go over writing terms that help us build characters. We’ll talk about terms that aid in the creation of characters and the different roles a character can play in a story.

The definitions below are from literaryterms.net.

Writing terms for creation of characters

The writing terms in this section help us understand how to create different types of characters in literature. We’re looking here at the different types of characters you can create, and some terms that aid in that creation.

Characterization

“Characterization is a writer’s tool, or “literary device” that occurs any time the author uses details to teach us about a person.”

We already established that characterization is the most important thing you can do in your story. Your characters have to be round, relatable, and realistic. You achieve this through characterization. 

Protagonist

“The story circles around this character’s experiences, and the audience is invited to see the world from [their] perspective.”

The protagonist is also often referred to as your main character. Your protagonist is generally who your readers are rooting for. They want this person to succeed and change and grow.

Antagonist

In opposition to the protagonist, we have an ‘antagonist’.

“In a story, the antagonist is the opposite of the protagonist, or main character. Typically, this is a villain of some kind [ … ] or someone who gets in their way.”

The antagonist is typically used to set up roadblocks for your protagonist. If your protagonist got everything they wanted without any obstacles to overcome, it would be a pretty boring story. The antagonist is there to, well, antagonize your main character. They can help you bring tension and drama into the story.

Archetype

“It’s any story element that appears again and again in stories from cultures around the world and symbolizes something universal in the human experience.”

In terms of characters, we see archetypes that go way back to the very beginning of storytelling: the Hero, the Joker, the Villain, the Everyman, to name a few.

As humans we love to categorize things, and that includes people. You can probably look around your life and put the people you know into archetypes. You have one friend who’s the funny one, one who’s always there to fix your problems; the ‘mom’ friend is a big one.

In your writing, you can use these archetypes to help tell a story. The hero might be your protagonist, and they have a joker sidekick that’s always relieving the tension or getting them into innocent trouble. Using an archetype can help keep characters in their own lanes, especially if you have a large cast of characters. The reader can always rely on archetyped characters to act a certain way, so there’s less of a chance of confusing characters for one another.

You can also use these archetypes to help you develop your characters. If you have a hero’s journey planned out for your protagonist, you might do some research on the hero archetype to build your character. This gives your readers something familiar to cling to during your story. You can customize the plot and the other characteristics of your protagonist to make it your own version of a hero’s journey.

Stereotype

“Stereotyping is assuming that ‘they’re all alike.’ It’s looking at a whole group of people and assuming that they all share certain qualities.”

You’ve probably heard the stereotypes that gay men are all flamboyant or women can’t drive. Personally, I’m a great driver. So that’s the thing. Stereotypes just aren’t true. You can’t categorize such a large group of people into something so specific.

It’s important as writers to acknowledge stereotypes in our writing, and then fix them. It’ll make us better story writers instantly.

I think we used to say you can have a stereotype as long as it’s balanced by other unique traits. But unless you have a really good reason to include stereotyping in your writing (to break the mold, or satire), then you want to stay away from stereotyping. Not only can it be offensive if done poorly, but frankly it’s boring. I don’t want to read another story about a dumb jock and a nerdy girl who has no social skills.

Some stereotypes are pretty small in the grand scheme of someone’s character. For instance, a woman being a bad driver isn’t a stereotype of an entire personality. So, yes, your female protagonist can be a bad driver, but if you lean into it so hard and really point it out in your story over and over, that’s when it becomes a stereotype.

Other stereotypes can be really offensive and damaging to some communities. If all of your Black characters are portrayed as gangsters and thugs who do nothing but get into trouble with the cops, that’s really damaging to Black communities. It’s important to realize the complexities of the cultures and identities you write into your story, and portray them as so.

So, how is a stereotype different from an archetype?

An archetype is broad. Take the jock and nerd dynamic for example. If you stop there, these are both archetypes. But, if you made the jock a meathead who’s flunking out of school, that leans more toward stereotyping. If your nerd is socially awkward and talks with a lisp, that also leans into stereotyping.

Instead, maybe your jock loves art, too. Maybe your nerd is a really popular kid. There are ways to use the archetypes and not stereotype your characters.

Roles the different types of characters in literature play

Okay so those are a few terms you can use to help build those realistic, round, and relatable characters. But, let’s take a look at the roles the different types of characters in literature play in your story.

Foils

“A foil is a character that has opposite character traits from another, meant to help highlight or bring out another’s positive or negative side.”

Take these archetypal foils for example:

• Superhero and Supervillain
• Princess and Evil Queen
• Nerd and Jock

We often see characters who have admirable qualities, and their foil who has negative qualities. The protagonist and antagonist are often foils of each other. 

This can be a great tactic to use when you want to highlight something about your character. If your protagonist has a tendency to stop and watch the birds flying by, maybe another character will shoo away a bird at a picnic table or be afraid of birds. 

You’ll want to be careful not to make these opposites too in your face. This is a great tool to use in your writing, but if it’s so obvious to the point that your foils have completely opposite aesthetics – like one is blonde, blue eyed, and wears pink everywhere, but the other is a brunette with brown eyes and wears black all the time – that’s kind of cheesy. You’ll want to use more subtle clues to show the foil where it’s almost subconscious for the reader.

The bird example is nice because it shows two realistic reactions to birds that people might have. They’re different enough that they stand out when compared to each other, but not so in your face that it’s an obvious foiling tactic.

Static Characters 

“Characters who are static do not change throughout the story.”

The change we’re talking about with static characters is an emotional change. We’re looking at the character arc here. If your character doesn’t learn a lesson or acquire new traits, they’re static.

Static characters usually aren’t your main characters. For example, if your main character is a teenager, their parents might be static characters. In YA, we often center stories around teenagers and young adults since that’s the audience we’re writing to. If you look at any John Green novel, there’s not really a lot of focus on the parents. John Green doesn’t spend a lot of time, energy, or words on the page giving the parents these big character arcs because they aren’t the focus of the story. They only show up in a few scenes to make the home and the teenage protagonist feel realistic. This is a great way to use static characters in a story.

Dynamic Characters

“Dynamic characters change throughout the story.”

As the opposite of static characters, a dynamic character gives us something to watch throughout the story. Your character will learn, grow, and eventually be a different person in one way or another by the last page.

This is usually seen as an emotional shift somewhere. Maybe the cold-hearted villain survives and learns to love again. The wife asks for a divorce and finds happiness single. 

Some lesson is learned or some experience had that sparks a new lifestyle in our character. Typically, the whole story is building toward this change. It’s why we keep reading. We’re interested to see if the character does learn their lesson.

Flat Characters

“A flat character has one or two main traits, usually only all positive or negative.”

This is a character who cannot effectively be one of your main characters. It is okay to utilize flat characters in fiction, but it needs to be strategic. 

Going back to our teenager-parent dynamic, maybe the parents are flat characters. They can be strict parents who are always saying no to the teenage-protagonist. Or they’re pushovers who let the teenager do anything they want.

A lot of villains are flat as well. All they care about is destruction or death, and they tend to die before they can make a change. Personally, I find this quite boring and ineffective. Give your villains a character arc and your story will be 20x better.

Flat characters are often used for comedic effect as well. Take any Shakespeare comedy and you’ll find a flat character who panders to the audience. They tend to be the fools or the jesters of the show.

Round Characters

“These characters have many different traits, good and bad, making them more interesting.”

Your roundest characters need to be your main characters. A round character is relatable and realistic. They often have good intentions, but make mistakes. They might have prejudices or ideas about the world that aren’t always moral. These bigger, negative traits might be what brings about an emotional shift in them by the end of your story.

Some smaller negative traits your character can have and still be likable with might be procrastination, or flunking out of school. They might not be very athletic and constantly find themself in situations where it’s their downfall.

Basically, your round characters aren’t perfect. We see their flaws and we see why they think the way they do. Even if your character has an arc that makes them a better person then they were on page one, they should still be imperfect at the end of your story. No one learns only one or two lessons that then makes them a perfectly moral person. 

Practice writing different types of characters in literature:

With all of these new writing terms in your toolbox, pick one of the different types of characters in literature and write a portrait of them. Mix and match the terms we’ve learned here to create a character. Take just a few paragraphs to describe your character. Share with all of us below your portraits! I know I would love to see them!

If you have any questions about character types, leave them below and I’ll be sure to get back to you.

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