What is the hardest character archetype to write?

[RayVer]

For all those who are authors when writing a story you realise that it's necessary to write many different type of character archetypes. Not to say that the creation of a character is limited and set to a single archetype, there can be fluidity but most would agree that if you were to generalise a character to it's most basic core it would probably sit in a specific archetype.

This brings me to my question, to all the SH authors, what would you deem the hardest character archetype for you to write? For me personally it would be the intelligent but reserved character. It's quite easy to make such a character hollow and a know it all in a way that doesn't feel grounded or realistic in a sense, and is a great pet peeve for me individually when I'm reading. So when writing such characters it requires a lot of thought, rewriting and scrapping.

 

[Eldoria]

In my opinion, the most difficult character to write is a living ideology, a character who is the manifestation or incarnation of an ideology. Why?

Because you have to understand the logic of the ideology, then implement it in concrete form, in every thought, action, and speech of the character.

So, every time the character dialogues with themselves or others, they must represent their ideology. You can't just write empty dialogue.

And the character's actions must be logical according to the logic of their ideology, even if they are unacceptable according to the world (and the readers).

For example, Pain (Naruto), he brings the ideology of peace through pain. Every word and action he says always returns to the principle of his ideology: pain.

Feel pain. Know pain. Only by feeling pain, humans could understand each other.

Writing a living ideology character like Pain requires high precision. And it's not easy.

 

[Jerynboe]

For me the exact opposite of Eldoria’s answer is true. Characters who are genuinely irrational are so much harder than those who go absolutely all in on alien worldviews. I have a character who is a legitimate fascist as an antagonist and put in the leg work to understand historical fascism as best I could so I could write her better. A character who is that consistent in their worldview is EASY if you can adopt the headspace even when it gets unpleasant.

Someone who is making decisions on the spur of the moment based on pure emotion with no underlying logic that makes sense, or based on a worldview that genuinely has no connection to reality? Those people exist. I can’t write them. They scare me. Their worldview, if it exists, is either so complex that I can’t model it because it doesn’t map onto reality or so full of holes that I keep trying to fill those holes and that makes them coherent when they were supposed to be incoherent.

 

[L1aei]

Artificial Intelligence. I've got two fanfictions published on here because I thought it'd be a fun challenge.

Why is it a challenge? Come on. You know the publicity when you write something that sounds like AI wrote it.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Every character is difficult to write if you have no prior research.

 

[Bald-san]

For all those who are authors when writing a story you realise that it's necessary to write many different type of character archetypes. Not to say that the creation of a character is limited and set to a single archetype, there can be fluidity but most would agree that if you were to generalise a character to it's most basic core it would probably sit in a specific archetype.

This brings me to my question, to all the SH authors, what would you deem the hardest character archetype for you to write? For me personally it would be the intelligent but reserved character. It's quite easy to make such a character hollow and a know it all in a way that doesn't feel grounded or realistic in a sense, and is a great pet peeve for me individually when I'm reading. So when writing such characters it requires a lot of thought, rewriting and scrapping.

Tony Stark type characters, genius but arrogant since my first contact with a genius (strategist) is a lazy man called Shikamaru Nara. In retrospect I found writing logical but still susceptible to mistakes easier, since I can go 'Oh, this part can he his/her miscalculation' and go with it

 

[NotaNuffian]

Everything.

To put it bluntly, I ask myself, what type of characters I hate to read and therefore, those are the characters I hate to write.

I hate to read "gollum" types (weak and unlikable, unlikable as in whining, rude, incorrigible) even if there is the promise of future growth. Hence me unable to like Subaru from Re:Zero no matter how hard I try.

I hate to read hypocritical MAIN characters; I like them if they are side or even antags because they become a fun opposites to what MC should be.

It is totally a me-thing, but I've come to loathe Deku types. Though unlike how I loathed Kouki types from the start because they are fake kind bitchs (圣母婊), Deku types that genuinely want to improve society even at the detriments of themselves are setting such high standards that these characters are not for me. I grew up with Ueki and I love him, but I could never go back to him anymore because the child me died decades ago.

I like stoic MCs who get shit done and little to no yapping. I like little banters between MC and his friends to at least show that the dude is still socially functioning (unlike me)

 

[Envylope]

It's difficult to write a bad character. Since I only write peak.

 

[Nekyo]

For all those who are authors when writing a story you realise that it's necessary to write many different type of character archetypes. Not to say that the creation of a character is limited and set to a single archetype, there can be fluidity but most would agree that if you were to generalise a character to it's most basic core it would probably sit in a specific archetype.

This brings me to my question, to all the SH authors, what would you deem the hardest character archetype for you to write? For me personally it would be the intelligent but reserved character. It's quite easy to make such a character hollow and a know it all in a way that doesn't feel grounded or realistic in a sense, and is a great pet peeve for me individually when I'm reading. So when writing such characters it requires a lot of thought, rewriting and scrapping.

Out of my characters, I'd say the flamboyant playboy guy, I always have fun writing him and I'm inspired by Barney Stinson to make him Legen... Wait for it... Dary! Legendary. And I know he might break the mold and I might not nail him exactly as I expect but he gives a unique flavor I feel. I find my sacrificed goddess and abyssal demon leads much easier to write by contrast.

Artificial Intelligence. I've got two fanfictions published on here because I thought it'd be a fun challenge.

Why is it a challenge? Come on. You know the publicity when you write something that sounds like AI wrote it.

There is an easy way to write AI though! Just ask AI to tell you what the AI would say!

(If the AI sounds like AI would that be good writing or bad writing though? )

It's difficult to write a bad character. Since I only write peak.

Giga-writer energy right there ?

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Tony Stark type characters, genius but arrogant since my first contact with a genius (strategist) is a lazy man called Shikamaru Nara. In retrospect I found writing logical but still susceptible to mistakes easier, since I can go 'Oh, this part can he his/her miscalculation' and go with it

For many other people struggling with similar problem, To understand the kind of person Tony Stark is, you can watch how he experienced all of his mistakes and learned from it:

 

[RayVer]

In my opinion, the most difficult character to write is a living ideology, a character who is the manifestation or incarnation of an ideology. Why?

Because you have to understand the logic of the ideology, then implement it in concrete form, in every thought, action, and speech of the character.

So, every time the character dialogues with themselves or others, they must represent their ideology. You can't just write empty dialogue.

And the character's actions must be logical according to the logic of their ideology, even if they are unacceptable according to the world (and the readers).

For example, Pain (Naruto), he brings the ideology of peace through pain. Every word and action he says always returns to the principle of his ideology: pain.

Feel pain. Know pain. Only by feeling pain, humans could understand each other.

Writing a living ideology character like Pain requires high precision. And it's not easy.

That makes sense, when writing characters with specific ideologies you have to make sure the character is consistent and always prjecting their viewpoint. I assume it takes deep research into the actual ideology that the character themselves portray, like you have to understand the specific ideology in depth.

 

[CinnaSloth]

I think The innocent or Dreamer archetype is the most difficult to write.

The innocent/ Dreamer is fun loving, playful, but non-flirty, non-sexual type of character that can be cute, and sexy, without it coming off as gooner material, or crossing into other archetypes surrounding it: Child-like, Daniel/ Damsel in distress, Young Maiden/ Youth, Mary Sue/ Gary Stu, or any other archetype in general.

It's a very specific type of character that can speak in flirtatious ways, or say something that can be misconstrued as an innuendo, but not intend, or even remotely think of it in THAT kind of way. They are just as their title says, purely innocent. Staying within that very thinly cut rule sounds easy, but when you think about it, they don't think about murder, or harm, sex, squishing bugs, being annoyed, or lashing out in any way even if they themselves are harmed, or yelled at.. If anything, they'll wonder what they did wrong, and how can they make it up to whomever lashed out at them. Most people would either lash back, laugh it off, or ignoring the other person completely (What would be the chances of running into them ever again?) An innocent would most-likely go out of their way to make sure they run back into them, and give them a gift; Either having said gift thrown back at their face, and wondering if they just didn't like the gift, or if they should have gotten something else, trying again the next day. -or having the gift received, and thus making a new friend in the process.
Being The Innocent has got to be one of the most difficult things to write, but damn are you so infatuated by them when they're there, and written well. They're just so damn cute when they eventually succeed. ?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Any pure comedy archetype. I have no problem slipping comedy in but maintaining it through a whole story? Nope.

 

[CountVanBadger]

Geniuses. A character can only be as smart as the one writing them. There are certain things you can BS your way through to make a character feel smart, but unless you can actually back up their/your claims of intelligence with in-story demonstrations of that intelligence, it's going to blatantly obvious that you're writing a hollow character.

 

[Bald-san]

It's difficult to write a bad character. Since I only write peak.

Oh hell no, we got the Lion Sin of Pride becoming a writer before Gta 6?

 

[TinaMigarlo]

what I had to overcome getting started on my first several projects was *avoiding* falling into common tropes. So less about what was hard to write, but more about what took some effort *not* to write. Looking back on my first project? Today it would be called OP MC, though set in modern day reality. My male MC was kind of too perfect. My female characters were way too cardboard cutout. It took me a *long* time to get comfortable writing important female characters and even longer to try female MC. SO maybe female characters were the most difficult.

 

[Joyager2]

I think that writing characters through the lens of 'archetypes' might be artificially creating some difficulty here. If your character is designed based on present values for how they should act rather than being tailor-made to the story you want to tell and developed from your own understanding of human behavior, then I think it will always be difficult to write them in a way that's engaging and heartfelt.

 

[Eldoria]

I think that writing characters through the lens of 'archetypes' might be artificially creating some difficulty here. If your character is designed based on present values for how they should act rather than being tailor-made to the story you want to tell and developed from your own understanding of human behavior, then I think it will always be difficult to write them in a way that's engaging and heartfelt.

And the harsh reality is... oftentimes, complex and humane (3D) characters are less popular than flat and absurd (2D) characters who lack personality and are free to be filled with emotions by the readers. Even so, complex and humane characters always have better literary value.