Home Page › Forums › Fiction Writing › Characters › Most Common Character Traits?
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December 12, 2023 at 5:03 pm #169322
So this was an interesting idea I had yesterday… I was wondering which traits are most commonly picked for character appearances (and personality, too).
For example, even though my hair is more of a dirty blonde, most of my main characters have dark brown or black hair, and gray or brown eyes. I’m not really sure why I do this XD I guess I just like it?
And then since this is easiest for me to write, they’re also usually pretty thoughtful introverts who aren’t afraid to say something that will move the plot forward. I’m an INTP, so usually most of my characters are not Feeling XD They gravitate more toward the thinking side, I’d say.
But that’s what I was wondering–what do all of your characters look and act like? Do you find yourself picking certain traits over others all the time?
And I’m sure a lot of your characters’ personalities depend on your personality and how you process things personally, but I think it would be interesting to find out and then make a point to describe/create characters with traits that normally don’t get chosen. So yeah, here are some tags!
@esther-c @kyronthearcanin @freedomwriter76 @whalekeeper @vinagirl @savannah_grace2009 @grcr @rae @jonas @thearcaneaxiom @princesachronicles22 @mineralizedwritings @loopylin @smiley @acancello @keilah-h @livingwoodchronicles @calyhuge @lydibug @trailblazer @highscribeofaetherium @everyone- This topic was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by hybridlore.
- This topic was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by hybridlore. Reason: Tags
WE ARE REVIVING THE PROTECTION SQUAD! *steals Joseph, Julian, and Sabina from Ellette*
December 12, 2023 at 5:15 pm #169325This is something that I pay pretty close attention to, so I feel like I have a little bit more of a range.
With hair color I have a fairly even split between red, brown, blonde, white, and black, even some blue, so I think I’m good there lol.
With eye color I have even more of a range. I’ve gone with green, blue, hazel, amber, gray, purple, red, yellow, orange, pink – but then again I’m not always working with humans lol. With humans I gravitate to either blue or brown eyes since they’re more common, but I put some others in as well.
As far as their personalities, I have a pretty wide range, too. I’ve done serious, easily angered, someone more inbetween, nervous, overly confident/arrogant, lazy, guarded, etc.
Characters are probably my favorite part of writing, so that explains why I have so much fun with this kind of thing XD
Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.
December 12, 2023 at 5:15 pm #169326oooh *subscribes*
@anyone
I often pick Black hair, even though my hair is a light brown that bleaches naturally to a dirty blond in the summer. I also often pick men as my main charres, and they’re often in the ages between 15 and 25. They’re usually warriors cuz that’s me. All of them have some secret in their backstory that they share with their best friend, and some of them have their secrets made wide open to everyone somewhere in the book. Most of my charries in general also have a Frodo+Sam friendship somewhere and most of them have at least one family member they remember with kindness and love.
As far as eyes go, i think mine are pretty varied.
And yes, some of my charries have a repetition of traits and sometimes it drives me nuts!!!!!!!!!
"You need French Toast."
#AnduthForever (hopefully 💕)December 12, 2023 at 5:18 pm #169327My charries are never a perfect reflection of myself, they only have a few things each that are like me, and i let others try to find them and almost never point them out unless I’m making a point (cuz often they are the deepest parts of my heart)
"You need French Toast."
#AnduthForever (hopefully 💕)December 12, 2023 at 5:25 pm #169328@kyronthearcanin Wow, blue hair?? XD Yeah, I would like to pay more attention to it so that my characters are more different, so I thought it would be fun to see what everyone on here does. Looks like you’ve done a pretty good job on it though!😅
Cool! Yeah, it’s funny how our characters kind of reflect different parts of ourselves. And yeah, it can be scary to have others see that sometimes XD
WE ARE REVIVING THE PROTECTION SQUAD! *steals Joseph, Julian, and Sabina from Ellette*
December 12, 2023 at 5:33 pm #169329Yeah, haha, she was a runaway. Her blue hair made her stand out. But I wrote that a long time ago, and the style is terrible XD
And trust me, I struggle with plenty of other things. For one, not using the same words over and over lol.
Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.
December 12, 2023 at 5:39 pm #169330Ohhh, gotcha, it was dyed xD.
Oh man, I think all writers must xD Or just everyone in general. Sometimes I’ll be reading and I’m like, wait, didn’t they just use that word in the last paragraph? Maybe our brains can only hold so many words at one time so we just end up using the same ones to describe things XD
WE ARE REVIVING THE PROTECTION SQUAD! *steals Joseph, Julian, and Sabina from Ellette*
December 12, 2023 at 5:42 pm #169331Yeah XDXD Although I’ve had alien-like people with blue hair, too lol
Oh definitely, I see it all the time. I think that’s why it bothers me so much XD
Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.
December 12, 2023 at 5:51 pm #169333Nice XD I mean, they’re aliens, it’s okay lol.
Exactly, it’s hard XD Cause that one word works so well there, but you’ve already used it 🤦
WE ARE REVIVING THE PROTECTION SQUAD! *steals Joseph, Julian, and Sabina from Ellette*
December 12, 2023 at 5:54 pm #169334Off the top of my head, I can only think of two things that are particularly common amongst my characters:
- Most are introverted. I can barely think of any who are extroverts, although there are some I’m not sure about.
- Most are in the range of 17 – 30. I have barely any younger than that, and a significant lower amount of older ones.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksDecember 12, 2023 at 5:57 pm #169335Oh, interesting topic!!
Personality-wise, my characters have all sorts of different traits… I’m an INTP, but I try to make my characters different myself, and–interestingly–I have a ton of extroverted characters. The traits they hold kinda depend on their inspiration and their look… so… idk… I think I’ve done a whole ton of different personalities though… ehh..
I have a huge range of ages… but they tend to be 13-36… maybe skipping 24-28??
Now for appearances… a lot of my characters have jet/raven black hair, and green, blue or gray eyes.
But… I do have a lot of blonde, ginger, brown, and white haired charries. My MCs tend to be the ones with black or white hair. Oh! and I have a ton with naturally wacky colors–pink, yellow, blue, green, bright red, and orange…
For eye colors? I’ve done every color you can think of (except red…)…. Blue, green, gray, brown, yellow, orange, purple, golden, olive-yellow, dolphin-blue, pink…
everything is slipping my mind rn… can’t think of it all…
Flaz: *yawns* Did the sun just come up? In the west?
December 12, 2023 at 6:02 pm #169336For hair colors, I’ve done most of the normal ones: black (probably the most common for me), brown, blond. I haven’t done red, but I kind of want to for some reason.
For eye colors, I do blue the most, because it’s the most common except brown, and who wants brown eyes? I’ve also done gray and yellow. I don’t think I’ve done green though.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksDecember 12, 2023 at 6:04 pm #169337and who wants brown eyes?
That’s kind of insulting to everyone with brown eyes lol
Any noun can become a verb if you don't care enough.
December 12, 2023 at 6:04 pm #169338That’s what I was thinking lol
Flaz: *yawns* Did the sun just come up? In the west?
December 12, 2023 at 6:05 pm #169339Personality-wise, my characters have all sorts of different traits… I’m an INTP, but I try to make my characters different myself,
Hey, awesome! We’re twins xD
That’s really interesting! I don’t know if I’ve honestly tried to write from the perspectives of extroverted characters before … I guess I struggle with character development a little, so my voice tends to just cross stories but not become personalized for the character, which I know isn’t excellent xD.
Wow, white hair on younger people? I guess in fantasy or science fiction, it’s understandable xD But I’m assuming your charries aren’t white-haired with age, because you mentioned you mostly write 13-36.
I forgot about age… I mostly read/write YA, though, so my characters are usually in that range, staying within two years or so of my own age (15). I think most of them have been 15 or 16, but my current project’s main is 17.
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