Young Writers Society

Sarcasm and black humor.
And intelligence and wit. And quirks.

I love characters with crazy complexes. God complexes, Napoleon complexes, fear complexes. Bizarre phobias and strange habits.

Yeah. X3

Mostly, I enjoy compassion and generally how a character interacts with other people.
But I love wit, sarcasm and all that as well

I love sarcastic, harsh, blunt characters who, against all odds, manage to remain the "good guy" throughout the entire story. I also like to have a character who starts out relatively Mary-sue esque (though they have flaws, of course) and is slowly warped by the things that happen over the course of the story. I have two books where this happens and in one of them the character is scarred for life by going through an experience in which she destroys the life of the antagonist by turning her into the very thing she wants to exterminate while in the other the main character slowly turns darker and eventually does what both the "good" and "bad" side want, causing the war that has been going on for millennia to begin all over again.

I rarely write them, but I love characters who are genuinely good people -- Rose from New Who, for instance (and the Doctor, but he has a much darker side), or Coraline, or most of Madeleine L'Engle's characters. I think it's really hard to pull off that aura of purity and innocence without making them naive or over-idealized, but the writers that do it successfully are so brilliant.

I really like to write arrogant and acerbic jerks; a bit too much, I think, but it's fun to write people who don't care at all about what society expects of them, and voice their opinions freely. Arrogance is just such a fun trait to write, especially if the character actually has the knowhow/expertise/experience/etc. to back up their boasts, i.e. Dr. House and Dr. Rodney McKay (from Stargate Atlantis).

Weakness is extremely fun to write, too, though; I particularly love characters who try to do good but end up causing more harm than good through their own ineptitude and flaws (a la Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica).

I like main characters that fail a lot, who have to struggle to get by, just like the rest of us.

Oh, and villains who believe they are doing good things, or who are actually doing good things.

Definitely has to be a character who is constantly fighting they're greatest weakness and never really over comes it. That and the social anarchist who becomes the hero. I think it really just proves that the worst of us can still make an impact on the world.

I'm sarcastic and it shows throughout my work. It just hits naturally.

Hmm... My favorite atribute...

I'd have to say, it's the ones that make you work for their affection, such as life. Or, the chars that eventually open up to you but it takes time. After a certain point, when you've been with this figment of your imagination long enough, their deepest and most trusted secrets surface. That, is just awesome.

I love the witty and humourous characters! They have got to be the best around! But I also like the grumpy old characters. They're just great. Always snapping at the younger people.

I don't mind the klutzy characters or the ones who always seem to get into trouble.

Meadow

They're quirks and motivations and what propels them forward. They're stories really. I love all my characters, I can't say a specific character trait. I find them all interesting in their own ways.

angels-symphony wrote:I

But I also like the characters that are shy and don't know how to show how they feel so they end up sounded obnoxious and idiotic. xD

Me too. The stories I read generally have dynamic characters so I like dynamic characters.

I like witty and strange characters. It makes the story more interesting if the protagonist has a sense of humor or acts a bit out of the ordinary.

I'm a sucker for tragic characters and downward spirals. Not angst or whiny ones but people who are deeply flawed and (somewhat) well intentioned and find themselves hopelessly spiralling out of control. Seriously awesome.

I like characters who want to be good people but can't, because they're human beings.