Within novels, other fiction books, and short stories, there are many different types of characters that have distinctive roles, character arcs, attributes, and traits about them as I discussed in my previous blog post of 9 generic character types. However, there are also 5 common story characters that show up in fiction stories. These include heroes or heroines, villains, sidekicks or confidants, love or romantic interests, and viewpoint characters. Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, Rapunzel, Prince Charming... all of these are examples of well-known story characters. Okay, let's dive into these five different story characters, as well as point out distinctions between heroes and protagonists and villains and antagonists.
5 COMMON STORY CHARACTERS IN FICTION
🎭 1. HEROES or HEROINES
Heroes and heroines are some are the most common types of story characters. As I'm sure other fellow writers are aware of, heroes are typically male characters and heroines are female characters. But whichever the case, these characters are those known for saving the day or the ones who resolve a certain situation or problem within a story. Sometimes these characters are called protagonists; however, heroes and protagonists are interchangeable terms and for good reasons. Protagonists are always the main characters in a story. This is unlike heroes and heroines which isn't always the case. A good example of a hero that wasn't the protagonist in the story is the Woodsman in the children's story "Little Red Riding Hood" who rescued the little girl (Little Red Riding Hood) from the wolf in the story. Other examples of heroes and heroines are of course superheroes, such as Batman, Wonder Woman, and the characters of the Parr family from the 2004 Pixar film, The Incredibles.
💡Tip #1: HEROES AND HEROINES AREN'T REQUIRED TO BE SUPERHEROS. Although these characters are mostly associated with superheroes who have "superpowers," heroes and heroines can be just about anyone who makes a significant difference in another character's life or their story world. These can range from a superhero to doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, someone's next-door neighbor, or a pet dog.
🎭 2. VILLIANS or BAD GUYS
Villains are the bad guys and girls in stories that attempt to prevent the heroes or heroines from reaching their goals in a story. Some examples of villains are the Penguin and the Joker in the Batman movies and Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik from the Sonic, The Hedgehog video games and animated movies. These characters are also called antagonists, but as heroes and protagonists, villains and antagonists are also used interchangeably. This is because villains are always antagonists, but antagonists aren't always villains. Antagonists could just be other characters within a story who's goals conflict with that of the protagonists. Some antagonists aren't even people or animals, but they could be circumstances, natural disasters, societal notions or beliefs, institutions, or other types of forces that hinder or get in the way of the protagonists. For example, two antagonistic forces in my current Christian and Historical fiction novel The Pact of Freedom are the institution of slavery and racial injustice.
💡Tip #2: ANTAGONISTS CAN BE INTERNAL CONFLICT WITHIN PROTAGONISTS. In some cases, the protagonist's only antagonistic force could be their own internal struggles or insecurities, such as fear, repressed memories, jealousy, or lack of self-confidence.
🎭 3. SIDEKICKS or CONFIDANTS
Sidekicks, also called confidants, are characters that accompany and spend a lot of time with the protagonists or main characters during the course of the story. These characters may be who the protagonists trust the most and can fall into various categories, such as best friends, family members, colleagues, close companions, or other associates of a similar field of work. Sidekick characters are also typically supporting characters for assisting protagonists during their journeys toward reaching their goals in the story. Some examples of sidekick characters are Dr. Watson of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who is almost always by Sherlock Holmes side, Tonto, the Native Indian from the classic western The Lone Ranger, Buzz Lightyear from the animated film Toy Story, and the Scarecrow, Tin man, and Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.
🎭 4. LOVE or ROMANTIC INTERESTS
Love or romantic interests are characters that are potential love partners to the protagonist in a story. These characters could be male or female characters and are often used in different romance novel tropes, such as "friends to lovers," "enemies to lovers," or forbidden love connections because of certain societal dilemmas like racial tension, religion, status, or culture. Some examples of love interest characters are Juliet in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Maria in the 1961 musical, romantic drama film, West Side Story.
🎭 5. VIEWPOINT CHARACTERS
Viewpoint characters are the narrators or point-of-view characters through whose eyes the story is being told to the reader. These characters may or may not be the protagonists, but they are responsible for setting the point of view in the story. Viewpoint characters can also establish the mood of scenes and chapters, as the readers are experiencing the story from the perspective of a particular character, and characters as we know have emotions just as we humans do; or at least, they should. Something that should be considered when it comes to viewpoint characters is that they can also alternate within a story.
For example, a writer may have one chapter from one character's viewpoint, and then another chapter from another characters' viewpoint. This is what I did in my Christian and women's fiction debut novel, Eva's Promise, alternating between the wife and the husband's third-person viewpoints. Another novel with multiple viewpoint characters is in the historical fiction novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which has three different point-of-view characters, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. In chapters with "scene breaks," this allows writers to give the impression of a camera zooming in or panning from character to character. Other viewpoint characters are written from a "godlike perspective" or third omniscient point-of-view, such as Matilda by Roald Doyle and The Lord of the Flies by William Goldberg.
📣CLOSING REMARKS:
Story characters can come in a wide range of categories, but knowing these five ones I've listed is beneficial in recognizing the most common story roles in fiction and how you can use them in creative ways for your own stories. If you liked this post, please, give a (heart ❤️️) and share your thoughts or comments below. 💬).
Happy Writing! 😊✍🏽💻
ALSO STAY TUNED FOR PART 3: 4 MAIN INGREDIENTS OF REALISTIC CHARACTERS
🤔Writers, what is your favorite type story character listed below?
Heroes or Heroines
Villains or Bad Guys
Sidekicks or Confidants
Love or Romantic interests
Affiliate links are embedded in this post.
Comments