What's Your Type?

I have a type. A type that my eye immediately goes to and my heart always gets involved with. But I’m not talking about real life people, I’m talking about characters. My favorite character type is the tortured, dark-haired pretty boy. I love those guys. They make me want to wrap them up in a warm blanket hug and feed them cookies until they smile. So who are some of my favorites?

Number one has to be Sergeant Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier. The poor man doesn’t even have control of his own mind! And all he wants is to be with his boyfriend – I mean errr… pal, Captain America, Steve Rogers. He's so emotionally wounded. He gets all the heart eyes from me.

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Another favorite is CM Punk. He just wanted to show the wrestling world what he could do, but he was held down by the evil corporate bosses of WWE. How unfair!

I just started watching Once Upon A Time and pretty soon after he appeared on screen, Captain Hook was added to my list. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin treated him horribly. He didn’t deserve that. I'm only in season four, so there's still time for him to get his happy ending. But I must shamefully admit I'm hoping he stays sad for a little bit longer.

With these tortured dark-haired types as my favorite characters to watch, it was only natural that I would write my own dark haired pretty boy to pull on my heart strings. Officer Clay Foster from The Sergeant was inspired by that archetype. I’d say of the characters I’ve written so far, he’s my favorite. He was so angsty in book one and now in book two, I’m torturing him even more. Bad me! But I can’t help it. And it’s okay, because of course he has Logan there to give him that blanket hug and cookies.

Of course I don't only write or pay attention to this type of character. But archetypes are important in fiction. They help readers to connect with a character, giving them someone to identify with. And of course readers don't always have the same favorites. It's what motivated the whole Team Jacob vs Team Edward era, everyone has a preference. (Oddly enough, I was Team Jacob there) Reading a book with a character who falls into your preferred type is what makes you fall in love with that hero. I always enjoy listening to fans explain why a character from a book, movie or TV show is their favorite. We're all so different and that's what makes it fun.

So what are your favorite character types to read and/or write? Are you on Team Dark and Brooding with me? Or do you like the sunshiney charismatic types? Or maybe you prefer the shy, quiet nerd boys. Let me know! I’d love to see everyone’s favorites.

Thanks for reading!
Christa
www.ChristaTomlinson.com
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Originally posted on the Cafe Risque Blog