Cliche Characters to Avoid

Cliches are one of the most dreaded parts of being a writer because there's no real way to avoid using them. There are numerous ways to avoid using them, but a more effective method is to embrace them while trying to work with them to create some sort of unique character. Obviously, this is fraught with its own challenges, but it's something you need to attempt anyway.

The best way to shift a character away from cliché will always be to provide the character with a decent backstory, flesh out the character's personality, and throw limitations at the character. However, there will be those times when you need the cliché; a fully-developed character is not always what you need, and, in fact, sometimes you need the stereotype (if you're doing a short story, stereotypes save you a lot of verbiage). Here are some of the more common cliches and how to either avoid them or use them with a little more effect.

The Fanatic

Too many writers have at least one character with pretty strong beliefs who is willing to do anything in the name of those beliefs, be it some religion, philosophy, or mode of thought, even atheism. The idea is to show that those that share the character's beliefs are insane, or at least not normal, compared to everyone else. While it can work in some settings, such as a historical setting, the character usually comes off as a stereotypical straw man, created solely to devalue the philosophy the character values.

The best way to deal with this problem is to provide a counterpoint character; if the character represents the worst of the philosophy, then you need another character to represent the best of that philosophy. Sometimes there just is no positive version of the fanatic, and that's fine if it's the case; you should just try to prevent showing an entire group as full of lunatics or worse when possible. It just shows a lack of research on your part at best, and bigotry of some stripe at worst.

The Criminal with the Heart of Gold

Sometimes when you've written yourself into a corner, you realize that the simplest way out is for someone to show up and help the character out. The even easier way is for one of the bad guys to see the goodness of the character or something that reminds him or her of how they used to be, how they wanted to be, and to give the character some assistance. This can be a big bad gangster, an assassin just before he kills the character, or even a prostitute.

The usual solution is that the criminal either dies for betraying their boss or becomes an ally; this can work if you've laid down some groundwork and fleshed out the character. You can even set up that the main character has confederates throughout the setting and the criminal happens to be one. The criminal can also save the character for a price, either paid then or later (this can add some additional drama to the situation). A sudden conversion will always feel weird, and bringing the character into the situation just to have them fade back into the shadows will not help your story. Use the character for more than just a rescue.

The Slut

Highlighting sins is always fun, and sex is usually the most fun to have fun with. This means that characters with an addiction to sex will get a lot of use, be it male, female, or otherwise. This can be the femme fatale, the hedonist, the lecherous boss, or even the bored housewife; the character's sole purpose is to have sex with the main character. If the character needs sex as an initiatory experience (such as to become an adult or to be a little tarnished) this can work, as well as using the slut as a moral test or as the price necessary to obtain something or just move the plot forward.

Again, the point here is to use the slut in more ways than just to have a sex scene. This is not to say that you should avoid gratuitous sex scenes (sometimes they can be fun to write and actually help the story); just that if you can't use it to develop the character and/or the plot like any other story element, debate using it.

The Artist

Generally, an artist character is a self-insert character or used to comment on the arts, either directly, a current movement, or the community as a whole. If you're using it as a self-insert, don't use it as the main character or else the story may come off as more of a personal ego-stroking. Conversely, if you're trying to comment on art, remember to show, don't tell; nothing is worse than a pontificating artist, even if he's drunk or in therapy. Show as much as possible, preferably with little more than a snarky comment.

This is not to dissuade you from having an artist character; they can add some nice symbology and lamp-lighting. Just be very, very careful how you do it.

The Trickster

This isn't just the comedy relief; it's a character whose dedicated to demonstrating the absurdity of life and usually has some sort of power to back it, either because their position is recognized or they are one of the most powerful characters in the universe. Mr. Mxyptlk is the best-known comics version, but Loki is the go-to in mythology (and comics, go figure). The Joker may seem to qualify here, but he's too interested in doing damage; a true trickster is more interested in getting people to see the cosmic joke and getting them to laugh than seeing how big of a body count they can create. Deadpool, however, works as he demonstrates how silly comics can get.

While the trickster is supposed to be there to make an actual point while providing some humor, too many writers use the trickster to insert randomness into the story or, worse, force the plot away from where it was going. That is, the trickster shows up whenever the plot seems to be boring or the main characters aren't doing what the writer wants them to be doing; the trickster will then force the plot in the direction needed, usually by revealing a clue or even hiring someone to go where the plot needs them to go.

The problem is that the trickster is forcing the plot to go somewhere with all of the force of a wrench against pipes. While it's fine to facilitate a plot (such as Loki getting Thor in a wedding dress), it's lazy writing to use a character to force the plot somewhere (Mr. Mxyptlk dropping the Justice League off in front of the super-secret villain headquarters they were looking for); at that point, it's akin to using coincidence in a big way and that should always be avoided. Tricksters have also hired assassins to force the characters' hands, helped them win contests to get boat/plane/starship tickets, and even destroyed roads to force the characters to take a particular path.

This doesn't work because the characters should never be just pawns: They should be in control, even if that control is illusory.

This is a touchy one; while it's okay for the trickster to be the motivating force, such as a patron, you need to make sure that the characters have agency while earning whatever happens to them through their own actions. If you're just using the trickster to move the plot along, then it may be time to really look at your plot. Also, please make sure that the jokes are actually funny or that the tricks actually teach something; if they aren't funny or educational, then you may not be the best person to write a trickster.

The Weary Immortal 

Too many times you see a character who has lived for a ridiculous length of time and is just bored of it; he's looking for a way to die but just can't do it. While this can be great in stories where people rediscover their passion or where you are looking to show that good must remain ever-vigilant, this ends up being such a cliché that it just sometimes results in eye rolls. Especially if the "immortal tired of living" gains new life from a teenager, and that goes double if it's some sort of romance.

Just try to avoid this one if at all possible and if you do make sure that you have a good reason for it.

The Deconstructed Pastiche

This is one all-too-familiar to comic book fans: Take a popular character, strip him down to his basics, and then apply "real world psychology" to him. This is how we get Homelander (Superman but raised by a corporation so he's evil) and Rorschach (Batman by way of the Uestion but without the charm). This is actually a great way to explore how a character functions and the significance of that character in a different environment to see what makes the character unique or special. It also allows you to take a common archetype and give it your own twist.

Sometimes, like The Boys or Invincible, it's fun to do a deconstruction just to satirize the genre as a whole.

However, the problem is that sometimes writers have the wrong kind of fun with this character. They tear down the character in order to show how the character inherently fails and why the character is simply no longer relevant. In this case, rather than exploring the character the writer is looking to demonstrate why the character should be relegated to the trash heap. These types of deconstructions rarely work the way the writer wants: It's no fun to deconstruct a character that no longer works (such as Tarzan, who relies on colonialism being seen as positive) or whose problem is due to other considerations (such as Batman and his killing problem).

Deconstructions can work, just make sure that you are doing a respectful deconstruction and you should do fine.

The Reconstructed Pastiche

Conversely, there's that time when you take a character back to basics. Sometimes it can be fun just to see how the original character would do in the modern era (the time-displaced version of the original X-Men), to have fun with the original version but in a different form (such as the Earth-2 "Kal-L" Superman), or reset the character back to an older version because the current version has too much baggage and it's time to start fresh (Wonder Woman comes to mind here). In some cases, characters that haven't aged well are given a facelift for the modern era.

It can sometimes be fun to mess around with a classic, so writers bring back older versions of characters all the time to give them a chance to play around with simpler eras.

However, some writers ultra-simplify the character and it just isn't all that fun; people forget that what we perceive as a "simpler era" had nuances that they're getting wrong just to write In some cases, they try to take characters that simply wouldn't work today and try to "reform" them for modern audiences without bothering to try to figure out what makes the character work. The key to making them work is to figure out why they worked then, take out the stuff that wouldn't work now, and apply the rest; your readers will love you for doing so.

The Political Statement

Writing will always be political; even kids' books can be political, and that's fine. This call-out is for the character whose sole purpose is to make a political point but otherwise adds almost nothing to the story as a whole. That is, the character is there primarily to provide support for a political point or show why it's silly. While there's nothing wrong intrinsically with the concept, and there are plenty of writers who have used them to effect, the problem comes up when the character is nothing but a shallow caricature; while this can work if the character makes few appearances, this can take readers out of the story if it comes up too often.

Either way you do it, you need to develop the character. If you're using him to support a cause, you need him to be someone the readers can relate to and therefore sympathize with; if they can't relate to him then they will never really support him, thus rendering him useless for your purposes. If you're using him to make fun of a cause, then he needs to be taken seriously, and he can only be taken seriously if he's as fleshed out as the other characters. So use these characters to attack and defend politics, just remember to build them up as much as you do other characters.

The Corrupt Politician

Obviously, I'm not going defend politicians here or even say don't use them as villains; the point here is that corrupt politicians can be some of the most cliché characters. The only real solution is to build the politician as you would any other important character: They need more than just the desire for power; they need some reason to be after that power than the power itself, at least initially. So go ahead and explore the "power corrupts" theme, but remember that it needs something to corrupt; the politician needs to have a reason to be after that power. He needs to be able to sleep at night, and having a cause allows him to do that.

The Activist

It doesn't matter if it's a terrorist, a protester, or someone with a strong opinion, activists tend to get annoying. The problem is that their speeches become the trademark of the character, and they have a speech for everything. Yet again, this is not to prevent you from discussing politics, just an observation that a character should not be monologuing every chance they get. Say it with me, kids: "Characters need to be built fully developed," and this applies to EVERY character. Have the character protest a lot, sure, but they shouldn't be protesting everything and there are times when they can do more protest, such as firing a machine gun into the zombie hordes.

Just lay off monologuing about the evils of everything and you should be okay.

The Mustachioed Scorpion

The problem with some villains is that they are just there to do evil, and that just doesn't work. If you want the villain to be memorable, then he needs to have a reason for what he does; a villain with a good reason for his actions will always be more memorable than one who just does evil for the sake of doing evil. This applies just as much to demons as it does to low-level bureaucrats; the character with a reason for his actions is always more interesting and more terrifying than "I kill because it's fun". Even a beast kills for a reason: It needs to eat, defend its territory, and create a safe area for its mate and children.

While you can have someone doing some pretty terrible things just for the sake of evil, those villains tend to be one-note and boring, so try to avoid them. Even Jason was avenging his mother, Freddy was attacking those who had attacked him, and Pinhead was looking for something new; give them motivation and you make them worth remembering.

[I'm purposely mixing two metaphors: One-dimensional villains are said to be twirling their mustaches, a reference to the old Republic serial villains. There is also the fable about the scorpion and the frog, which is worth looking up.]

The Mary Sue/Gary Stu

While it can be fun to have a heroine that's way overpowered every so often, try to avoid these as much as possible. If the character trounces every challenge she faces, has no consequences if she fails, and generally overcomes every challenge that comes up, it may be time to seriously look at the character. While it can be fun to use these characters, especially if the story is pure escapism, try to limit these characters as much as possible.

* * * * *

This should help you avoid most of the basic traps, and if you do fall into them it should give you a way to deal with them. The key takeaway here is that, while these are things to be avoided, there is a reason that they are a cliché: They are used a lot because they are very useful in storytelling. Like any other tool, you need to figure out when they are best used and to use them as precisely as possible for the best effect. That is, use them but use them to effect when you do use them and you should be fine.