Where art thou, character?

Every writer takes on a different challenge. For some, it might be a super complicated plot. Others, it might be multiple POVs.

For me, its my characters. When I write characters, I don't think about mini-flaws that I could give them to make them more "round". I also don't think about whether or not the traits that are taking form will make them relatable and sympathetic to the reader. I write the character whose voice speaks to me, who will best carry the story (because character and plot go hand in hand), and who will undergo the most development as said plot unfolds. 

Just as I love the challenge of writing my characters, one of my favorite parts of reading is meeting the characters. Here's my break-down of the protagonists I've seen in YA.

Protagonists that I've seen a lot of:

(As you can see, these tropes are female characters since protagonists of the YA genre are still predominantly female)

The tough-as-nails-I-will-beat-the-brains-out-of-you-kick-ass girl

      -I-will-protect-everything-dear-to-me girl often falls under this category

The stubborn-as-a-mule girl

The witty, cheerful girl with a hidden Past 

The doesn't-know-how-to-have-fun-studious girl until she meets a guy

And of course, the normal girl who is nice enough

Protagonist that I would love to read:

The Bully

       -Lauren Oliver came close to crafting a Bully Protagonist in her debut, BEFORE I FALL. Now, I love BIF for many reasons (the writing, the theme, the characters), but I wouldn't call Sam a real bully. More often, she's a follower of the main bully, and *spolier* after she dies, she makes an effort to turn for the better pretty quickly.

The Dense One 

Exactly how it sounds. And really, I've never read a YA novel with a dense protagonist. Usually, the protags are about as intelligent as the reader (unless the book is badly written--then you have an unintentionally dense protag). Though she was kind of dense around the boys, even Bella Swan was pretty up-to-date on her classical reading and had a praise-worthy vocabulary. I'm talking about an all around dense character here. Maybe it'd be too annoying if the reader were always a step ahead of the character leading the story, but I'd still love to see a protagonist of lower intelligence take me by the hand and show me a different world. This 

       -FLOWER FOR ALGERNON's protag, Charlie Gordon, starts off with an IQ 68, but very quickly he undergoes a procedure that bumps him off the scale.

       -FORREST GUMP (yes, there's a novel!) basically fits the dense protagonist, but you could easily argue that Forrest is actually a prodigy. 

The Coward

I'd just love to sink my teeth into a character in an epic story who is a coward through and through. 

And of course the character doesn't have to stay in one of these categories for the entire story. In fact, these kind of protagonists have so much potential for growth. How you do the growth will be crucial. Good character development should slowly come up to a boil, and if it doesn't, there should be a clear event or trigger incident that causes the sudden change.

Okay, I'm done being pretentious now. Thanks for humoring me because come on, I'm no agent. So obviously, the characters I'd love to see may not be the ones hot on the market now or acceptable to a mass of readers. 

What characters would you like to see more of in novels? (I focused on YA here because that's usually what I read but any umbrella genre is game). 

Nibbles for Thought

ON REALISTIC (BORING?) CHARACTERS:

I love perusing query-related blogs, so naturally I love Query Shark. This is the result of one of my searches:

"Real life rarely has a plot."

 -Query Shark (http://queryshark.blogspot.com/)

Reaction: :(

After a bout of sadness, I thought mulled over this quote, because truth be told I am a sucker for REAL LIFE because isn't quite as simple and lackluster as it seems (don't lie to me!). REAL LIFE is full of stories to be told and stories to relate to (Because don't all readers love it when they can click with the characters and their struggles? Please don't tell me you've ever had to engage in a televised fight to the death because that is really alarming).

There aren't many real life plots out there. There are YA contmeporaries that try to mimic real life but in the end don't quite succeed because the boys are kind-considerate-gorgeous/mythical-or-paranormal-creatures. Or the protagonists have special abilities. Or interesting stuff just happens in school. Or the adults are conveniently missing and teens actually have power. Or...you get my point.

Linked with un-REAL LIFE plots are un-REAL-LIFE characters. If the plot if going explode into a ball of flames, then the characters might as well be bad-ass enough to escape said fire or have special powers to conquer said fire. Mixing REAL LIFE characters with the un-REAL LIFE plot just doesn't....no, it just doesn't work.

 Like real life plots, there aren't enough real life characters out there. The first one I can think of on the top of my head is Holden Caufield and again, I hope that the majority of the normal population does not find itself in Holden-like situations.

Don't get me wrong--I adore the heroes and heroines of YA fiction. I love Percy and his demi-god awesomeness and Katniss with her berry guruness and Tris with her nine lives. The pitfall? Yes, I may be able to understand the fear of jumping off a ten story building. I mean, isn't fear just fear? Yes, I know fear. I KNOW what it feels like to fail a math test. The heart starts hammering, the palms start sweating, and the little voice goes off: oh no oh no oh no OH MY GOD. Flailing and spazzing ensues.

Ahem.

Let's go on a tangent here. Say I was a novel character. This would be on my character spreadsheet:
Female, 5'2, brown eyes, glasses, black hair. Likes to read, write, bake, draw. Incredibly bad at making on the spot decisions. Fear of heights. Fear of pain. Fear of dying. Fear of germs. Fear of bugs. Horrible balance--cannot stand on one foot. Life saving skills: none. Life saving knowledge: none. Good liar? Not really. Persuasive: eh. Supernatural powers: none. etc. etc. etc.

Now, I might be an extraodinary case of a useless, mundane, real life character, but you can see that there are little things that fictional characters take for granted. For example, running. I have a big thing about running in YA. I have not met a protagonist in a dystopian who is NOT good at running. Not just any running, but the running-for-your-life running-away-from-bad-guys. No YA character goes down because they get a cramp or fall. Also, another thing: 20/20 vision. I am literally blind without my glasses. I would actually run into a wall. Those exercises where there's a hypothetical house fire and you have to grab your five most important possessions? I have to waste one on glasses. Tell me if you know of a YA fantasy/dystopian/adventure protagonist whose Achilles heel is that they can't see (Simon from The Mortal Instruments does not count. He gets perfect vision after he's turned into a vampire.)

I myself am guilty of writing an UNREAL LIFE character for a semi-UNREAL LIFE plot. My MC is resourceful, a prodigy in interior design, and good at making deals. Granted, she's doesn't have the edge of physical or magical powers, but I've deliberately given her enough strengths so that she can play her role in a terror-filled plot and won't go splat at the inciting incident.

I want to make it clear that I do not think that any of the UNREAL LIFE characters are perfect by any means. They are flawed! They battle their own dilemmas and emotions!  That's why they are so fun to read about. But they are no where near flawed on the miniscule level as any REAL LIFE character would be.
 
What do you think? Do you find it harder to relate to characters who have unrealistic lives? Does it not matter to you if you can relate--is the story itself more important? Do you write real life characters in an unreal life plot, or do you find yourself giving your character the skills to play on your twisted game-board of a story?