Author Appeal

• As I'm a teetotarian, I make some of the good characters as non-drinkers. Also I like to discuss if legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, etc) whether are better or not than illegal ones.
• Since I had a crush on an albino girl, I like albinoes. Also there's some artistical exploitable in them, they're good to deconstruct beauty ideals by not making a character actually ugly. One of my character is found as a freak by others because of her reddish eyes and pale skin, is targeted by bullying, while others (such as the main) find her beautiful.
• Heavy Metal.
• Result of a serious creator breakdown, Deconstruction, Dark and Troubled Past, Byronic Hero, Abusive Parents.
• I hate strawmen.
• Intellectual characters. Especially Magnicifient Bastards.
• Rule of Cool.

In answering the "Questions for your main character" thread about some of my characters, it occurred to me that I've got some other Author Appeal tropes that keep turning up without me being aware of it.

Averting Never a Self-Made Woman - in my Post-Cyberpunk story, although three of the women are employed by one of the male protags, all three are part of the team on their own merits and were only hired because they were bloody good at what they do - one's an ex-cop the firm actively recruited, another was similarly lured away from her regular job in a related field because she showed the "Right Stuff" and the third, although technically she was the daughter and employee of a prominent Personal Protection Specialist and was trained by him, it was she who (on her father's retirement) instigated the setting up of the new firm and basically point-blank refused to be the boss and Primary Protection Agent on the grounds that it suited her better if someone else (the male) did all the hard work.

In my current WIP, the female character is not at all related to any of the others and, prior to the beginning of the story, was independently successful in life.

I also noted that I like the Plucky Girl trope as most of my female characters in various works fit it.

Also Action Survivor: Two in my current WIP, one in the Post-Cyberpunk story and another of my proposed works had pretty much every character falling under this trope.

Although I've only actually written one story, a large majority of ideas I've come up with have come out of an excuse to see a Cat Fight, and if I ever write more, most of them will probably have them.

There may also be an Accidental Kiss in there somewhere....if it's two girls involved.

There are probably more I'm not thinking of, but that's it for now.

I like my awkwardly social funny people.

I've never seen the appeal of a Cat Fight, from any perspective. It always seems silly to me.

I definitely don't find it sexy; like, there's beating the crap out of each other.

Understandable really.

I can't explain why I like it myself. I just do. The really funny thing is that the one story I've actually written didn't even have it.

You didn't list your Author Appeal there friend.

You must become One Of Us!!!!!

Ich mag Gratuitous German vielleicht mehr als ich sollte.

Other than that, I've a soft spot for Anti-Hero and Immortality; in fact that main character of my current project embodies both of these. Not the german, though. Wouldn't really fit in a fantasy world.

Another of my favourites is Glass Cannon combined with Fragile Speedster. There used to be a trope on it but that was deleted. The MCs in my games tend to be these, as a huge handful of Mooks and secondary characters.

I've noticed when designing non-human characters, I tend to go for extra arms and/or eyes

I also love Those Two Bad Guys. 21 and 24 and Vincent and Jules have to be some of my favorite duos ever

Grey-and-Gray Morality: Intentional

Axe-Crazy: Unintentional

Kill Em All: Probably Intentional.

edited 1st Sep '13 9:43:54 PM by KW