I am trying to create something for a story, and I need some insight. Those who wish to contribute, if you could please answer this question:

What do you like about your favorite book characters?

What do you dislike about your least favorite characters?

In the end, I will attempt to create something out of the general idea of what makes a character awesome.

With my favorite characters, I like how they have all these faults and things that aren't perfect about them and they know about them. They don't try to hide them or anything.

My least favorite characters just lack character development.

Bump

My #1 favorite character is my favorite because he almost has too much of a backstory. You can never over-explain things if you draw it out.
My least favorite character is my least favorite because he had no character and was really just introduced to keep the storyline moving, then he was gone and that was it. You need to give characters some reasoning for what they do, where they are, and whatever else.

I agree with the other two.Characters are bad when they appear out of nowhere just to fill a space or be there in the background.Characters are good when they have faults and they aren't perfect but what I love about one of my favourite characters is that on the outside,she is literally perfect,but on the inside,she has a really honest,bold,brave and curious personality.Also,what will the story be about?

To answer your question, I haven't a clue yet. I'll create the story once I have a general idea. Thank you for your comments.

what do you like about your favorite book characters?

My ultimate books characters are very different from each other, but I think I can group most of them in categories:

- Give me characters that are not white or black, but that are grey. I love character that are good inside, but who are forced to commit evil deeds. If I know I should hate a character but desperately want them to get a second chance and to jump in the book to save them, they're almost sure to end up in my list of favorite characters.

- Characters that are almost too good to exist, but have bad things happening to them and end up dying of a tragic death. Make me cry for the death of a character, and I'll never forget them.

- Characters who evolve. It works both for good and bad characters, I love nice and immature or shy characters who did not start a as heroes but find strength, courage of wiseness, and I love characters who did not start as bad people but become terrible villains.

Of course, some of my favorite book characters do not exactly fit in one of these categories and some fit in more than one, but I find them accurate enough. In general, give some faults to your characters and/or torture them a bit and I'll like them XD.


What do you dislike about your least favorite book characters?

I don't like characters that are undeveloped, especially if they appear only as comics reliefs.
I don't like characters who act like victims (it can seem contradictory since I said I like when bad stuff happens to characters, but I like when characters continue to fight and I strongly dislike when they complain and whine to everybody.). It annoys me when I feel like an author forces the readers to hate a character, usually a villain, and for that do not give them a single good trait to a character (as I like when heroes have faults, I like villains to have at least some good traits).
Last but not least, please avoid "Mary-Sue" and stereotypes unless you play with them and your book is very well written.

My pet peeves somewhat change depending of the genre of the book, so if you knew what genre your story will be it would be easier to tell you what to avoid!

i like my favorite book character because she is strong, brave, has lots of willpower and loves Pegasus.
(Emily from The Pegasus Series)

i don't like my least favorite book character because he is cruel, hates Emily and her friends, calls Pegasus a horse and loves to see Emily and her friends in pain.
(Agent's J and O from The Pegasus Series)

The Pegasus Series By Kate O'Hearn:

Flame Of Olympus
Olympus At War
The New Olympians
Origins Of Olympus
Rise Of The Titans
The End Of Olympus

I loved the first three books of the Pegasus series! They were awesome! I didn't really like the other three though. It didn't really have me like the first ones.

Thank you for your feedback. I thought a lot about it(I agree with your second point about the bad stuff happening to characters that are stereotypically awesome.)