Working with stereotypes

Good morning!

Do we work with stereotypes? Yes...we...do! We avoid using real people in our stories so that we won't be sued; but what does that leave us? We can either build a character from 'whole cloth', or we can use stereotypes.

Stereotypes are wonderful things to work with; think of a ready-made template that you can shuffle the parts around here and there and you've got a character. I keep a variety of templates (stereotypes) on hand that I can remove from the box and alter in any number of ways. There's the 'self-absorbed celebrity' that I can make do almost anything. I mean, you take him or her out of the box, dust it off, and I can change its sex, make it a rock-star, a movie star, dress it up in pretty clothes and a not so pretty personality, or put it into a dire situation and show the growth in its personality as it slowly turns into someone who is handy to have around.

Then there's the good-ol'-boy redneck that can only think of getting drunk, laid, or both, in no particular order. I can show him as a stand-up kind of guy, or he can be the lowest of the low and become a not so bright villain. I can change his sex and make him the dirtiest kind of slattern, or a diamond in the rough.

Look around you. There are any number of people that you encounter every day that could be classified as stereotypes, if you don't look too close, and with a little imagination, they can be dressed up, dressed down, or left as they are. Keep in mind the level of their importance to the story. It's possible to invest too much effort into their personalities and wind up with a major character when you intended them to be simply a spear-carrier.

There is an interesting story about an author who became much better known after his death than he was in life, and his best known character became the subject of a couple of movies. The author intended the character to be no more than a secondary character, but he invested so much time and energy in him that he became not just a major character, but the main character of the story he was writing. It was a fortunate happenstance, but could prove to be a cautionary tale. What if the character didn't strike a chord with the readers? All that effort wasted.

So, as a writer, I keep my stereotyped characters close at all times. They provide versatile templates that I can use however I want. It's even possible to use the same template in a story in several different ways and arrive at not just one character, but an entire cast.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Questionable Interests and others.
Available on Kindle