10 Character Traits I Love

When you follow a protagonist, wiggle around inside their personal thoughts and read about their struggles, you really get to know them. Understand them. But that doesn’t mean you actually like them.

This wonderfully creative and unusual topic for Top Ten Tuesday, I mean who could have possibly come up with this, is all about the traits I just love to read in a protagonist. Here are ten traits I love to read about.

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Loyalty

1 If they’ll stand by their friends, no matter what, they’re a pretty awesome protagonist.

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Sass

2 Snark, sass, sarcasm- the three main Ss that all good characters need.

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Centred

3 Characters who don’t get frazzled at the first sign of a problem, who stay calm in a crisis and collected when everything’s going wrong.

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Confidence

4 There’s something inate about the self assured characters that make them easy to read. If a character is always deliberating over their next move or reading way too much into what they’ve just done I get a bit bored.

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Brave

5 Because who wants to read about a hero who’s always running away?

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Humour

6 Scratch that, I’ll read about your hero always running away if they’re a good laugh.

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Occasionally Wrong

7 Characters who are right all the time are just… dull? I want the jazz of excitement that comes with a humbling ‘oh dear’ experience.

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Politically Correct

8 If you’re characters racist, homophobic, sexists anything like that I’m unlikely to want to read about them.

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Kind

9 Characers that bully? Belittle? Pick on others, exused because of a dark past or secret crush? Yeah no, I’m not a fan of those, please write them out immediately.

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Ungifted

x I struggled to think of a trait that summed up exactly what I mean here. I like characters who don’t get everything on a silver plate, who don’t stumble on all the best magical charms, get all the natural abilities, and just obviously outshine the rest. I’ll root for the humble, realistic, down to Earth character who occasionally doesn’t come out on top.

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Let’s Compare Notes

So there you have it! Ten characters traits I love in a protagonist. Do you agree? Have a list of your own? Think this is a fabulous topic and have come here to graciously thank me for coming up with it? Would love to hear from you in the comments section!