Typecasting... yourself?

Have any of you noticed any immediately obvious trends among your characters? Do many of them share some similar personality traits? Does an archetype naturally spring to mind when you start writing up an SU? Or are you more comfortable playing a specific type of character?

I absolutely have had a "type" of character that I played a lot. Having been around the forum for so long, it's interesting to look back and see. Many, many, many of my characters were specific variations on "quiet, stubborn, practical and direct girl with a dash of not being fantastic at human interaction for X reason". When I noticed it a few years ago, I tried my best to create characters that strayed away from this archetype, but my most recent SU had actually fallen back on it without my noticing, somehow. xD

Have any of you had a similar experience?

I used to find it really hard to play characters who were quirky or older or who had thought processes too different from my own - even if their personalities were quite different. In the past few years though I've definitely expanded my roster of character types a lot. I can even do comedic characters now which used to be a real weak point.

I'm yet to play any truly stupid characters though. I just can't bring myself to do it.

I play a wide variety of characters, but the only character I've never done well is quiet, thoughtful, or submissive. Pretty much all of my characters have been at least some level of ambitious and many of them are bombastic or enthusiastic. I absolutely love having characters that I can justify having doing insane or silly things.

I like to think that ever since I strayed away from my horrible Ryan-filled self-insert habits, I've gotten a lot better at making varied and interesting characters, at least in terms of personality and appearance. Despite that, there's definitely a recurring theme of humour or comic relief in my characters. Comically angry, or oblivious, or insane in some way or another. I don't think I've ever written a serious character- or rather, written a serious character seriously. I've always snuck in some humor into their stories somehow, either through other characters or story elements. Maybe it's just my nature, but writing comedy comes to me a lot easier, and is a lot more enjoyable for me.

Overinflated egos, lone wolves, calm and/or cold, the subtle (or maybe not-so-subtle) potential to become a sexual symbol. Speaking of which, always and hella queer. XD

Also very forgettable according to Foxrally.

Foxrally said:

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I can confirm both that your characters have improved a lot since your noob days and that you've never written anything with a serious tone in your entire history on PC. :)

I really can't write dark, depressed, asocial characters well imo. Mine tend to be on the cheerful or energetic or even naive side, and honestly sometimes it's been just to counter the chars of others that were more akin to what I mentioned in the first sentence d:

So do you guys think there's merit to trying to play outside of your comfort zones, so to speak, or do you think that you play these characters because they are your strong suit, and you should just own it and hone it?

For myself, some of my most unique characters have been ones that have been completely opposite to my "type". I cannot, however, do humour for the life of me, which is why I really love Foxrally's characters and feel like it would almost be a shame if he ever tried his hand at a wholly serious character.

Eh I would stick to my cards because then there's consistency. When I try something new, I usually find it harder to stay in-character because I have the tendency to deviate and return to my roots. Guess more practice is required. It's still fun to push the boundaries of one's comfort zone but probably not in a professional and serious setting (thankfully many role plays here have casual and friendly environments).

For me, I always play characters who joke around a lot (even if I never write it in an IC thread). I also have the the tendency to create characters that are the "overprotective, older brother" type. These are mostly shown on a different forum, however.

As for stepping out of your comfort zone, I do believe that there's so-called merit to it. This is the reason that I'm most excited for the Secret Santa event, so I'm forced to do so. Usually, I try to think out of my self-built box, but I always revert back to my default.

I struggle writing bubbly, hyperactive and over the top excitable people. I tend to go for the more reserved personalities, the types to go to a party of friends and just sit in the back and watch everyone else.