Annoying characters are well… annoying. They make you want to bang your head against something. They make you want to grab them by the shoulders and yell “STOP BEING SUCH A STUPID BUTT!” as loudly as you can in their ears. And worse of all, they sometimes make you want to throw the book they are apart of into a wall (or into a fire pit).
I can’t stand books with annoying characters, especially if the character I find so irritating is an “important” character like the main one. I get it if a character has an annoying little brother who won’t shut up – I have one too. It does help readers feel his/her pain if the little bro comes off as a prick. But when the main character is the one that makes me want to pull all my hair out, enough is enough. I don’t need another annoying butt head to deal with. So here are 6 types of annoying characters.
The Whiny / Pity Me Ones
If I were to meet one of these characters in real life, this is what I would say to them. Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP! I don’t care about your trivial problems. Get on with it. There’s more interesting things in life than listening to you go and on and on about how she stole your prom dress (or gasp, boyfriend). I don’t care that you got grounded for just sneaking out. Stop complaining. Someone bring me some duct tape so I can tape this character’s mouth shut!
The Stupid Ones
You know the feeling, that urge you get when you watch horror movies (or something similar) and you just want to yell advice to the characters? Advice that’s should be obvious and common sense like “Don’t go in there!” or “Don’t do that!”. These are the characters that make me want to face palm repeatedly. They are like “Hey, that looks scary. Good thing that I don’t need to do that because I could end up in a dangerous situation I want no part of. But let me try it anyways“. Um, do you not listen to your own thoughts? You know the part WHERE IT’S DANGEROUS and that you DON’T NEED TO DO IT! Yeah, that part.
Inconsistent with Circumstances
These types of characters don’t quite fit in with their circumstances. Their actions and feelings are weird and it affects you’re ability to connect with them – which I think is a huge issue if the character is the main character. For example, for a character’s birthday, her parents get her a sweet gaming setup. Instead of being grateful and thanking them (like almost everyone else would and should do) she goes on a rant about how the console is too slow and how it’s not good enough for her. Insert eye roll here.
The Lovesick Ones
“Oh, doesn’t his eyes look soooooo dreamy?” She thinks while doodling his name in her notebook. I think I’ll pass. After all, I do go to this place called high school…
The Arrogant Ones
“I’m so cool!” “Look at me, aren’t I pretty?” Um, no thanks. Arrogance is probably the most annoying character trait to me in people and thus I deem characters who are extremely arrogant, annoying. Great self confidence is nice, but taking it to the extreme that is arrogance is not. Especially when making your ego bigger involves putting others down. That’s just not right.
The Stereotypical Ones
I hate it when characters just seem to reinforce stereotypes. Yes, some people will fall into them. Some Asians will be smart. Some blonds will be dumb. But that don’t mean every single one of them will. And nothing annoys me more than when a book is filled with them. Characters defying stereotypes are great. Characters embodying those stereotypes are not.
What are the annoying types of characters to you?
I don’t think I come across some of the characters you’re talking about too often but there’s one in a particular book that isn’t exactly stupid… it’s more like pointless or boring. I really can’t stand when I’m reading a book and I’m just “Why should I care about this character?” It’s just so flat and dull!
Oh, I forgot about those types of characters. Those really are the worse. They kind of kill the enjoyment of reading the book.
Thanks for stopping by Kaniesha! 🙂
I’m not sure I agree totally with this. I see where you’re coming from, but I do think that some of these traits can be great strategies for a writer – especially since they are real human flaws, and isn’t fiction nothing more than a reflection of reality? Let’s face it: some people IRL actually are whiny. Some are stupid. Some are arrogant. People do fall in love, and they do act lovesick – it’s part of being human.
I would agree with #3 and #6. Those are pretty inexcusable. But the other ones – if done well – can make beautiful, funny, amazing, and, most importantly, flawed and real characters.
I totally agree with you. I think I may have gotten carried away and just wrote about annoying characters in general whether they were supposed to be annoying (which I really should have left off this list) or if they came off as annoying and weren’t supposed to be… And I think I started basing the characters of people too. My bad. 🙁
Thanks for stopping by Topaz! 🙂
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I don’t like useless ones. This happens a lot with the main character, which is so sad but true. This is the character that sits on her/his butt while the other charcters carry them along.
I totally agree with your others, though!
Personally I like an arrogant character if it’s on purpose and really over the top like aph Prussia, but that’s just my opinion
Though I do hate the type that are just all talk and end up being really pathetic