: Re: How best to avoid the appearance of stereotype? I am seriously considering adding a character based on a man I know. This man is very irksome, rather pretentious and refers to himself in the

@Mendez196

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Galastel covers much. The other way, if you are reluctant to create a cast of characters, is to give your character some prominent sympathetic and non-stereotypical trait; so the reader doesn't perceive them as a stereotype.

IRL (Here in the USA) I have a family member that claims to be a staunch Republican. However, he does believe in taxpayer funded public services like health care for all, he also believes "serious" college education should be free for anybody that can pass the entrance exams. (By "serious" he means no art, dance, music, interpretive literature, etc that he thinks won't get a kid a "real job" outside of academics itself. His condition is the free education must be in pursuit of a Bachelor's and perhaps Master's degree that on average increases job income, and doctorates in things like medicine or law).

Those positions are firmly in the camp of Democratic Socialism, but he will angrily reject any notion he is a Socialist, no matter what the definition. He claims he believes in leveling starting points for kids, but once they leave school they are on their own. Unless economies of scale (like in health care) can reduce the average cost for everybody. And he walks his talk, he has adopted two kids, funded their college education, and is funding the education and health care of two of their kids.

So he is a contradiction, but if I wanted to write a non-stereotypical Republican, I might borrow some of those attitudes; i.e. a Republican character with a soft spot for all kids, and believes collectively we should all sacrifice to help them reach their maximum potential, but at the same times does not believe the same thing about adults.

Invent something about your character that goes against the stereotype, figure out how to justify it, make it prominent, and your character will no longer seem like a stereotype.

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