How normal are your characters?

[Hydrogen]

I like unusual people, so those are the type of characters I write. I find them to be more entertaining.

[StephanieZie]

I have two gut-level reactions to this question:

1) I write about normal people. I don't write about demons or vampires, or princesses, or people with magical powers, or anything of that sort. I write about people anybody could know.

2) I don't write about normal people because I don't think there are any normal people, or at least not any worth writing or reading about. The vast majority of us could probably describe our lives and be seen as "normal" or "mundane", but each of us is the hero of our own story. My peripheral characters might be "normal" background people, but my MC's are individuals with complex inner lives. Or at least I like to hope

[P-Jay]

I think it's the events that a character is faced with and how the character reacts is what defines who they are. If you just write about this character and their "normal" day to day life, then sure, they'll seem normal.

It all depends on your story... is there a crazy cat lady? Do one of the MC's sidekicks have a weird obsession with wearing mis-matched shoes?

[Cappy1]

This reminds me of one of my favourite quotes by Clive James: 'Some people are different, and so are the rest of us.'

[MikeCheck]

Originally Posted by gettingby

Do you stick to normal characters and put them in abnormal situations or do you have abnormal characters in normal situations?

What about normal characters in normal situations??

Okay, to be serious though, I like to think that my characters are normal enough to be relate-able, but abnormal enough to be interesting.

[Wilde_at_heart]

I think 'normalcy' is sometimes a facade and sometimes an illusion Depends on what people fear. Some people fear not fitting in, others fear being mediocre or ordinary.

In my experience I have known some fairly conventional people who fear being viewed by others as conformists or part of 'the herd' so they dress strangely, etc to differentiate themselves.
And I know plenty of people who hide a lot of trauma, quirks, kinks or problems behind an outward appearance they believe is more socially acceptable.
Generally the more 'abnormal' a person feels they are, from what I've observed, the more they try to 'act normal'.