Why Are Book Characters So Boring?

Finding a book that matches the genre you love is a wonderful feeling. Until you read the description and realize it’s almost the same characters as the last book you read.

Dark romances are on the rise, and with that come dark, brooding men who are either the heir to a mafia clan, an alpha werewolf in a pack, or even better, the wealthy CEO who everybody fears because he’s so cold and mean.

In these new-era romances, the female character is shy, carries an “innocent” aura, and is oblivious to absolutely everything. Or, they paint her as super confident, stubborn, and doesn’t take shit from anybody.

We love strong female characters who know their worth and can defend themselves, but for that, you have to know what makes a strong female character.

In most recent and well-known books, we have quirky, down-to-earth female characters who become snarky and aggressive when they meet the male protagonist. With the typical personality traits like these described for characters, nothing is interesting about them. They carry no depth, lack complexity, and are hardly ever realistic. 

So why exactly is this the norm now? What possesses people to write characters and not truly make them memorable? 

Lack of character development is the most common downfall. Nowadays, it feels like authors are becoming more and more lazy with writing. Instead of writing what they truly want, they write what will get them published. 

While going for something more trendy is a way to make a book gain traction, originality can make not only the author but also the plot and the characters shine. 

Tropes like “enemies to lovers” have become all too common to write. Some authors desperately want best sellers, so they try to write their books with said trope and focus heavily on that only. They will do this so much that they lose focus on character development. 

While fiery passion and angst have us dying to read more, the story can get boring, especially when the characters don’t grow. 

In a lot of dark, young adult and fantasy romances, there seem to be a number of erotic scenes between the two main characters, typically after they get over their rage from one another and experience lust. 

However, that’s it. It’s just lust. 

While erotic scenes in a book can spice it up and portray how the characters really desire one another…sometimes too much of it overshadows the plot and the characters. 

Ice Breaker by A.L. Graziadei, a popular book on BookTok, exemplifies what it means to have a book with just pure erotica. They have two characters that don’t like each other and when they do end up liking one another and engage in sexual intercourse, that’s all it is for basically the rest of the book. 

Having spicy scenes in almost every chapter without any growth in their relationship is overdone. While it’s important to see characters develop their own personalities…it’s nice to see them grow together as one. Having them hump every chapter without an ounce of love being portrayed is not really adding to the character's development. 

There are multiple ways to make a good character, but the most common is to have a character outline. Character outlines can go as deep as the author wants but having important details about this character can make them easier to write. 

A character outline can include the basics which involves their age, race, hometown, where they reside in the story and then about their physical appearance, and how they dress, then dig deeper into their core where you describe their flaws, their goals, strengths and weaknesses, traumas and maybe even their families and friends if they have any. 

In-depth character outlines create characters that can not only have your nose deep into a book but also weep for a character or jump in joy for them. That should be the way to read a book. 

Strike Out, 

Jessica Harris 

Boca Raton

Jessica Harris is a Content Writer for Strike Magazine Boca. As a proud introvert, she is described to be quiet but always up for challenges to get her out of her shell.  When not overworking herself with school and work, she’s nose deep in a book on her balcony, sobbing over Kdramas or constantly writing in hopes to publish a book. You can reach her at jessicaharris777@gmail.com.