Not every character in your story needs to be fully developed. Sometimes you need characters who engage in readily recognizable relationships and actions simply to keep the story moving.
Such a person is known as a stock character. The personality and manner of speech for such a character already has been set down in the genre by previous writers – set down over and over, in fact.
In science fiction, a common type of a stock character is the absent-minded professor. A genius of sorts, the absent-minded professor’s focus on his academic research often causes him to be unaware of his surroundings or to forget some important, non-academic matter. Other kinds of science fiction stock characters are robots and Star Trek’s infamous redshirts.
Though stock characters can be degrading stereotypes (the scientist’s beautiful daughter, for example), if instead used as an inoffensive minor character they’re often necessary to a story. In Star Trek, for example, characters may need to die to show an alien’s maliciousness and the direness of the situation. The main characters can’t be killed, so the alien instead murders a stock character such as a security officer (also known as a redshirt).
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
absent-minded professor, characters, redshirt, robot, stereotype, stock characters
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