Character Roles

Before the draft writing of the story begins, I will be focusing mainly on creating the characters for the novel. I will however continue the planning, but nothing will be solidly produced until all my characters are fully complete, and ready to be placed into the future story.

I have the idea for a general structure to go with, this is as follows.
For example I need a protagonist, a major/central character, an antagonist, and a number of other characters to fit in between these main roles, almost like how extras fill in on areas such as movies, and television.

You can find my developed characters in my A4 sketchbook. My book starts off with idea creation, endless drawings of possible characters, in a random assortment of poses. The book then moves onto drafting the characters, initial reference sheets to grabs basic understanding of how the final character per role will look like. After my drafts with contains one single illustration displaying what each individual character may look like, I draw several pages of each character, finalising them into polished characters. In these stages, I experiment with colour, poses, expressions, as well as tester drawings.

I will detail how these roles work, under this sentence. For this part of research, I did use reference, which I detail below.

*Highlighted text indicates I will use that role in the narrative.

• Major or central characters are vital to the development and resolution of the conflict. In other words, the plot and resolution of conflict revolves around these characters. * The hero role will be filled by the major/central character.

• Minor characters serve to complement the major characters and help move the plot events forward.

• Hero*:
  Optional, but I would like a hero character, to perhaps be of aid to the protagonist. For some reason I see a female character suiting this particular role, I would like the idea of a female heroine, as females in this kind of role are usually rarer than that of males. I may incorporate this role into my major/central character, as these roles could be similar in the story.

• Dynamic - A dynamic character is a person who changes over time, usually as a result of resolving a central conflict or facing a major crisis. Most dynamic characters tend to be central rather than peripheral characters, because resolving the conflict is the major role of central characters.

• Static - A static character is someone who does not change over time; his or her personality does not transform or evolve.

• Round - A rounded character is anyone who has a complex personality; he or she is often portrayed as a conflicted and contradictory person.

• Flat - A flat character is the opposite of a round character. This literary personality is notable for one kind of personality trait or characteristic.

• Stock - Stock characters are those types of characters who have become conventional or stereotypical through repeated use in particular types of stories. Stock characters are instantly recognizable to readers or audience members (e.g. the femme fatale, the cynical but moral private eye, the mad scientist, the geeky boy with glasses, and the faithful sidekick). Stock characters are normally one-dimensional flat characters, but sometimes stock personalities are deeply conflicted, rounded characters (e.g. the "Hamlet" type).

• Protagonist - The protagonist is the central person in a story, and is often referred to as the story's main character. He or she (or they) is faced with a conflict that must be resolved. The protagonist may not always be admirable (e.g. an anti-hero); nevertheless s/he must command involvement on the part of the reader, or better yet, empathy. (The protagonist is the main character, or leading role, and so my protagonist will also be one. My protagonist will obviously be that character that I will be focusing on the most, so this character is the most important.)

• Antagonist - The antagonist is the character(s) (or situation) that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend. In other words, the antagonist is an obstacle that the protagonist must overcome. (My story needs an antagonist/villain type of character, especially if my story will be stylised in the way a fairy tale would. Most fairy tale stories have an antagonist, for example Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood etc.)
• Foil - A foil is any character (usually the antagonist or an important supporting character) whose personal qualities contrast with another character (usually the protagonist). By providing this contrast, we get to know more about the other character.

• Symbolic - A symbolic character is any major or minor character whose very existence represents some major idea or aspect of society. For example, in Lord of the Flies, Piggy is a symbol of both the rationality and physical weakness of modern civilisation; Jack, on the other hand, symbolises the violent tendencies (the Id) that William Golding believes is within human nature. 

http://learn.lexiconic.net/characters.htm < research reference at this 

Thomas.