This is just another curious question while bored at work. I feel like as I work on some of my stories, it becomes very apparent which of my characters fit my own preferences the most. I think I'm a guy who likes a broad range of things, yet still, by some combination of description and enthusiasm, I think I end up favoring certain characters in my stories. It's not always a good thing, especially when you're doing something like writing a harem game where all the routes need to be equally valid options! Even in other types of stories, you can end up giving a whole lot of screen time to one supporting character. Sometimes I see it happening and I'm like, "well, I know what this guy likes!" It's not necessarily a bad thing; it's almost like a game to play while you read. So anyway, just curious; do you ever pick up on that or find yourself doing it?
The risk is probably greatest in a harem-type story, because then you have to juggle lots of characters anyway and the temptation is to just give the ones you like all the screen-time and romantic moments. I've read works on this site and elsewhere where it was clear the writer preferred one girl over the others, and it can be quite annoying if that's not your own personal favorite since the others will be left in the shade. I definitely have my own favorites, especially since like many authors I write the love interests in my stories as characters who appeal to me, even if it's in different ways. There's one of the thread-leading characters in my current story who I really, really like, probably more than all the others. I wonder if it's obvious to my readers which one it is. I try to give them all equal attention anyway, so I hope not!
I have to admit, I'm very Poly with my love for my characters... ;p That said, just like a parent... we've got our favorite kids. We'll never ADMIT it, especially to the kids, but we do. Trick is knowing your bias and trying to write past it. Any time I see that I've given my absolute favorite character too many good lines in a row... time for one of the other gals to be brilliant.
I avoid the trap by ultimately loving every character eventually hah. Also, my stories tend to be pretty chill so it's just 3-6 significant characters with few if any antagonists. If I included as many side characters as I intended to I'd probably have that problem but I keep the tertiary characters pretty solidly in the background. I did create a branch in The Affection Multiplier intending to create a vast harem and then instantly fell in love with the initial romantic pairing and that was that. From story to story, I have a few favourites. My first main character is probably still the ultimate #1, but after that the romantic POV characters are all roughly the same. I *think* I'm better at characters in general from story to story so my more recent ones feel more real and satisfying to me, but I still have tremendous fondness for the others. Ironically, the latest male protagonist I wrote is my least favourite, or was until last chapter. He was... fine but I found him rather dull until a late development gave me some fun ideas for him in the near future. Most of my male protags are more flawed, even if it's just simple things like being unsure of their romantic inclinations. But the last guy was meant to be more of a bland cipher and I made him too well at first ;P
This is why I plan ahead. I've never ended up publishing a story where I need to make characters 'equal' in the first place, and that's because whenever I try, some imbalance usually develops that I suspect would make the story feel less reader-driven. If I ever find that any characters are significantly less interesting than others, then I simply delete them from my plan, or relegate them to the background, or merge traits of multiple characters together. I think I mentioned on this forum before about including elements in your story that are good in their own right, not merely to fill out or support other elements. One issue is the need to make all of the characters distinct; otherwise, readers will see two similar characters and pick the best one. Something like Danganronpa does this well: even arrogant characters like Byakuya and Miu, or psychotic characters like Toko and Nagito, have their niches. Problem is, Danganronpa - and every other normal story/game - doesn't need to have attractive characters. Sometimes it deliberately makes a person instantly likeable, such as with Sayaka or Kaede, to mess with the player, but that's (usually) not the goal of a CHYOA story. So, you have that added layer of difficulty where you should present a multitude of options to appeal to differing preferences, but not let your own preferences get in the way of writing. There's also a problem with applying a three-dimensional personality to the protagonist, as well, without making it unrealistic or awkward for them to 'end up' with any of the cast. This means you're given another hoop to jump through in that all of the characters must be of compatible personality types. The most elegant solution, I think, is to include a character development arc that allows for a functional relationship at the end. (This is where you stop paying attention to Danganronpa. Their solution is to kill all of the characters.) My advice is to only include characters that are at maximum interest level. If it's not enough for a cast, wait until you can come up with some more, or just stick with what you have. I think it's better to have just two or three interesting characters, than it is to have two or three interesting characters plus a bunch you don't care about.
I feel like with some of mine, finding the deficiencies in characters that were planned too thin or one-dimensional has led to fleshing them out in ways I wouldn't have thought of originally. Lots of neat twists and things end up springing to mind. In my time writing and RPing I almost always end up attached to everybody I make... And yet, when I view the admittedly limited traffic in some of my stories, I see those commonalities in what routes people are picking and it usually lets me know where my most provocative writing is clustered. But that just makes me want to find more ways to improve the other characters. It's definitely hard to balance out a harem story, but I enjoy the challenge. A story like Hopeless Hotties that can make me flip-flop between the character I like the most is always impressive. I hope I'll have that affect on people too, down the line!
Amen to trying to keep the girls individuals in a Harem story. I find it's best if you try to have a few onscreen at a time, simply because any similarities will be easier to minimize. Of course, I also learned Character design from old school RPG's so I'm used to having at least six character variations. (Most games have six stats, I find, so easy to remember that there's the Strong one, the Smart one, The quick one, the Wise one, the Attractive one, and the Diversity Hire. (J/K the last one is the Healthy one, but you have to make her interesting in some way, so it's a good place to do the gratuitous stereotype.)
I'm not really worried about it. I feel my favorite characters are the ones I write better anyway, and I'm only doing this for my own personal enjoyment.
The variety on this topic has been illuminating. I think there're many pros and cons to having favorites in your characters!
My favourite character in one of my stories right now is an inanimate object, so. I think there's always fun to to be found in writing any character, even if they're not going to play a huge part in the greater story. Sometimes they start to take on a life of their own, like this person (or place or thing) has just been waiting in your head to become realised in the story.
