Best of western themed fictional characters

Yosamete Sam

Lone Ranger

Man With No Name

The Stranger

Django

Dutton Peabody

Ethan Edwards

Augustus 'Gus' McCrae

Doc Holliday

Angel Eyes

Tuco-Eli Wallach

Bill Munny

Butch Cassidy

Rawhide Kid

Jonah Hex 

Kid Colt 

Two gun kid

Coyote Kid

Captain Malcolm Reynolds 

Vash the Stampede

The Riviera Kid, Dangerous Dan McGrew, Brett Riverboat, Sammy the Squib.

The relationship between protagonists and their writers

The question that sparked this post was "Are protagonists what their writer wishes they were or even what they are?". By this it could be seen that the writing of a protagonist is a form of self exploration and revelation. But my answer to this question is no, not really. The relationship between and author and their protagonist is far more complex than that, not to mention their relationship with the other characters in their stories.


Writing is cathartic in a way, in that you can express a lot of the pent up thoughts and emotions you otherwise find to impolite to reveal, but that doesn't mean that what you write necessarily has a direct relation to what is causing you to think or feel in a certain way. A writer might be angry over something, grief stricken or even tortured with indecision, for example, and have no one they can talk to about these issues. Thoughts build, the mind wanders and a story pops into mind that just begs to be written. And within that story is a range of characters. (This is one example of how a story comes into being but there are, of course, many others. Some far less organic.)


Of the characters that are formed in the mind of the writer there are some that are wholly born of the imagination, with little to no research involved and barely a flicker of more logical creation (as brought about when you're trying to find a character to fit a certain role). These characters are the ones that are the most related to the writer's own personality as they are born directly from the writer's mind. Yet in the range of characters you will find good, bad, righteous, ugly, cowardly, brave, foolhardy, ignorant, close minded, open hearted, learned, sexy, disturbing and mentally broken people. Which is the writer? Your first option for identifying the writer as a character is by saying they're the protagonist but what if the protagonist is a gung-ho army man and the writer is a tiny woman with a family of five who spends most of her day tapping away on a keyboard?


The relationship between a writer and a protagonist isn't straightforward. There isn't so much wishful thinking as there is exploration or sympathetic identification and even that is stretching the buck when it comes to the antihero protagonist.


So what is really going on is more a form of dreaming where every character written has some reflections of the writer but none have the entire writer revealed through them. All the good, bad, righteous, ugly, cowardly, brave, foolhardy, ignorant, close minded, open hearted, learned, sexy, disturbing and mentally broken characters share something with the writer as they are all understandable enough to the writer to be written in the first place. It is nearly (only added nearly as someone may have done it, possibly) impossible to write a character without any correlating features or characteristics as your own. You could push the boundary with writing everything as the opposite but then all you get is a reverse reflection so that the good and bad are swapped, leaving the impression that there is something oddly familiar about the character.


To find the writer in the story is to read the story as a whole, pull every possible meaning, hint, characteristic, personality, event, reaction and thought from the book and remould it into a piece of the writer, then continue reading any other work they've ever written and hope that eventually you'll have enough overlapping pieces to figure out which are the most dominant features of the author and which aren't. Then and only then, can you say that you know part of the author. But as a reader only, you'll never know the author entirely by reading their works. And assigning the writer as the protagonist is just delusional.


The gift of this is that there is an endless array of reflections of humanity out there, not simply a list of writers as protagonists. The characters in books reveal aspects of humanity, what it means to exist and what we experience along the way. Through this we can learn to form methods of identifying with those we'd otherwise struggle to connect with. We can pass on information, so much so that a person reading works written centuries ago can see that the essence of what it is to be human hasn't changed all that much over the years. This lets you think that maybe it hasn't changed much since we first evolved as humans. That there might not be that many differences between our experiences and that of apes. In essence, connections are born of writing, connections that allow us to see the individual, the global, the historical and the entirety of creation depending on the mindset we're in when reading.


So writing a protagonist as yourself isn't exactly a bad thing but it does defeat the purpose of fiction, which is to bend the mind to realise our realities. Whether a writer starts out intending to bend the reader's mind or starts out simple to entertain or vent is neither here nor there really. That only works as a partial guide to distinguish between literature and fiction. A distinction I argue in many cases.

Commonly used alien types for writing aliens

Everyone's familiar with grey aliens as they're invaded popular culture for almost a century, starring predominantly in examinations of either them or ourselves. They are often portrayed as far more intelligent than us and possessive of a mean streak that is a result of intellectual objectivity and study. Few have broken this trend in characterisation so there is ample opportunity to mess about with them when writing an alien story. They are a staple feature of intellectual science fiction inclusive of most scientific details than characterisation. The drawback of using them though is that they are so pervasive in the science fiction scene that the audience will expect a certain type of story to come with their usage.

 

Little green men and sometimes tall women with more breasts than are appropriate are highly popular but their popularity goes in waves as they are sometimes seen as tacky versions of greys. Green aliens are very pervasive in general culture, not just in the realms of science fiction, are are the most likely to be accepted by children as non-threatening if presented properly. The little green men have appeared in various forms but have all maintained a certain level of cheekiness and recklessness that the greys never had. Little green men can sometimes be enemies of mankind but are generally either neutral or friendly, cheeky antics aside. Writing a green alien is fairly easy, with the base requirement of green skin being easy to meet. There are no definite expectations as to their characterisation in place as they've appeared in so many forms that they have even lots their original shape. Green aliens are perfect characters for exploring the difference between humans and aliens in a non-scientific manner.

You know that story about the British royal family being aliens? Well, the particular type of aliens they are are reptilians. Reptilians have largely been characterised as preferring to wear the skins of humans and to walk amongst us weaving their plots to take over the world. They are rarely if ever friendly to humans. Their plotting can either involve taking over the planet for those stranded here or taking over the planet for those coming. They are the epitome of the empire building and conquering aliens who prefer to do so through mental application rather than force. Largely 2D in characterisation because of their narrow concerns they almost beg for someone to come along and revamp their image.

Tall White aliens are closely related to greys and greens but they are more ethereal in appearance. Intelligent and distanced they are still often portrayed as connected to the human military or airforce in some way. Often neutral rather than friend or foe they seem to be dragged into our messes more than any thing else. Also, if there is a spooky alien to be written rather than a frightening, threatening, friendly or conquering on then this is the choice to go with as they appear like ghosts. They are prone to abductions though so a good abduction story can be woven using these. Also, of the greys, greens and whites the whites are the ones most likely to get into probing.

Other standard alien types that are fleetingly represented are Andromedan aliens, Nordic aliens, Sirians, Hairy Dwarves and Hopkinsville goblins. They either appear and are mostly human or are a cross between a demon or monster and a classic alien in characterisation. Souls are not consumed but slavery or entrapment can occur. Also, there is some benign defence of humanity and caring going on in the more beatific aliens.

Andromedan aliens

Sirians (representations vary to far more human-esque)

Hairy Dwarves (There are giant forms of this type of alien now)

Hopkinsville goblin

In recent alien history there have been a few inclusions into the list of alien lifeforms that have taken the world by storm and in doing so have become new classic forms of aliens. Unfortunately, as they belong largely to one creator they aren't always available for extra story telling. Or if they are you may find yourself writing a story that creates a lot of negative feedback as fans of the original creation object to the alien being moved from its normal home and role. In the list of new classic alien types are: 

Timelords (very similar to other human-esque and intellectual aliens but they have become one of the most distinct races amongst them)

Daleks

Cybermen

Aliens

Predators

Vulcans (very similar to other human-esque and intellectual aliens but they have become one of the most distinct races amongst them)