How To Create Interesting And Non-Cliched Science Fiction Characters
The science fiction genre, along with the pulp detective and crime novel, is easily one of the most stereotyped and clichd genres in literature. Science fiction is populated with stock heroes and villains. The majority of the characters in an average sci-fi novel are flat and one dimensional; they do not exist in the novel as flesh and blood people with real flaws, traits, or characteristics, but act more like metaphors or platforms devised by the author in order to deconstruct some type of political, social, or technological concept.
To create an interesting and non-clichd character for science fiction it is imperative to make the character human. He or she character cannot be a stand in or a metaphor for the author’s “bigger” idea. The character cannot be the author’s philosophical or moral mouthpiece. Science fiction is wrought with this sort of thing. In sci-fi there are always two opposing characters; these characters represent two different ways of life or modes of thought, but in being so black and white they completely lack that gray area that makes a character really human. In order to avoid clich and become human, the characters in a sci-fi novel need to be complex.