Your favorite character age to write (and why)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

• Child (6-13)
• Teen (14-18)
• Young Adult (19-30)
• Mature Adult (31-55)
• Older Adult (56+)

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...First, let it be said that there is no good way to phrase this question in English. >_<

Secondly, I may have said this before, but I absolutely love writing child characters. ^^ It's the innocence...not the "uwu smol bean believes the world is made of sunshine and rainbows" kind of innocence, but the fact that they just...don't know any better.

They can be so brave and selfless because they don't know any better. They can face down issues where they're way out of their depth because they don't know any better. They can be merciful and give people second and third chances (even when they don't deserve them...) because they just don't know any better.

And it also makes them very open to growth and change...they don't have a lot of preconceived notions of what people should be yet, not even themselves. So they're always willing to learn, and from anyone who gives them a reason to trust them, even if it's something as simple as 'they gave me a candy bar'.

Of course, these qualities sometimes get them into trouble...but that just makes for a good story, right? ^^ And besides that, I think children feel so deeply...because their worlds tend to be so small and uncomplicated, everything matters more. Their joy is more joyful; their anger is more wrathful. And because they're used to depending on others for safety and comfort, betrayal cuts through them like a knife. There's so much pathos to explore...

Societally, I feel like we're taught to ignore the thoughts and feelings of children, or at least write them off as 'superficial'...i.e. because they don't participate in the adult world, they couldn't possibly care about anything that's actually important.
A, that isn't true. Children DO participate in the adult world, by virtue of constantly having adults in their lives at the very least. We just assume that they don't have opinions on this (and if they do, we work very hard to either control those opinions or silence them).
B, I think, if you just take a moment to examine the life of a child, especially the older ones (10-13) that are starting to figure out responsibility and self-awareness, you'll find so much depth that you might not have noticed before. How do you become your own person when every authority in your life is telling you that you simply AREN'T your own person? How can you make a difference in a world where you have so little power? What kind of adult do you want to be in the future, and will you be able to get there without losing yourself along the way? What actually constitutes the 'self'...??

[AmysGames]

I feel like age doesn't make a lot of difference in how I write my characters. I mean, obviously there are differences like "does the character go to school or have a job," but everyone has different life experiences, and even things like maturity can vary from person to person. The arcs my characters go through are very individual, and often don't have much to do with their actual age.

That said, I voted for teens because a lot of my main characters are teens, though I've found myself writing a lot more adults and young adults as I get older. I guess it's just easier to write your own age group?

[NickRowler]

Anything except high school age teens.

I am fine with kids. Kids are curious and naive and the smallest things can cause the biggest impact on them be it in a positive or negative way.

Young adults are a hot mess and it's funny.

Mature/older adults I find really interesting because how the view the world is from life experience and that can shape their views on things.

But older teens...IDK maybe I am too old and jaded. Maybe it's me not liking some common teen tropes. Or I sort of feel like we already have a lot of teen media. It's just not something that interest me.

[DesiredUsernameTaken]

This is a difficult question since, for me, I tend to have a lot of environments or scenarios where the only thing setting characters apart in a life-or-death situation everyone has grown up in is experience. And there are situations where a child is more experienced than an aloof adult, thus feels more "mature" and "older" in the shallow sense compared to the actual adult. Then, due to the upbringing, there's nothing that sets the child apart from what an adult is already doing. There's no play or anything else that people relate to childhood, it all comes down to experience and sense of judgement--the latter of which adults can also lack in high-stress situations.

However, my main characters tend to be in their 20s and 30s. For younger characters, I often end up aging them up, or if I leave them as is, I have to carefully tiptoe around their destination 'cause I'm straight-up unwilling to put them through all the suffering darker universes of mine would.

---

Societally, I feel like we're taught to ignore the thoughts and feelings of children, or at least write them off as 'superficial'...i.e. because they don't participate in the adult world, they couldn't possibly care about anything that's actually important.

I find children are treated like subhuman very often, or as other animals (which shouldn't be treated that way, either). They're commodities of cuteness like a bunny or a new puppy. People tend not to think of other animals as capable of much emotion. Anything they do isn't real and then we come across certain videos showing parrots, or rats, or squirrels with a huge range of activity and emotion and we say, "Wow I had no idea they were like that! I thought only apes/elephants/whales/dolphins were like that!". The vast majority of animals are complex.

I always thought it strange that there are so many "coming of age" stories, where youngsters are discovering their identity. Often, they imply the characters didn't have an identity before. "No, you're not supposed to find you're identity. You're creating your identity!" Is that to say children don't even have identities? They do. They're each an entire person. They're people who need a lot of help from bigger people but they're still complete individuals. Those identities just very often undergo big changes by the time you're an adult. And by the time you're an old adult, in your 70s or so, your identity has once again undergone huge changes from when you were in your wee 20s and 30s and so on.

[DiegoPalacios]

Tricky to decide....all age brackets have an interesting perspective due to their experience in life or the lack of it.

[bluebellameng]

I chose teen cause ion know about that adult life yet​

Tho my inexperience as a first person doesn't stop me from liking or writing about characters of various ages<(￣︶￣)>

[AnimeKitty]

I personally prefer writing characters between the ages of 21 and 35. That's mostly because of the mature topics handled in most my stories and I wouldn't feel as comfortable putting teens in some of those positions. It also just fits well to have adults when it comes to crime dramas, which I usually write, and having main characters who are detectives/investigators.

[crimson_mystery_cake]

I write a lot of young adult characters but recently I have opened my third eye and started loving writing messy 30-somethings.

Oh yeah also a lot of younger characters aren’t reasonably old enough to have, like, established careers and backstory and stuff. Having a character who has graduated med school, gone through their residency, have an established medical practice and only be in their mid-20s wouldn’t be very realistic.

[joannekwan]

I just like writing anyone over the age of 21. They just have more agency, which allows for more flexibility in the story, and enough maturity to keep me interested in writing them. But as I age, I find myself writing older characters too! I've been brainstorming a lot of 35-60 characters in the past year.

[zeitybitey]

I think I usually target for writing characters around my age, and sometimes they matured with me as I continued to write. It helped in terms of understanding mentality at a particular age (ie as a teen, young adult etc.). Nowdays I think I write for characters slightly above my age range or around it, mostly because I find them more flexible to work with compared to a younger perspective ^^

[BlunderingAlbatross]

I'm comfortable writing all ages and my protags tend to be in the 19-30 bracket but for some reason I enjoy writing older adults, especially as veterans within a certain field where they have a lifetime of experience to pass onto the young idiots under their care They can be grumpy yet caring and when the stuff hits the fan they can show all of that skill.

Dunno, maybe I just have a soft spot for the wise old mentor trope!

[WoollyPAR]

I love writing for teenagers. Mostly because I AM one, but also because I feel like those are the most confusing years where you go through the most development, so it makes sense for teen characters to change a lot throughout a story. Plus, I feel like the everything feels WAY more important as a teen that it really is. That makes it easy to make a story about anything seem intense. If I were writing more static characters, I'd probably go for an older character, someone who's already gone on their journey.

I have yet to become a young adult, but when I do, I'll probably write more stories about those

[NellieVP318]

I used to like writing teenagers when I was younger. But lately, I have been digging writing about the young adult ages. I do think writing any age group can be exciting as well depending on the story.

[djourner]

I actually like all age brackets cited in stories.

Kids have a wonderfuly 'fresh and naive' energy which can make for some great 'feel good' moments as well as terrible gut punches (FMA comes to mind with that one particular funeral)
Teens are very complicated with simultaneous a too wide and too narrow view of the world around them which makes for great conflict
Young Adults have a lot of new responsibilities to deal with along unresolved childhood and teenage traumas, which makes for my particular favorite blend of drama.
Mature and Older Adults have a lot to of experience and wisdom they can partake inside a story, and equal parts bad behaviours.

There is a reason I picked my characters age as I did and that is also tied to why it's my favorite, the whole main cast of JTA is significantly older than most adventure stories (not counting stuff like tolkien where everyone is hundred or above).
Most of my cast is late YA (Grey 36, Azreth turned 30 in the plot and Vernon turned 27)... Whereas before they were always these three drifters with little to no personal conection to the world, they grew into a powerful 'found family'.
The reason I love this age range so much is precisely due to it's complexity, the character have already had plenty of things in their life, and even adventures that happened before the camera started rolling, loves lost, friendships shattered, and bridges burned down before they even had a chance to be built... A lot of the themes of JTA focus on 'the aftermath' many things have already happened in each of these characters lives and they are now faced with the fact they have scars (some sealed by time and some still healing) to show for that.
Mature allow you a lot of flexibility in that 'aftermath' effect, the many tiny tthings that happened in their lives that made them who they are can be both a great gift, or a terrible flaw, that manifests now in their later stages of life, and it is much more interesting to me, to see that than like a teenager.
Vernon's martyr complex is much more painful to watch when you realize all the horrible shit he lived through and how much he hates himself for it.
Azreth's outbursts of rage are that much more impatcful when you realize how much he shoved those feelings down in order to be a 'perfectly complacent son'... And how good he is at trully hiding his deepest emotions, and manipulating others away from him.
Grey's detached nature is heartbreaking as you realize how much he trully cares about people around him, and the lenghts he goes to in order to make sure no one reaches his inner and vulnerable emotional core.

In younger characters these traits would have been a lot more easily fixed, but now they are engrained in the characters very personality, and it is something they have to work with every day as opposed to just... Having a battle on a mind palace or something.
The same story of JTA would not work with a teen cast, because they making the same mistakes over time again would feel more like 'teenage short-sightedness' rather than actual problems that need to be adressed slowly and with care.