Writing Advice: Token Characters

Everyone has noticed a token character in a story. For the sake of this argument I’m going to include television shows and movies because of course screen plays are just another medium in which to write a story. Whether it’s a movie, television show or novel, often writers will put in a token character. Sometimes it’s for humor, sometimes to placate a minority. An example is, commonly found in television shows, the token black guy. Urban dictionary entry for this character.

The african american youth in teen films who merely smiles, stays out of the conversation and says things like "Damn!","Shit!",and "That is WHACK!"

This is an accurate definition and with a little tweaking could fit pretty much any type of token character you come across. Token characters can be any minority, be it black, Asian, Indian, or female. Often there are stories that are driven by mostly male characters and there will be the one female thrown into the group for the sake of being there. Often stories will have the wise old Indian character who just ever says cryptic clichés but never serves any other purpose. The wise old Asian is very similar to the Indian and there numerous other stereotypes that are played upon.

Token characters are poor writing. Every character must want something, must have a goal and, through the course of the story, must also change. Without that they are a static character. No, one token character probably won’t completely ruin a story but why go through the effort to write them into it in the first place, if they aren’t performing a function within the story?

Often it seems as though token characters are used to placate the readers or viewers of the minority that they portray. A writer might put a single girl in a story with otherwise all boy characters in hopes of getting girls to read the story too. Then he’ll make the girl nothing more than a two dimensional character and generally uninteresting. She’s just there, a girl, for the sake of being there. This isn’t placating, it’s insulting. Your readers will notice if a character isn’t growing or changing or adding to the story and they will not feel grateful that you just threw in a character with stereotypical traits and nothing more.

The bottom line is not only are token characters poor writing, they are insulting and are better left out the story you are trying to tell.