How to Write a Morally Grey Character, Plus Golden Retrievers, Black Cats and Other Romance Types

Romance character types are shorthand readers use for a love interest's personality, like morally grey, golden retriever or himbo. A type tells readers how the character will treat the people around them, and in romance, how they will treat the person they fall for.

This guide covers the types readers search for most, what each one promises, how to write it and the mistake that turns it into a stereotype. It starts with morally grey, the most requested and the easiest to get wrong.

At a glance

1. A type is the first impression. Readers stay for the reason behind it, so give every type a cause in the character's past or situation
2. A morally grey character does wrong things for reasons readers understand, and the story shows what it costs. Without a cost, they're just a villain readers are told to like
3. Types are usually written in pairs: grumpy and sunshine, black cat and golden retriever. The contrast between the two is what readers come for
4. Every type needs at least one scene that breaks it, where the character does something the label wouldn't predict

Romance character types at a glance

Grumpy and sunshine come up again as a pair below; the trope itself is covered in the romance tropes list.

The examples follow the same couple as the tropes guide. Rachel runs her late aunt's bookshop. Ben is the developer who just bought the building.

How to write a morally grey character

A morally grey character makes choices readers can't fully approve of but can understand. They lie, break rules or hurt people, usually to protect something or someone, and the story treats those acts as real wrongs.

Morally grey is different from evil and different from a hero with a rough edge. What makes them grey is that readers can see both the reason and the damage.

What makes a character morally grey

• A goal readers want them to reach. Ben needs the building to pay off a loan that would sink his family. Readers want his family safe
• A method readers can't fully defend. He has the tenants' leases checked for any clause that lets him end them early, Rachel's included
• A line they won't cross. He won't lie about the building's condition to get the tenants out, even when his lawyer tells him it would work
• A cost the story doesn't erase. One tenant loses her flat because of the clause. Ben knows her name, and the story doesn't let him forget it

Steps for writing one

1. Write the reason first. Decide what the character is protecting and what happens to them if they fail. Without it, the bad acts read as cruelty
2. Pick the wrong they'll do and the wrong they won't. The second one is more important. It tells readers this person has a code, and it gives you a scene where the code is tested
3. Show the act on the page. Don't report it from a distance. Readers need to see the choice being made to have an opinion about it
4. Let someone call it what it is. In a romance, this is often the other lead. Rachel tells Ben what the clause cost the tenant, and he doesn't argue
5. Decide whether they change. Some morally grey leads become less grey by the end; some stay the same and the other lead accepts them. Either works, but decide on purpose

Morally grey vs. antihero vs. villain

An antihero is a role (the protagonist who lacks heroic qualities). Morally grey is a moral position. A morally grey character can be the antihero, the love interest or even the villain.

Common mistakes

• Grey in the description, white in the scenes. The blurb says he's ruthless; on the page he only threatens people who deserve it. Readers notice when the story won't let the character do anything wrong
• Grey that's actually abuse. Cruelty toward the other lead, framed as passion. Readers of dark romance choose that knowingly, with content warnings; in other romance it breaks the love story
• No line at all. If the character would do anything, they aren't grey. They're dangerous, and the reader stops trusting the romance

Golden retriever and black cat

The golden retriever is the openly affectionate love interest: loyal, enthusiastic, happy to see you. The black cat is the reverse: guarded, dry, slow to show affection. Readers often want them together, usually with the golden retriever falling first and the black cat pretending not to notice.

Writing a golden retriever

• Give the warmth a reason. Maybe they grew up in a loud, loving family. Maybe they decided to be kind after a time they weren't. The warmth reads as deeper when it has a history
• Let them be hurt. The scene readers want is the golden retriever who gets let down, notices, and still shows up the next day
• Give them something they won't do. Endless agreeableness is flat. A golden retriever who refuses to lie for someone becomes a person

Writing a black cat

• Show the affection in actions, not words. The black cat remembers how you take your coffee and never mentions it
• Make the guard earned. Something taught them to keep people out. Readers need a hint of it early, even if the full story comes later
• Let one person in on purpose. The payoff is a decision the black cat makes, awake to what it means

If Rachel is the golden retriever and Ben the black cat, the scene readers are waiting for is the day Ben does something openly warm in front of other people, and Rachel is too surprised to tease him.

Himbo

A himbo is a good-looking man who is kind, cheerful and not especially clever, and who doesn't mind that he isn't. The word started as an insult and is now used warmly. The himbo's appeal is that he has no ego to protect.

• Kind first, slow second. The running joke is that he's the one who notices someone is sad
• Emotionally sharp. The classic himbo scene is him saying the honest, obvious thing everyone else was too clever to say
• Respect from the story. If other characters only laugh at him, readers stop liking them, not him

Cinnamon roll

A cinnamon roll is a sweet, gentle character readers want to protect. The risk is that they only exist to be protected.

• Give them one act of courage. Standing up for someone, saying no, telling the truth when it costs them. Readers love a cinnamon roll most in the scene where they're braver than anyone expected
• Let them want something. A cinnamon roll with their own goal is a character; one without is a mascot

Alpha hero

The alpha hero is dominant, protective and used to being in charge: the CEO, the werewolf pack leader, the mafia heir. It's one of the most popular types on reading apps, and the one where the line between romance and control matters most.

• Protective, not controlling. He steps in when she's in danger; he doesn't decide where she can go
• Strong enough to be wrong. The scene readers wait for is the alpha admitting a mistake to the one person who can make him. It shows that his strength isn't fragile
• Give the heroine her own power. Alpha romances work best when she has something he can't command: skill, money, a secret, the ability to leave

Ice queen

The ice queen is cool, composed and distant, often a woman in a position of power: a surgeon, a CEO, a ruler. Readers want to see the person under the composure.

• Make the composure a skill. She learned to be calm because it kept her safe or got her taken seriously. That makes it hers, not a flaw to be fixed
• The thaw is her choice. The love interest can be the reason she wants to open up, but she does the opening

Bad boy

The bad boy breaks rules and has a reputation: fights, detention, a motorbike. Readers want the reason behind the reputation, and usually a love interest who sees it first. The bad boy works when the reputation is partly unfair and partly earned; if it's entirely unfair, he's just misunderstood, and if it's entirely earned, the romance needs more work to be believable.

Book boyfriend

“Book boyfriend” isn't a type. It's what readers call any love interest they've fallen for. You can't write one directly, but most book boyfriends share a few things:

• He pays attention. He remembers what the other lead said three chapters ago
• He's good at something. Competence is attractive, whether it's surgery or fixing a bike
• He's on her side when it costs him. The scene that makes readers fall is usually the one where he chooses her over something he wanted

Pairing types

Types are usually written in pairs, because the contrast between two people is what creates the tension. Some pairings readers search for by name:

Writing your leads as a pair, not separately, helps. Decide what each one gives the other and what each one has to give up.

Keeping a character type consistent in TypeTak

TypeTak is an AI writing editor where you write alongside an agent. It's for keeping the type you set up in chapter one the same person in chapter thirty, including the line a morally grey character won't cross.

• The type and its reason, written down once. Put Ben's goal, the line he won't cross and why he's guarded in his character entry in your World, and the agent reads them when it drafts or revises his scenes.
• Every time he crosses a line, found. Ask the agent something like “list every scene where Ben does something wrong to get the building, and what it costs him,” and it reads the manuscript and tells you which chapters and what happens.
• Out-of-character moments flagged. Run a chapter through Feedback, and the Consistency card points out passages that contradict what you've set up, like Ben lying about the building after you wrote that he never would.

Whether a break from type is a mistake or the turning point is still your call.

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