Writers often respond to the charge by conjuring up reality. Perhaps a story has a high school principal who is a pompous, rigid, overweight person in a bow tie who fails to understand his students and thinks them worthless.

“A stereotype,” say the readers.

“But I know a person just like this,” argues the writer. The writer may be telling the truth, but if readers feel a character is a stereotype, it means that the writer has not perceived anything new, that she has simply described the obvious traits. The writer is unaware of her own cultural bias—she’s finding only what she’s been taught to see. Therefore, the character, even though based on life, doesn’t come alive as an individual.