Online Writing Workshops Presented by Melanie Anne Phillips (Creator of StoryWeaver & co-creator of Dramatica) How to Create Great Characters! Lesson Twelve: The Eight Essential Archetypes: Using Archetypal Characters

Sections in Lesson Twelve Introduction Archetypes of the Mind Archetypes as Shorthand Why Archetypes Work Non-Archetypal Characters Study Exercises Writing Exercises

Introduction

Although we have looked briefly at each archetype individually, the eight archetypes actually work together as a complete set of attributes that outline our own mental processes.  In this lesson we'll take a first look at the archetypes as a family group.

Archetypes of the Mind

The human qualities the eight Archetypes represent are:

Initiative	Reticence
Intellect	Feelings
Conscience	Temptation
Confidence	Doubt

The Archetypes that represent these qualities are given the following names:

Protagonist	Antagonist
Reason	Emotion
Guardian	Contagonist
Sidekick	Skeptic

Archetypes as Shorthand

When an author portrays a character as an archetype, the audience understands that he or she only intends to explore a broad personality trait and frees the author from the burden of describing each and every individual character element that comprises that trait.

Archetypes, therefore, provide a kind of short hand for an author.  Rather than having to illustrate each and every element independently, the author can simply illustrate a whole family of elements, thereby saving pages and/or screen time.

For example, in an action movie, an author might use archetypes to save time for chases and pyrotechnics.  In a deep thematic novel, and author might employ archetypes to simplify the characters so fine nuances of the moral issues can be explored without distraction.

Why Archetypes Work

Archetypes work because they represent the eight basic human attributes that come into play when trying to resolve a problem or better our situation.  As individuals, we all have a sense of initiative (Protagonist) and a tendency to maintain the status quo (Antagonist).  We use our Intellect (Reason) and our feelings (Emotion).  We are influenced by our Conscience (Guardian) and by Temptation (Contagonist).  We have a degree of surety in our actions and decisions (Sidekick) but this is balanced by (Skeptic).

These eight qualities (Initiative, Reticence, Intellect, Feelings, Conscience, Temptation, Confidence, and Doubt) are the cornerstones of human thought, and the archetypes that represent them are the cornerstones of the Story Mind.

Any story that does not at least explore these eight essential facets of the Story Mind is leaving out some of the fundamental ways human beings evaluate and grapple with problems.  Such a story's argument would seem incomplete, and to an audience this would feel as if there were holes in the story's structure.

Non-Archetypal Characters

Archetypal characters are nothing more than avatars of the eight basic qualities that every one of us possesses.  But is is obvious that people are a lot more complex than that.  Characters can also be created in far more complex, subtle, and detailed ways.  In later lessons we'll explore all of these.  For now, our purpose is to start with the basics as a foundation to our understanding the nature of characters in general.

Study Exercises:  Archetypes in Real Stories

Most stories are inhabited by a mix of both archetypal and non-archetypal characters.  For the following exercises, consider only the archetypal characters in the stories you select as examples.

1.  Pick three popular stories with well-defined characters.

2.  For each of the stories, identify the archetypal characters it contains and associate each with the human quality it represents .

Writing Exercises: Creating an Archetypal Family

1.   Devise a Story Goal in which many character might be involved.

2.  Create a Protagonist and Antagonist and describe how one is for achieving the goal and the other against it.

3.  Create a Reason and Emotion Archetype and describe their differing approaches to the quest.

4.  Create a Guardian and Contagonist and describe how they might affect the quest.

5.  Create a Sidekick and Skeptic and describe how they might influence the quest.

6.  Combine all these descriptions into a single thumbnail synopsis of your hypothetical story.

Copyright 2003 Melanie Anne Phillips

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