Archetypes

Archetypes. They’re not stereotypes!

I’m delving into creating characters for my next Zodiac novel and fooling with archetypes.

Definitions

Stereotypes are an oversimplification of a type of person — the evil, mustache twirling villain who does bad things for the pure joy of being mean. Stereotypes tend to be two-dimensional characters. They have no depth, no reasons behind what they do.

Archetypes, on the other hand, are universal characters. They are the original. They are the type of person others model themselves after. Superman, Dracula, and so on.

Tami Cowden wrote the definitive book on archetypes (she actually has two books, one for heroes and heroines, and one for villains). In it, she defines archetypes in general and then lists the different archetypes your characters might fall into — eight for each heroes and heroines, an even dozen for villains.

Some examples

So what are these archetypes? Well, you can pop over to Cowden’s website and read them for yourself, but I’ll give you a general overview here.

For heroes, she lists the following archetypes:

The bad boy, the best friend, the charmer, the lost soul, the professor, the swashbuckler, and the warrior. Each of these archetypes have certain…