Writing Notes: Archetypes

Bertuccio's Bride (detail)
Edward Robert Hughes, 1851-1914

A quick rundown of the 12 archetypes that we often encounter in literature:

Caregiver - sacrifices themselves for the needs and wants of others

Creator - creates or envisions

Hero - will save the day with confidence, talent, strength, or skill

Innocent - pure in their motivations; often naive and inexperienced

Joker - adds humor to the story

Lover - driven by passion, love, or devotion

Orphan - may feel out of place; has a deep desire to be understood/accepted

Outlaw - a rebel who breaks social convention

Magician - understands the way the world works & uses it to their advantage

Ruler - has control and/or wants to be in control

Sage - has acquired wisdom and may act as a mentor

Seducer - irresistible and uses their charm to get what they want

Every character has a purpose. While the character may be the protagonist of their own lives, they won't necessarily be the protagonist in the story that you're telling.

Perhaps they're the antagonist. Or a mentor. Or both.

Understanding the character's identity in your story will help you create a complete arc that resonates with your reader.

Fortunately, there's a time-tested way to easily identify the roles your characters will play in your story.

It relies on psychologist Carl Jung's theory of archetypes.

Jung believed there were 12 patterns, or archetypes, that exist in our collective unconscious — the part of the mind that is common to all humans.

These 12 archetypes represent basic human motivations.

And we experience all of them.

However, we each tend to be dominated by only one of these archetypes. And that's the basis of our personality.

Archetype vs. Stereotype

An archetype is used to define the role that a character plays in a novel. They can be a hero, an orphan, and/or an innocent.

By contrast, a stereotype is an oversimplified set of characteristics we assign a person based on preconceived beliefs about the group that the person belongs to, whether we’re doing so by race, gender, age, religion, etc.

While an archetype can be used as the starting point for defining a complex character, a stereotype is quite the opposite.

Stereotypes are reductive and narrow characters into caricatures.

An archetype is a template.

A stereotype is a formulaic conclusion.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References Character Archetypes ⚜ Goals ⚜ Stereotypical Characters

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