Post by Ampersand on May 23, 2021 21:27:59 GMT
"She doesn't want you to understand her. She knows that's impossible. She just wants you to understand yourself. Everything else is negotiable."
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
You’ve graduated from Character Creation 101 and you’ve got an idea of who your character is in the broad strokes. Fantastic!
“So, uh, I know who my character is. Why are we still talking about this?”
Excellent question!
I’m going to be spending a lot of time on the subject of character creation because no matter where you go or what you’re writing, your character is going to be your constant. They’re the foundation of any piece you create, so having a grasp on who they are is vital to whatever else you’re going to be building.
If you’ve been in writing and/or reading circles, you’ve probably heard about archetypes. An archetype is an idea, symbol, or character type in a story.
What I’m presenting are some commonly recognized (not universal, but that's a soap box for another time) archetypes we often see characters in stories fall into. If your character does not fit cleanly into one or any of these presented categories, it’s not an indication that you don’t have a viable character concept or that you’re not, ‘doing it right.’ Real people rarely fit entirely into one categorization or another, so don’t be surprised if your character doesn’t, either. What I’m doing is presenting you with patterns you may recognize in your character so that you can better understand and convey who they are and how they’re going to help you tell your story.
Let’s get Jungian!
At the core of any character are these questions: What do they want, and what are they doing about it?
Let’s start with that first one.
Jung identified four Cardinal Orientations that his twelve character archetypes seek to realize, and they are as follows:
Ego – Risk & Mastery. You want to leave your mark on the world
Order – Stability & Control. You want to create structure
Social – Belonging & Enjoyment. You want to connect to others
Freedom – Independence & Fulfillment. You want to reach whatever the best version of your life is
There are three archetypes that go with each Cardinal Orientation. Knowing what they want, what they are like and what their strategies to meet their goals are will help you better understand how characters who fall into these archetypes are likely to behave in your's and others' writing. It's also kind of fun to apply these to characters in your favorite media. See if you can find some of these archetypes in your favorite movies, shows, and books.
Ego
The Hero
Motto: Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Core Desire: Proving yourself through courageous endeavors and/or the undertaking of difficult actions
Goal: Improving the world through mastery of a particular skill set
Strength: Competence and courage
Weakness: Arrogance and a loss of sense of self without a battle to fight
Strategy: Become as competent and strong as possible
The Outlaw
Motto: Rules are meant to be broken
Core Desire: Inciting revolution or enacting revenge
Goal: Overturn what isn’t working in the world
Strength: Radical thinking and actions, and/or a fierce adherence toward the promotion of freedom
Weakness: Going too far and crossing over to the dark side; criminality
Strategy: Disrupt, destroy, and shock the status quo
The Magician
Motto: I will make this happen
Core Desire: Gaining the fundamental knowledge of how the world/a system/the universe works
Goal: Making dreams into reality
Strength: Lateral thinking, finding innovative, out of the box and/or win-win solutions
Weakness: Using understanding of systems to become manipulative
Strategy: Develop a vision and dedicate your life to it
Order
The Ruler
Motto: Power isn’t everything; it’s the only thing
Core Desire: Control of themselves, others, and the world around them
Goal: Creating and guiding a prosperous, successful family and/or community
Strength: A highly developed sense of responsibility and aptitude for leadership
Weakness: Becoming authoritarian and/or being unable to delegate
Strategy: Use any means to gather and exercise power
The Caregiver
Motto: Love is a verb
Core Desire: To protect and care for others
Goal: Helping others
Strength: Highly developed sense of compassion and generosity
Weakness: Martyrdom; being exploited by others
Strategy: Dedicate yourself to improving the quality of the lives of those around you
The Artist/Creator
Motto: If it can be imagined, it can be created
Core Desire: Creating works of enduring value
Goal: Realizing a vision
Strength: Highly creative and imaginative
Weakness: Perfectionism and/or stubbornly adhering to solutions that may be novel, but are ultimately ineffective
Strategy: Develop artistic control and skill
Social
The Ordinary Person/Everyperson
Motto: All people are created equal
Core Desire: Connecting to the people around them
Goal: To belong to a community
Strength: Realism, a lack of pretense, and empathy for those around them
Weakness: Losing one’s sense of self in an effort to blend in with others
Strategy: Develop ordinary, down-to-earth ideals, and find value in the commonplace
The Lover
Motto: My heart belongs to you
Core Desire: Intimacy and close experiences with others
Goal: Being in a relationship with the people, work, and/or surroundings they love
Strength: Passionate commitment to their work and people in their lives, expressing gratitude and making those in their lives feel appreciated
Weakness: Risk of losing their identity in order to please the people and things they love
Strategy: Become as attractive as possible; physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, artistically, etc.
The Jester
Motto: You only live once, and if I can’t dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution
Core Desire: Living in the moment and enjoying life to the fullest
Goal: Spend life having a great time and making the world a brighter place
Strength: Irrepressible, infectious joy and positivity
Weakness: A tendency toward frivolousness, wasting time, and difficulty planning for the future
Strategy: Be entertaining, tell jokes, understand and demonstrate the value of play
Freedom
The Innocent
Motto: We are free to be ourselves
Core Desire: To reach paradise; the best version of their life
Goal: To be happy
Strength: Unshakeable faith and optimism
Weakness: Their naivety can leave them ill-equipped to deal with the harsh realities of the world
Strategy: Adhere to tradition, and go about things the ‘right,’ way
The Explorer
Motto: I will not be fenced in
Core Desire: Finding out who they are by exploring the world
Goal: Experience a better, more authentic, fulfilling life
Strength: Autonomy, ambition, and truth to oneself
Weakness: Becoming a misfit with no true sense of home; aimlessness
Strategy: Escape boredom and stagnation through seeking out and experiencing new things, places, and people
The Sage
Motto: The truth will set you free
Core Desire: Discover truth
Goal: Use their intelligence and analytical skills to understand the world
Strength: The intelligence to understand the world around them and the wisdom to apply that understanding in their lives
Weakness: Becoming so tied up in the acquisition of knowledge and details that they never functionally apply it
Strategy: Seek out knowledge and information. Self-reflect and better understand thought processes.
And there it is! What archetype(s) does your character fall into, or are they totally off the chart here? What archetype do you see here you believe might be fun to write? Remember - these aren’t instructions or hard rules. These are just exercises to help you better understand your character and their development should you choose to consider them.
See you on the forums, folks!