Major Project: Pre-Writing - Character Archetypes

Now that I had an idea and a concept for my story I wanted to look deeper into the type of characters I could create.

I decided to go back to basics and look at character archetypes. Character archetypes are categorised character types that can be found within film, television, literature and art.

There are different groups within character archetypes, such as ego types, soul types and self types. I came across a website that helped explain each archetype in depth.

http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html

Ego Types

The Innocent
The innocent is the character thats goal is to be happy. They will do things right and have faith and optimism in what they are doing. Their fear is to be punished for doing something wrong.

The Orphan/Regular guy or gal
Their goal is to belong somewhere by connecting with others. They are the good samaritan that would do anything for others. Their biggest fear is to lose themselves and to be alone.

The Hero
Their goal is to do something great to improve the world they are in. Even though they are courageous these archetypes can sometimes come across arrogant. Their fear is to be weak and vulnerable to others.

The Caregiver

Their goal is to help others, they might do this through compassion and generosity and by protecting and caring for them. Their fear is to be selfish and ingratitude.

Soul Types

The Explorer
Their goal is to experience a more authentic and fulfilling life. They might do this by going on a journey and experiencing new things. Their fear is to be trapped and not be able to fulfil life.

The Rebel
Their goal is to overturn what isn't working by disrupting or destroying a situation or place. Their fear is to be powerless and not to have an effect.

The Lover
Their goal is to be in a relationship and be surrounded by people they love, this may happen through emotional or physical attraction. Their fear is to be alone, unwanted and unloved.

The Creator
Their goal is to have a vision, by either artistically of skilfully creating something new. Their fear is to only have small ideas and be rejected for their work.

Self Types

The Jester

Their goal is to have a great time and lighten up the world, their might do this by making jokes and generally being funny. Their fear is to be bored or bore others.

The Sage
Their goal is to use intelligence to understand the world. They might do this by seeking out information and knowledge or through self-reflection and understanding. Their fear is to be misled or copied.

The Magician
Their goal is to make dreams come true, they might do this by developing an idea and pursuing it. Their fear is to have negative responses.

The Ruler
Their goal is to create success through family or the community. Their fear is to be overthrown or come into conflict with chaos.

Each archetype gives a clear outline on what that characters journey would be as well as possible struggles and obstacles through their weaknesses and what they fear.

By looking in depth into these archetypes it gives me a better idea on how my characters would develop in the script as well as what possible obstacles there would be in the way of their journey.

For example my main character is creative and wants to become a fashion designer. This storyline would fit the archetype of the creator. The fears in this particular archetype is to come up with something that is unsuccessful and be rejected for their ideas. For this particular character a possible obstacle might be not becoming successful straight away, i.e. she is unable to get a job in that particular position and has to work her way up, etc.

Overall these archetypes are in a way blueprints for possible characters within a script. I will be looking back on these types when writing my characters to make sure that there is development in my script.