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Read the Science Fiction Thriller

From the founder of Storymind

Man Made follows a mysterious force as it sweeps around the globe erasing anything man made - from buildings, vehicles, and technology to medicines, clothing, and dental work.

Governments stagger under the panic, religions are at a loss for an explanation, scientists strive for any means to stop or divert the phenomenon, and the world’s population from families to individuals struggle to prepare for The Event, which will drive humanity back beyond the stone age.

The Event is coming.

Are you prepared?

Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips


Storymind

Free Writing Resources


Archetypes

Characters, Narrative & Mind


By Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator of StoryWeaver

Read it free on our web site

 Also available in Paperback
and for your Kindle

~19~
Matching Character Personalities
to Archetypes

There is much to be gained by populating a story with interesting personalities, but personalities are not necessarily functioning characters. You can have as many “window dressing” characters as you want. Make sure, however, that each of the eight archetypes is represented by one of your characters.

For a given character, why would you pick one archetypal function over another? Simple: the archetypal functions are the foundations of different personality types. Take the Sidekick archetype, for example. The Sidekick is described as a “faithful supporter.” If you select a character as the Sidekick, you have already said a lot about the kind of person it will be.

Note that the archetypal description says nothing about in what the character has faith or what it supports. This is why Toto in The Wizard of Oz can be a sidekick, but so can Renfield in Dracula. The Sidekick is not necessarily the faithful supporter of the Protagonist, but simply fulfills the dramatic function of illustrating how the qualities of faith and support fare in regard to solving the story’s central problem.

So, in choosing which archetypes you want to assign to which characters, select the matches in which the characters function best reflects its personality, and vice versa.