Character Archetypes

“The three soldiers — men-at-arms wearing the emblem of the royal guards — rushed at the king, and one felled the squire with a blow of a mace.  The other two fared less well.  As the first rushed in, lifting his sword, Conan met him with a sweeping stroke that severed mail-links like cloth, and sheared the Nemedian’s arm and shoulder clean from his body.  His corpse, pitching backward, fell across his companion’s legs.  The man stumbled, and before he could recover, the great sword was through him.  Conan wretched out his steel with a racking gasp, and staggered back against the tent-pole.  His great limbs trembled, his chest heaved, and sweat poured down his face and neck.  But his eyes flamed with exultant savagery and he panted: “Why do you stand afar, dog?  I can’t reach you; come in and die!”
— (Excerpt from The Hour of the Dragon, by Robert E. Howard)

Character Archetypes
Wow, it’s hard to believe that the month of May is already over (which, I guess, shouldn’t be surprising for me since I took half the month off while on vacation with family).  It seems like the second round of ROW80 just started and here we are staring at the finish-line in June.  I was pleased, however, that I got as much story-crafting as I did during May because, truthfully, I was having my doubts that I could stay on track with all the chaos and distractions.  In actuality though, the vacation did my creativity a world of good.  Seeing different scenery in new locations sparked my imagination, taking my story-crafting ideas in new and exciting directions.  As I said in my last post, my beautiful Muse has been working overtime, flooding my mind with wonderful story-ideas.  As best I could, I wrote them all down long-hand in my graph-paper notebook and I’ve been returning to these ideas all week, dutifully transcribing these notes into Scrivener.  Within my “sword & sorcery” world, I now have fourteen story-ideas that I’m working on.  Fourteen!  Each story-idea has it’s own set of unique main characters (I’ve created twenty-two main characters so far) and I have eighteen villains that I’ve developed as well, so I’m really excited about all the possibilities that I have to choose from.  You’re probably wondering how I’m able to come up with so many main characters with unique personalities.  Well, I’ve been studying the Twelve Character Archetypes (pdf) and I’ve been reading articles on the subject, like this one here.  But, even better than these examples, I’ve read two fantastic books on the subject that I highly recommend, both written by Tami D. Cowden.  These books are Heroes & Heroines; Sixteen Master Archetypes and Fallen Heroes; Sixteen Master Villain Archetypes.  I have based most of my characters using these master archetypes.  The Hero archetypes are the Chief, the Bad Boy, the Best Friend, the Charmer, the Lost Soul, the Professor, the Swashbuckler, and the Warrior.  The Heroine archetypes are the Boss, the Seductress, the Spunky Kid, the Free Spirit, the Waif, the Librarian, the Crusader, and the Nurturer.  The Male Villain archetypes are the Tyrant, the Bastard, the Devil, the Traitor, the Evil Genius, the Outcast, the Sadist, and the Terrorist.  The Female Villain archetypes are the Bitch, the Black Widow, the Backstabber, the Lunatic, the Parasite, the Schemer, the Fanatic, and the Matriarch.  Starting with these basic master archetypes gives you a universally solid starting-point for building believable characters.  I especially like the fact that the Hero and the Fallen Hero (Villain) have similar archetype traits; the difference being whether they stay true to their virtues or whether they succumb to their flaws.  In other words, the Fallen Hero of the Professor is the Evil Genius; the Fallen Hero of the Best Friend is the Traitor; the Fallen Hero of the Warrior is the Terrorist, etc.  I could go on and on, but you get the idea (click on the "Look Inside" feature of the book links to learn more about it).  These books have helped me immensely and come highly recommended by me.

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
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Charging into the Fray

“At the tip of the steel wedge Conan roared his heathen battle-cry and swung his great sword in glittering arcs that made naught of steel burgonet or mail habergeon.  Straight through a thundering waste of foes he rode, and the knights of Koth closed in behind him, cutting him off from his warriors.  As a thunderbolt strikes, Conan struck, hurling through the ranks by sheer power and velocity, until he came to Strabonus, livid among his palace troops.  Now here the battle hung in balance, for with his superior numbers, Strabonus still had opportunity to pluck victory from the knees of the gods.  But he screamed when he saw his arch-foe within arm’s length at last, and lashed out wildly with his axe.  It clanged on Conan’s helmet, striking fire, and the Cimmerian reeled and struck back.  The five-foot blade crushed Strabonus’ casque and skull, and the king’s charger reared screaming, hurling a limp and sprawling corpse from the saddle.”
— (Excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)

Charging into the Fray
Having taken a couple of weeks off from work to vacation with family, I’ve had to step-up my pace in order to get caught up on all the work that has been piling up in my absence.  This was to be expected, but it has left me mentally drained by the time I get home from work.  Normally, this would be a good-enough excuse for me to justify not writing, but my Muse wasn’t having any of it this week.  Like an internal drill-sergeant barking commands, she would shout out her best impersonation of  “On your feet, soldier”, and I would snap to attention with notebook in hand, ready to transcribe her dictation.  You see, I have over twenty main characters that I’ve developed for my “sword & sorcery” story-world, each with rudimentary character sheets and basic personality profiles (some with sketches I've drawn of them).  Many of these characters are slotted to have their very own individual stories someday.  In other words, these characters are becoming more and more "real" each day.  So, having this many characters developed has kept my Muse working overtime.  Like an unruly crowd, all of my characters are petitioning my Muse at once, demanding that their story be told first.  In order to keep herself from being overwhelmed by the din of the mob, she has released the creativity valves on me, flooding my mind with wave-after-wave of unrelated story-ideas.  I'm awash in story.  Oh yeah, and to top it off, I have twelve villains that are itching to wreck havoc on my story-world as well (I know, having an abundance of story-ideas is a good problem to have).  I’m just trying hard to keep up with my Muse's pace (sometimes just jotting down key-words just so I don’t forget).   I’ve been doing most of my note-taking on graph paper, quickly penciling in the ideas as they come to me (thanks to my beautiful, overworked Muse).  I appreciate all she does for me, so I’m trying hard not to disappoint her with a lackluster effort on my part.  Besides, what would my characters think of me if I just gave into my excuses, day after day?  After all, my characters are strong and driven and have unstoppable motivation.  So it must be with me as well, right?  I must be the hero of my own life-story and must “soldier on”, even when I’m fatigued and beaten down.  If my heroes can pick themselves up off the battlefield, swinging and slashing, well so can I.  No excuses!  My Muse and my characters are counting on me to succeed.  So, even as I stumble, wounded and weary, I must grab my pencil and paper, and charge forward into the chaotic fray of my story-world.  (Okay, overly dramatic, I know, but hey — what do you expect from a fantasy writer, huh?)

That’s all for now.  One more month left in this round of ROW80.  Keep the Fire Burning!
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There and Back Again

“The archers on the tower shrank back, their nerve broken.  They fled, and the beleaguered councilmen sallied from the palace and hewed into them with joyous abandon.  Pellian knights and men-at-arms sought safety in the streets, and the crowd tore them to pieces.  In the streets the fighting milled and eddied, plumed helmets and steel caps tossed among the tousled heads and then vanished; swords hacked madly in a heaving forest of pikes, and over all rose the roar of the mob, shouts of acclaim mingling with screams of blood-lust and howls of agony.  And high above all, the naked figure of the king rocked and swayed on the dizzy battlements, mighty arms brandished, roaring with gargantuan laughter that mocked all mobs and princes, even himself.”
— (Excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)


There and Back Again
I just got back from vacation a few days ago.  I’ve been on the road, traveling and visiting with my folks for the past couple of weeks.  Since the Internet services at my Mom’s house was questionable at best (and nonexistent at my Grandmother’s house), my ability to blog was very limited.  I tried blogging from my mobile device, and did manage to fire-off a short update, but it was awkward and cumbersome, even in the Blogger app.  I’m sure many of you blog that way, but it’s not ideal for me.  Generally, I write my blogs in Scrivener and then cut-and-paste them into my Blogger account on my PC.  I brought my laptop and notebook with me during the trip because I knew I would have a lot of downtime and I wanted to stay in the habit of writing daily.  I did manage to do some story-writing during the first couple of days, but my laptop started acting-up and crashing often; the dreaded “blue screen of death”.  It got to the point where it was crashing every fifteen minutes or so — very frustrating!  I had my notebook, and tried to continue writing in it, but I was too frustrated over my laptop failure to write.  My Grandmother, bless her heart, offered me a solution and surprised me.  She drove me to the computer store and told me to pick out a laptop and that she would buy it for me.  Wow, completely unexpected.  Thank you, Grandma — you’re the best!  I now have an awesome laptop that I will strictly use only for writing.  Scrivener is the only program I have loaded on it, so when I sit in front of it I can focus on writing (and nothing else) with minimal distractions.  Fortunately, I have all my Scrivener files backed-up on a flash-drive attached to my car-keys.  I always have my files backed-up and with me (and you should too).  I enjoyed typing on my new laptop for the remainder of the trip.  Now that I’m back, it’s just a matter of maintaining the habit of daily writing again.  Writing these blog posts on a regular basis again will also help toward that goal.  Here we are, Day 42 of 80; more than half way through the Second Round of ROW80.  Are you halfway through your writing goal?  Or are you a little behind, like me?  The finish-line is closer than the starting-gate, so keep up the pace, everyone.  We can all make up for lost time if we pace ourselves properly.


That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Writing On The Road

This is just a quick ROW80 update to let everyone know that I'm on the road visiting family until next week.  My folks have questionable Internet services there, so this short post on my mobile device will have to suffice.  I brought my laptop and notebooks with me, so I do intend on writing on this trip.  Even though visiting family can be hectic, there is always a lot of down time where I can work on my story.  I also brought my Kindle with be, so I'm going to try to sneak in some novel-reading in between the family outings.  This ought to be an interesting week of story-crafting.  I'll let you know how it goes in a future post...