Book Review:
By Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever,
and Sue Viders
Reviewed By C. M. Huard
Copyright © 2007 by C. M. Huard, All Rights Reserved
The most striking thing about the
Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines is its practicality.
There are many books intended to help writers create characters with the
use of archetypes; in my experience they often tend to be rather
abstract and more focused on integrating the characters into the story
arc, the so-called "hero's journey." By contrast, this handsome
200-page trade paperback uses only the bare essential concepts from Carl
Jung and Joseph Campbell, and takes them in a much more concrete
direction.
The first two sections are devoted to
profiling the archetypes, the sixteen categories that, according to the
authors, all characters can ultimately be reduced to. Section One
covers the eight male archetypes (Chief, Bad Boy, Best Friend, Charmer,
Lost Soul, Professor, Swashbuckler, and Warrior) while Section Two is
devoted to the eight female archetypes (Boss, Seductress, Spunky Kid,
Free Spirit, Waif, Librarian, Crusader, and Nurturer). The names chosen
for the archetypes are largely self-explanatory. The differences
between male and female archetypes are presented as largely a matter of
cultural perceptions and social pressures. I didn't come away with the
impression that the writers would be shocked or annoyed if someone used
their book to build a male Nurturer or a female Swashbuckler.
Each profile gives a broad overview,
with examples from literature and pop culture, of the archetype's
distinctive personality. Then the profile goes on to discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of the personality type, its probable childhood
background, and a variety of likely professions. Less usefully, each
profile also includes two "styles" or subtypes for the archetypes: these
usually consist of one subtype that has either more emotional baggage or
a more socially precarious position, and one subtype with a less
troubled situation. The main body of the text is presented in large
print and focuses on the basics, while the easily readable sidebars
offer examples and brainstorming suggestions.
Section Three, "Using the Archetypes to
Create Characters," is the shortest and least detailed part of the book,
but also the most thought provoking. The archetype profiles have
already offered many ideas for turning the archetypes into characters,
so the discussion of "Core Archetypes" (characters who conform to a
single archetype) is mostly confined to showing the reader examples of
how such characters can be compelling and distinct from other characters
based on the same archetype.
Then the authors move on to the subject
of "Evolving Archetypes" (characters who change from one archetype to
another over the course of the story arc) and "Layered Archetypes"
(characters who fundamentally conform to a certain archetype but also
show traits of another archetype). The authors explain both concepts
clearly, with examples of how they work. They also offer a few cautions
about how certain archetypes do not necessarily combine well in the same
person: the difficulty of having a Waif evolve into a Boss, for
instance, or the risk of making a Layered Archetype so well-adjusted
that he has no room for growth within the story. They do not offer an
exhaustive list of possible archetype evolutions or layerings, perhaps
to keep the book to a more manageable length. I didn't find this to be
a major shortcoming, because the book as a whole is meant more to
jumpstart the creative process than to hold the writer's hand through
every conceivable step.
Section Four, "Archetype Interactions,"
is one of the most fun and most distinctive parts of the book. While
most books deal with archetype interactions in terms of their effect on
the plot, this one keeps the writer focused on the question of how well
-- or not -- a given archetype plays with others. The most useful part
of Section Four takes every possible romantic pairing of the core male
and female archetypes and offers general, common-sense overviews of how
these characters would interact and develop under each others'
influences. As someone who tends to feel ill-at-ease writing romances,
I found this part of the book enlightening and reassuring. The
"ensembles" subsection is little more than a chance for the writers to
dissect their favorite ensemble-based movies and TV shows, though their
thoughts on how the characters interact are still interesting. The
"friendship" subsection is more helpful but also somewhat skimpy. It
deals with partnerships between two different archetypes of the same
gender, giving four examples for each gender: Best Friend and Lost Soul,
Spunky Kid and Nurturer, Warrior and Charmer, Crusader and Waif,
Professor and Swashbuckler, Boss and Seductress, Chief and Bad Boy, Free
Spirit and Librarian. These are well-done so far as they go, but they
do not cover all the possibilities.
This is where it becomes clear that you
can use the book in ways that its authors didn't necessarily intend. If
you want some thoughts on how a Seductress and a Waif might interact,
for instance, you have to translate one of your characters into a "male"
archetype that seems to fit them, and then turn to the appropriate
"romantic pairing" section and try to imagine what a platonic version of
that dynamic would be like. Waifs correspond fairly closely to Lost
Souls, while a Seductress might resemble a Charmer or a Bad Boy, based
on how you are writing her. So, depending on how you handled the
"translation" of your archetypes, you would either turn to the "Lost
Soul and Seductress" pairing, the "Charmer and Waif" pairing, or the
"Bad Boy and Waif" pairing, and see what those offer in the way of
characters rubbing each other the wrong way or finding common ground
with each other.
Similarly, if both your romantic leads
are Layered Archetypes but you've found their interactions so far to be
rather dull, you can skim through all possible pairings of their
component archetypes in Section Four with another archetype, looking for
hints about how different aspects of your characters might attract or
repel one another. Also, the titular reference to "Heroes & Heroines"
rather does the book a disservice. You can build sympathetic supporting
characters from the same set of archetypes without much trouble and
apply the archetypes to villainous characters with only a little more
imagination. The book certainly has its flaws -- in addition to the
ones mentioned earlier, there are some typographical errors and some
dubious examples -- but it has one of the most important virtues a book
about writing can possess: it is adaptable to the needs of the person
using it.
The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes
and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes
By Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and
Sue Viders.
Published in 2000 by Lone Eagle
Publishing Company
ISBN 1-58065-024-4 |
