45 Master Characters

I've never cared for the eurocentric "hero's journey" and this book relies entirely on those archetypal characters and story arcs. It claims to be a feminist update, with separate female characters and both feminine and masculine journeys. The author does state briefly in the introduction that those journeys could be undertaken by either men or women, and there is a single "gender-bending" example of each. I just found the reliance on stereotypical (not archetypal) gender traits entirely unappealing.

I'll freely admit that I'm probably throwing out the baby with the bathwater here, but I just got too annoyed with the basic concept to take what is valuable out of it. C'est la vie.

I've been making all sorts of notes from this book before I return it. So it's rather overdue at the library it came from. Whoops. I'm thinking I maybe should buy a copy for myself.It lists a bunch of archetypes, male and female, that characters can fall into. I think it may prove helpful in thinking about characters. Do my characters fall into these archetypes? Sometimes. Usually not completely. Do I fall into one of the archetypes? No. Thankfully not. I see myself in several of them. In describing the archetypes, she lists what motivates them, what their fears are, and which character types it could be useful and interesting to pair them with. Which ones will challenge them and force them to grow and change.After the archetypes, she show more describes the female journey and the male journey. Though noting that a man can take the female journey and vice versa.The book is at once feminist and gender-limiting. But, useful I think. show less

Victoria Schmidt discusses the difference between a stereotype and an archetype. She talks a bit about individualizing characters using aspects of appearance, what the characters care about and fear, motivations, how others see the character, and so on. When providing examples of each archetype she deliberately provides a wide spectrum of possibilities so that you can see some of the variations that are possible.

My only problem here is that I can still see, having read through the book, how it would be easy to accidentally get trapped into creating stereotypes using these character archetypes. Why? Because many of our stereotypes are variations on (or simplified, judgmental versions of) these archetypes, and it's hard not to let all show more that history influence us. Perhaps if Ms. Schmidt had included an extra (small) section within each archetype reminding the reader to play with things, and including a few further suggestions and examples for how to do so, it would have allayed this fear.

The archetypes are quite detailed. Each has both a positive and a negative side. The author includes all sorts of information about the archetypes, from things they tend to care about, to which other archetypes they pair well with, and what their assets and flaws tend to be. Then Ms. Schmidt does more in the list of examples to break the stereotype worry than she does anywhere else. She includes examples from TV, film, literature, and history, so no matter what your reading or viewing pleasure, you should find something you can relate to.

Oddly, while the character archetypes are what sell the book, they turned out not to be the main attraction for me. There's a great section on supporting characters, for example. But best of all, roughly a full 95 pages of the book cover the feminine and masculine archetypal journeys. This is where things really take off and catch at the imagination. All in all, this book is interesting, useful, and well-detailed. If your characterizations could use a little help, this might be a fun place to start!

Full review at ErrantDreams show less

Ms. Schmidt has interesting ideas. However, it's peculiar and discouraging that she is publishing books of fiction writing advice without actually having published any fiction. I can't find fiction by her mentioned anywhere on the net, and although her book constantly refers to films, I can't find any scriptwriting credits on IMDB.

This is not a book a fiction writer needs urgently to read.

Builds on Male and Female understanding of myths. It helps in the development of psychologically "true or consistent" characters. I use it like much of the myth structure to review stories to see what might be missing or what image, physical move, tone etc would help make the story real to the listener. I use this to give me a framework and to live the story in my head so that i can then improvise the story in relation to the audience on the day

I enjoyed this as a starting place for creating characters. While I may not follow it to the letter, I found it of great help.

Slightly useful, but certainly not comprehensive.