storycraft

Very few Heroes stand alone. Often they are accompanied by a Sidekick, or a few. In some cases, a large number of companion characters will form a different archetype known as the Hunting Group of Companions. Sidekicks help the Hero

The Innocent is an archetype that can be used for a number of different types of characters, though if the Innocent is included in the main part of a story, they rarely remain such. Innocent characters can also fall into

Ah, the Temptress. She saunters in and gives you a coy smile, her eyes promising that more is available, if you’re willing. The Temptress is a fairly common female archetype though, like the Damsel in Distress, it is evolving in

Ah, the Damsel in Distress Archetype. Well known, common, but I like to think, in this day and age, we’re getting a little more creative in our application of it. Like the Mother Archetype, at times it seems like the

I admit I like the name of this one. The Threshold Guardian! It sounds cool. Threshold Guardians are very common in any sort of Hero’s Journey plotline. Threshold Guardians can be good, evil, or neutral, alive or not, and may

The Mother Archetype is kind of like the Mentor Archetype, in that Mother characters tend be more idealized and more removed from the action. They often show up only for a short time to provide guidance and nurturing before a

We’re going to move into some of the still common, but less obvious, archetypes now. The first of these is the Evil Character with a Good Heart archetype (or EwGH for short, because that’s a mouthful). EwGH Archetypes are less

We’re all familiar with the Mentor Archetype. In fact, I would wager that, aside from the Hero Archetype, this is the one that most of us would identify off the top of our heads next. That may be because the

Aside from the Hero, the Villain is probably the most common character archetype. After all, without a villain, many stories would not happen. Heroes rise up solely to fight the evil villains bring into the world; with a villain, without

Perhaps the best known of all character archetypes is the hero. Most stories have a hero, after all, and even non-standard protagonists tend to be labeled by their relationship to the hero archetype: a tragic hero, for example, or an