How Many Labels Have Enabled Your Characters?

I talked about character motivations for the February WriYe prompt. This time, I will continue the psychoanalysis of the main characters of my trilogy while being obscure about their identities. We apply labels to people all the time: the nerd, the geek, the prep, the wallflower, the extrovert (and, of course, many other more stigmatizing labels). These labels can be applied to characters, but I'll be focusing on more specific labels this time around.

Character archetypes are related to character motivation. Whether your character is socially or selfishly oriented will determine what will and will not motivate them.

First, I looked up the 12 main character archetypes. I'm going to list them here for my pleasure:

1. The Innocent
2. The Orphan
3. The Hero
4. The Caregiver
5. The Explorer
6. The Outlaw
7. The Lover
8. The Creator
9. The Jester
10. The Sage
11. The Magician
12. The Ruler

And now, it's time to put the four main characters of my trilogy on the chopping block. Until I release their character profiles, I'll refer to them by their initials. (Then you guys can come back to all the initialed posts and finally know who I was talking about!)

S.W. - The Innocent w/ a bit of The Orphan and a drop of The Sage
L.W. - The Explorer & a teensy-weensy hint of The Outlaw
B. - The Lover
A. A. - a bit of The Hero, & a species-specific bit of The Caregiver, w/ a fading dash of The Innocent.

By far, the hardest character for me to label was A. A. I think it's pretty obvious that B. proved the easiest. (Must be her simple name.) L.W. is the antagonist, but he is connected to a much larger antagonist. The Outlaw seems like a typical archetype for antagonists, but L.W. wants to have a peaceful life and settle down just as much as he wants revenge. S.W. is calm and trusting with a desire to just fit in and make everyone happy, but she also has a nosy, research-loving component. And, of course, when things don't seem right, she steps up that "sage" component to try to make sense of her surroundings. B. is simply searching for her bae, but the world makes settling down the last thing she can do. Everyone she's ever with gets ripped from her arms.

So, according to the "four cardinal orientations," L.W. would be oriented towards freedom, B. towards social satisfaction, S.W. towards order, and A.A. is just all over the place. Somehow, that seems like a logical balance.

Based on my categorizations above, I believe it's possible for characters to fall under a single archetype. At the same time, the more complex a character is and the more experiences they have had, the more likely they are to have multiple archetypes. I don't believe it's possible for a character to be so incredibly unique that they don't fall under any of the archetypes.

I think archetypes and motivations can be very useful ways to think about character development. Really, you can create a solid character just by filling in these two things. Their background is also important, but it can be created around their motivations, as well. After that, everything else just comes. The personality solidifies from the experiences and goals, then it just seems pretty obvious that his favorite color is forest green.

This analysis was actually pretty insightful for me.

Now, an interpretation of my character as the epitome of her archetype? B., I choose you!

B. clenched her unnamed comrade's thick forearm as it slipped deeper into the frigid, dark water. "It shouldn't've been you!" Her voice grew quieter. "...It should've been me. Come back." The cold permeating through her fingertips was her only response. B.'s grip on the limp arm loosened and the body of her comrade sank below the ice. "Come back," she whispered again.

Again, she had been saved. And again, she was alone.

Kudos to people who immediately got the reference! I had to do it (since I wasn't going to reveal any story information just yet).

I mainly used this site for archetype reference. Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.

Who Moves You?

Motivation gives us purpose, in fiction and in reality. High achievers, strong characters, and those who break the system all have powerful motivating forces, whether it's a mission from God, a lost or missing family member, a desire for a high status, or a dislike of the status quo.

I haven't written very many complete works, but I find that my ideas don't stick to certain genres or archetypes. What motivates my characters?

The main character in my trilogy is motivated by a dislike of the status quo. She grew up dreaming of an equality that wasn't a reality. As she gets older, she's one of few who feel things aren't right, and she eventually decides to do something to change it. Along with two of the other protagonists, there's an overarching desire to prevent the further loss of family. The "antagonist," on the other hand, is motivated by an anger at what he has become.

The main character of my upcoming novel has lost his parents, his only loving support group, and seeks to learn the truth about their demise.

In a short story I'm currently planning, the character's motivation is to escape her fears.

Many of these motivations are a desire for tranquility. Perhaps that sums up all motivations, minus the desire to be supreme lord ruler.

Personally, my favorite character motivation is probably the epic journey to set things right--fighting against the status quo. They make stories of epic lengths where anything can happen, but can also be super cheesy if the character is "the one and only" for no particular reason and somehow manages to set everything straight alone. It's not a theme you see often in real life because public opinion, peer pressure, and group mentality work together to convince people that the status quo or the person with the loudest mouth is the right way. This sort of theme is present in my trilogy, but familial loss also seems to be a theme among the works I've planned.

My characters' motivations all stem directly from their personalities or, in the case of my upcoming novel and the short story, from the plot itself. I don't deliberately give a particular motivation to a character--I let my characters develop as the plot develops and vice versa. It may be unconventional, but it works for me. I let the character become a person in my mind, then I consider adding something to a character sheet.

I've realized I have a difficult time creating characters for novels (short stories are fine), but when I develop a character first, the world develops around them. Three of the characters in my trilogy and three in the novel existed in some form prior to their plot development. This is also why I'm so sure I'll be writing a romance novel using the character in my sidebar. Once I realized my repurposed characters sprouted novel and trilogy ideas like nose hair while my attempts at new characters eeked short story ideas that could possibly be stretched into novels, I decided I want to again shift through my old, unused characters and see who else can be repurposed.

I'm eager to see the diversity of motivations that arise in my future works!

Stay tuned to hear more about these characters!

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.