Character Archetypes

Diagnostic vocabulary for character archetypes — narrative-role functions (Hero, Mentor, Trickster, and the rest of Vogler/Campbell's eight) and Jungian personality types (Sage, Rebel, Caregiver, and the rest of the Mark & Pearson twelve) — plus four modes for using them across a manuscript: naming a pairing, auditing for cliché, checking for drift, and balancing a cast.

Archetype is a starting scaffold, not a finished character. This skill complements fiction-workshop's Want/Need/Wound/Lie framework (see references/character-work.md there) rather than replacing it — the archetype names the pattern; the Core Four individualizes it.

When to Use

This skill is for:

• ✅ Fiction manuscripts — novels, novellas, short stories, screenplays-in-prose-form
• ✅ Naming a character's narrative-role and personality-type pairing
• ✅ Checking whether an established archetype is being used well or as cliché
• ✅ Checking whether a character's actions still match their established archetype, or have drifted without explanation
• ✅ Checking whether a cast's archetypes are balanced (no redundancy, no structural gaps)

When NOT to Use