Story Basics Part IV: The Mentor Archetype

The name Mentor comes from a character in the Odyssey. Telemachus, Odysseus' son, goes on a quest to find his father. The goddess Athena takes the guise of Mentor (a human male) to give Telemachus advice, training, aid, or necessary gifts to finish the search.

The Mentor is a very rich archetype. Joseph Campbell named this role as The Wise Old Man or Woman. The Mentor's job is to represent our highest selves, the part of the heroine who is wise and far seeing.  A mentor decides if the heroine has earned gifts to help her, or can act as her conscience. The Mentor motivates and initiates the heroine, too.

Mentors can be kindly  parental figures or they can be dangerous, teaching the Heroine through hard knocks. A Dark Mentor is one who starts a character on a tragic arc, leading her into danger or destruction. Fallen Mentors have lost their own way, and part of the Hero's story is to make the Mentor pull herself together. There are often multiple Mentors in a story, as well.

After all, James Bond not only has M, he has Moneypenny and Q to help teach him what he needs. Arthur has Merlin, but also his brother Kaye, his father, and even his half-sister to teach him lessons.

Mentors can be funny, mystical, young, old, or even part of the Heroine's inner landscape as a memory or code of honor. They can show up in the beginning, middle, or end of the story. Don't get stuck thinking your Mentor has to be Obi Wan with a beard and a nifty sword. Anyone and anything can teach your Heroine what she needs to know.

Story Basics Part IV: Archetypes and Joseph Campbell

Last year (to the day!), I said I would do a series on various archetypal thought systems that can inspire a writer. Today (and until I get done with it), I'm going to discuss Joseph Campbell's breakdowns according to Christopher Vogler .
Vogler names the most useful, basic archetypes for writers:

• Hero
• Mentor
• Threshold Guardian 
• Herald
• Shapeshifter
• Shadow
• Trickster

First things first. According to Vogler,

The concept of archetypes is an indispensable tool for understanding the purpose or function of characters in a story. If you grasp the function of the archetype which a particular character is expressing, it can help you determine if the character is pulling her full weight in the story. The archetypes are part of the universal language of storytelling, and a command of their energy is as essential to the writer as breathing.  (p. 29, emphasis his)

It's very easy to call character A the Mentor, and that is her only function - to mentor and educate the Hero, then to let her go into the world on her own. But in order to make a story character interesting and three dimensional, the Mentor will most likely play many roles, just like real people. Someone can give you excellent advice one day, then the next tie your shoelaces together. This person has embodied both the Mentor and the Trickster/Shapeshifter archetypes.

For the next few days, I'll breakdown each individual archetype. This is going to be fun!

Story Basics, Part III: A quick and dirty introduction to story structure

Some writers love outlines - sailing from island to island in an archipelago to reach the mainland. Some like to sail into the fog, boldly striking out on their own to find their story.

Both ways are correct. Both will make fabulous stories.

For those of us who run aground at the slightest notice, story structure helps keep the boat on track. I love to use this little tool called the nine sentence synopsis. This will help you figure out the turning points of your story, where your characters are going, and what needs to happen next in order for everything to make sense to your reader.

The Nine Sentence Synopsis 

1. The trouble starts when.....
2. The protagonist makes a plan to cope by...
3. The trouble gets worse when...
4. The protagonist regroups and presses on harder by...
5. The protagonist reaches the point of no return when...
6. The protagonist is pushed to the brink when...
7. She appears to have lost when...
8. She fights on by...
9. Everything is on the line and only one will win when...

I know I got this from a genius writer, but I can't find the original handout to give credit. Damn! I'll keep trying to find that.

This quick and dirty tool helps you shape the rising and falling tension of your story. I'll go more into explanations next time!

Doing the pretty

Surround yourself with beauty.

The Avanti Lounge from Dania Furniture.

Today, The Charming Man and I went shopping for a new bed. For the last ten years, we've enjoyed the bohemian delight of our mattress and box spring right on the floor. But it is finally time to feel 'grown-up', and off to browse the furniture stores we went.

We were both drawn to quirky, fun styles and soon it developed into a game of what personalities would like what kinds of furniture. So! I challenge my friends to play the game with me.

Who would like this style of sofa? Tell me what kind of character would sprawl on such a deliciously unusual piece?



note: Both The Charming Man and I sat on this lovely thing. It's quite comfortable.

Found on the Internet

From Overthinkingit.com--The Flow Chart of Female Characters

Go to link to embiggen. :)

Conversations with The Flaming Chef.

Jason Zenobia, the genius Flaming Chef, replied to my Twilight series:

Amazing themes and discourse here. I've always been fascinated by the symbolism of heterosexual romance. Love of "the other" when the other is physiologically different from you, opens up all sorts of neat ideas.

The idea that women aren't whole until they have men to guide them - I always thought of that as a function of pairing up. (Cultural ideas around marriage in particular.) It follows from what you're saying that this dynamic is as much a function of falling in love (or being obsessed) with someone?

(Places index finger on chin. Makes thoughtful little noise)

And to respond!

One of things I like about the quotes I posted last time is that they comment on the necessity of a woman to embrace her animus (as well as her Shadow aspects, to get all Jungian up in here).

Since women are traditionally discouraged from exploring and expressing their aggression and anger, I believe that one will chose a male partner that best embodies her repressed qualities. Being in love with a man can bring insight to those characteristics that she has hidden or been frightened of.

I feel that romance novels, one of the only genres aimed specifically at women and read mainly by women, give us a chance to examine interactions with the different kinds of male personalities and behaviors. Then, we can integrate those aspects into our psyche with a great deal less danger.

Repost:: Examples of the Waif

The prototype of The Waif is, of course, Cinderella. Some say Sleeping Beauty was a Waif, but I always felt her passivity was born out of her family keeping her ignorant of her danger instead of teaching her how to save herself.

Other famous Waifs are:

Ilsa Laszlo in Casablanca
Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz
Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Amanda in The Glass Menagerie

Bella fits right in.

Repost: In Defense of Twilight even though I don't like it much, Part Two.

Today is the discussion of the Return of the Waif. *insert drum flourish here*

For anyone who is not as insane for archetypes as I am, here is quick introduction to The Waif from The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines by Cowden, LaFever, and Viders.

The Waif projects a child-like innocence, a soul-stirring susceptibility. She is naive, enigmatic, yet reslient. Everyone she meets wants to save her, but she can surprise people with her incredible inner strength and fortitude. She touches the vulnerable place deep inside all of us with her soft touch and wistful glance.... Her delicate fragility makes her an easy target. She always seems between a rock and hard place. She adapts to any situation she falls into without complaint. The Waif does not fight back; instead, she endures untold hardships untils she is rescued. (pg 76)

Bella is the Waif. Her purity is not merely her virginity, but also a sense of being unspoiled by greed, temper, or the cruelties of the world. She is also trusting and (more or less) kind. I personally find she is far too good of an example of the failings of the waif: impressionable, passive, insecure, and isolated. (pg. 77) As a Waif, Bella lets other people control her destiny, rather than pursuing her own interests. She's not even sure what her interests are.

Fairly obviously, the Waif has fallen out of favor with modern writers. I personally find it dull to write someone who refuses to act. But there is a reason why she is making a resurgence in literature.

The Waif appeals to the exhausted side of our personalities. The Waif rarely fights back or initiates action. Instead, she allows life to surprise her and take her where it goes.

Even the most motivated of self-starters get tired. There is something refreshing about letting go and allowing something or someone else to run your existence. And wouldn't it be restful to expect the best once in a while, rather than always anticipating the worst?

I think readers like Bella because everyone needs someone to take care of them every so often. It feels good to imagine taking your hands off the plow and letting another person till the soil.

I must admit, though, that I like it when a Waif decides to risk the blisters and dirt of her own labor.

I wonder if Bella ever will.

Well, so much for that.

Every time I sat down to write about archetypes, I managed to find something else that really really had to be done at that moment.

Like plucking my eyebrows. Or starting an IM with a friend. And quite frankly, it was amazing how often I really needed a nap Right Now.

I finally had to admit to myself that my brain was not ready for archetypes right now. Curses!

Instead, I'm getting ready for a Winter Writing Intensive put on by the Rose City Romance Writers. Michael Hauge and Bob Mayer are coming to the area and are planning on kicking our asses. I'm preparing by getting my new work-in-progress to the point where I can discuss it (sort of) intelligently.

So I'm back to that!

Back to work. :)

Sorry about the skipped days there. Back being productive!

Every writer finds ways to make her characters three-dimensional and interesting. We fill out character sheets, brainstorm via longhand in cheap (or expensive, depending on your personality) notebooks, post pictures of what we think they look like - the list goes on and on.

Archetypes or stock characters are fantastic starting places. Often people get quite upset about these ideas, claiming that using them leads to one-dimensional characters or stereotyping. In the hands of a writer who isn't paying attention, yes. That can happen. I really like the way Christopher Vogler puts it in The Writer's Journey:

Looking at the archetypes....as flexible character functions rather than rigid character types, can liberate your storytelling. It explains how a character in a story can manifest the qualities of more than one archetype.

Every good story reflects the total human story, the universal human condition of being born into the world, growing, learning, struggling to become an individual, and dying. Stories can be read as metaphors for the general human situation, with characters who embody universal...qualities, comprehensible to the group as well as the individual. (pgs. 30-33)

Here are just a few archetype systems that writers I know use.

• Campbell's breakdowns which includes categories such as Hero, Mentor, Threshold Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, Shadow, and Trickster.
• The Tarot
  
• Astrological signs (a perennial favorite)
  
• Gods and Goddesses of various pantheons (I have a weakness for the Greeks, but I've found inspiration in other religions, too)

I'll be getting into these ideas into great depth in later posts. Let me know if you want me to go into the whole Jung/Joseph Campbell origins of modern thought on archetypes. It's fascinating and I love it, but I can be long winded about it.

Post a day, part two.

I'm going to see if I can do the post a day thing again. I loved it in November. Let's see if I can do it again.

This time, I think I will go through various archetypes that writers use to come up with memorable, vibrant characters. I use a variety of sources to get personalities for my characters.

Tomorrow, I will start with some male archetypes.

Who do you base your characters on?

Of course, every character in a story has her or his roots in the writer's own psyche. I once had a dream about a serial killer who carved mathematical equations into his victims' eyelids. I don't want to think too closely about what that says about me.

(I've never done anything with that character, so if you want him, feel free!)

I also pick up names and quirks from my friends. One of my exes had a last name that meant "storm". So I gave a character the last name of Tempesta.

One of my dear friends is named Coral. I based a character on her personality, and called that person Amber.

Yes, I tell my people when they make an appearance in a story. :)

How do you find your characters?

Sidetrack: Examples of The Waif

The prototype of The Waif is, of course, Cinderella. Some say Sleeping Beauty was a Waif, but I always felt her passivity was born out of her family keeping her ignorant of her danger instead of teaching her how to save herself.

Other famous Waifs are:

Ilsa Laszlo in Casablanca
Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz
Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Amanda in The Glass Menagerie