Planetfurry BBS

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

I hope I spelled archetypes right. LOL The leopard's spelling is a little on the "Hugely needs help" side.

Just wondering. In an effort to advance my writing's worth, I picked up a used book all about the many kinds of archetypical character builds in fictional works. It discusses all kinds of archetyps that you may run into in those stories as well as describes them in detail so you can get a grasp of how they would interact with other characters and/or the environment. Not to say you can't make things happen your own way.

Well, the leopard tends to ramble alot so just bare with him, I was wondering if it really that important to have a well described archetypical character for a short story or is it just fine to have a basic les described character. I know description of appearance, attitude, and behavior are important. Just not sure about a full blown archetype in a relatively short work of fiction.

Sort of like weighing the effort against the effect, I guess. Any advice would be more than apreciated.

[Styx]

I think it's best if the main character or characters in any story are described in detail but only in what is important to the story, it's not needed to know his or their favorite ice cream flavor for example (unless that's part of the story of course). The goal is to create characters your readers can connect with on some level. The best stories are those where the author is able to make the characters become real to the readers, that can't happen if the reader does not know what makes the character tick.

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Cool. I knew I didn't have to describe too much there. I just didn't want to think my characters were too lacking in description or too archetypical and mainstream.

[Nadan]

There's something to be said for archetypical characters. They are familiar to us and can make for good reading. Of course, they need to be personalized, and it takes some fine writing to make them interesting since we have probably all read stories about such characters before, but they can be great. Good vs Evil, son estranged from his father, son's father-figure mentor dies, son kills father: these stories have been done to death. But they work in Star Wars. I think it would be harder to write something that keeps reader attention with too many archetypical characters, but they can make for some fine stories.

[Rabbit]

IMO, the protagonist should not be an archetype, as a rule. If he/she's an archetype, very often the resulting tale is dull, one that's been told many times before. It becomes tempting, in other words, tell an archetypical story if you already have an archetypical protagonist. Otherwise, the shorter the story the more you need to depend on what were called "literary stereotypes" back when I was in school; the overprotective mother, the abusive father, the ungrateful child, etc. Every word in a story must do _something_, and the less words you use describing scenery or people, the better. Rather, have the people act and do as much as possible, and let the reader's mental image-making machine fill in the blanks. Only maybe once in a dozen tales do I describe a protagonist's physical appearance, for example, yet the reader never notices because, given distinctive actions and dialogue to work with, they create their own mental image. Said image will be _far_ more satisfactory to them than anything I might come up with for them. The same is true of a personality. Provide a few correctly-designed hints, and the whole person will come alive out of the reader's own stereotype catalog.

Again, the shorter the story, the more essential this is. That's becasue the shorter the story, the more load each word has to carry.

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Wow! Finally someone other than my English 101 professor that knows as much about this stuff as I. The leopard is not alone! He he he

Yes. Those remarks definetly make sense to me. Less description where it is easy for the reader to piece the scene together and more where it is need/required to be emphasized.

That brings me to ask another question, which I will post in another thread. Believe it or not, I have a story, notes at least, of a protagonist and antagonist that are the same person. In the story of Simon I am working on now, I think I would say that the antagonist would be his illness and to a lesser extent the "Company". You'll know about the company once I make it. LOL

Thankies so much for the awesome and very well directing advice.

*Huggles and nuzzles from the golden leopard.*

[Rabbit]

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Yes. I am a beginner writer. But I have endless experience dreaming of these stories. I know that means nothing. I am saving the double personality one for later anyways cause I want that one to be high quality. This current idea should only be a short short story in the first place. I know it isn't all easy, that's why I wanted to join this forum, cause there seems to be people here who actually know about writing. I am not going to refuse anyones advice. I just want to write stories. They keep filling my head and I can't get them out. I even try to forget them, but they still stay there. I have like almost 40 story ideas written down. I know I can do them all, but I want at least one to come true.

[Rabbit]

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Thanks for the uplift. The leoaprd gets sad easy sometimes. I am going to work on the outlineof the story a bit more later. I have to do some Ada programming now.

[Nadan]

[Velvet Karuda Leopard]

Thanks. AnthonyTiger. I needed some cheering up. My first couple weeks of college have been rough for me. I am still going to work on this one story though.