45 Master Characters
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Product Description
Product Description
Every novelist, screenwriter and oral storyteller faces the challenge of creating original and exciting characters. Archetypes - mythic, cross-cultural models from which all characters originate - provide a solid foundation upon which to fashion new and vastly different story people."45 Master Characters" explores the most common male and female archetypes, provides instructions for using them to create your own original characters, and gives examples of how other authors have brought such archetypes to life in novels, film and television. Worksheets are then included for writers to develop and map the lives of their own characters.
About the Author
Victoria Schmidt is a screenwriter for film and television. A graduate of the film programs at UCLA and NYU, she holds a Masters degree in screenwriting from Loyola Marymount. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book claims to be a comprehensive survey of basic character types. It's certainly a useful springboard to developing a character, and is especially good at describing how different character types might interact. But it's not as comprehensive as it claims, and suffers from a sexist, feminist bias.
The sexism is apparent from the beginning, as the two main sections of the book are "male characters" and "female characters", even though several character types appear in both sections. Of the ones that aren't duplicated... Apparently the author believes that a man can pursue wealth and power for their own sakes, but a woman can't. A woman can be gentle and free-spirited, but a man can't. A man, simply because he's a man, can never understand persecution or oppression.
The book ends with a description of two basic story types, which I would call plot-driven or external, and character-driven or internal. She prefers to call them "male" and "female", as though only men can have adventures and only women can experience inner change. However, the story types themselves are well thought out and nicely described.
If you are prepared to overlook this bias, and willing to search both male and female categories to find the type you're looking for, then this book can be a useful starting place for developing original characters. We all have a tendency to settle into a comfort zone, writing about the sort of people we know and like ourselves. This book can help you think about characters you might not come up with easily on your own. A very helpful feature is the hints about how different character types are likely to interact, which may well spark off ideas.
The sexism is apparent from the beginning, as the two main sections of the book are "male characters" and "female characters", even though several character types appear in both sections. Of the ones that aren't duplicated... Apparently the author believes that a man can pursue wealth and power for their own sakes, but a woman can't. A woman can be gentle and free-spirited, but a man can't. A man, simply because he's a man, can never understand persecution or oppression.
The book ends with a description of two basic story types, which I would call plot-driven or external, and character-driven or internal. She prefers to call them "male" and "female", as though only men can have adventures and only women can experience inner change. However, the story types themselves are well thought out and nicely described.
If you are prepared to overlook this bias, and willing to search both male and female categories to find the type you're looking for, then this book can be a useful starting place for developing original characters. We all have a tendency to settle into a comfort zone, writing about the sort of people we know and like ourselves. This book can help you think about characters you might not come up with easily on your own. A very helpful feature is the hints about how different character types are likely to interact, which may well spark off ideas.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Echoing other comments about the gender polarisation, I also struggled badly with the completeness of this book. Rather than start with a set of key roles and then take these into a male/female context, it covers ground with no justification as to choice (or much debate on what is a non-master character).
Some of the content is of some use, but the whole book is little more than a large padded out essay
Some of the content is of some use, but the whole book is little more than a large padded out essay
Format:Paperback
I found the character types described very stereotypical. Perhaps her paradigm is too much 'American movie' for me as a European-African to appreciate, but I found this book a disappointment.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
too gender biased for my books.
Really good character archetypes. The one thing I can't deal with is the whole male and female; first of all where does that leave non- binary gendered characters? Read more
Published 6 months ago by C. A. A. Drinkwater
Silly, but somewhat useful
This is a Jungian/archetypal look at 45 mythic characters which (the author claims) are _the_ archetypes behind all great writing. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Martin Turner
Essential reading for an author
Grabbed my attention in the first five lines. Most of the information is as old as the hills. But in this masterfully constructed and written reference book, the information is... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Thriller
45 Master Characters
This book gives 286 pages of useful ideas and suggestions. It should be studied rather than read for pleasure. Read more
Published on 26 April 2009 by MegDragon
My current *favorite* on the book-shelf
I love this book. It's sharp, snappy and informative. The author transmits an enthusiasm for her subject that's hard to miss. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2002
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