In literature (and in life sometimes too!), there are characters that fulfill a familiar role, or personify a specific niche in the story’s structure. Some may be allies, mentors, and heroes, while others might be rulers, rebels, or tricksters.
These characters have patterns that we recognize and are shared collectively by peoples across cultures. They are called “Archetypes.”
An archetype is a universally understood and accepted symbol, term, or pattern of behavior. Literary archetypes are the examples from which individual characters are copied, patterned, or imitated. Archetypes are often used in myths and storytelling, crossing boundaries of societal and cultural touchstones.
Character archetypes represent the set role that characters play in a story. They have identifiable goals, traits, and abilities.
The term was first used to describe the acting roles in ancient Greek plays. “Archetype” was formed from the verb “archein” (to begin or original) and the noun “typos” (type), and it described the part a character portrayed in the story. Note the word “begin” here, showing the archetype is where the character pattern starts, but a well-written character will be developed beyond this original rule.
Archetypes are concepts that have stood the test of time, shaping artistic expression and notions of societal norms. The tradition of using archetypes continued through the stock characters of the Middle Ages and Commedia dell Arte performances, all the way through to the musical comedies and pantomimes of today.
What Archetypes Are Not
Archetypes are the foundational patterns from which an author works. From there, characters can be depicted in a more rounded and realistic manner, adding depth with details, including features that make them believable from culture to culture, or from any era in history. If these details are left out and the archetype is left undeveloped, the character will feel flat and unbelievable.
Just because a character embodies a particular archetype, doesn’t mean the writer cannot give them their own sense of individuality. Characters become clichés when examples of their behavior or appearance become overused and predictable.
Stereotypes happen when archetypes are oversimplified, stripping away the personality traits and quirks that make people unique. This subtraction from the original archetypal pattern often causes a distorted picture of the type.
Why Explore Archetypes?
Depending on where in the world and what time in history you explore, you can find between 4 and 325 archetypes categorized and cataloged.
Archetypes resonate with audiences across the globe and throughout time. The original Greek plays created masks actors wore to represent the archetypes that personified their characters. Carl Jung chose 12 archetypes to foster insight into an individual’s personality. His list included the: Ruler, Creator, Sage, Innocent, Explorer, Rebel, Hero, Wizard, Jester, Everyman, Lover, and Caregiver.
In this article, we will deep dive into the Creator Archetype.
What Is the Creator Archetype?
Also called the Artist archetype, the creator archetype embodies the quintessential individual of innovation, creativity, and imagination. Their core desire is to create things, whether art, structures, or concepts, and their goal is to realize their vision.
They are driven to develop their skill, enhance their culture with their creations, and banish the banal and mediocre from their society. Their greatest fear is to fail in the execution of their art or for their vision to go unrecognized or deemed less than superlative. Creator archetypes are gifted and motivated.
Creator Archetype Definition
Creator archetypes are the very model of a dreamer following their dream, and they do this by thinking outside the box. They can be visual artists, but also writers, sculptors, musicians, architects, experimental scientists, or visionaries in the business world. They can even be magicians, innovative wielders of fantastical powers and well-honed skills.
The creator archetype has weaknesses, too. They can become completely immersed in their work, sacrificing their health and relationships with their loved ones. Often they are seen as egotistical, even mono-maniacal, in their pursuit of their dreams and goals, pushing aside the needs of others.
Creator archetypes project the best of human ingenuity, inspiration, and originality, willing to put in whatever work it takes to see their goal reach its pinnacle. They are the creative geniuses on the archetypal list. They do not fear going against the norms of society, and may deliberately flout rules just for the fun of poking holes in conventional behavior. Conformity is antithetical to their passion for revolutionary creation. They fuel creative expression.
On the other side, creators can develop tunnel vision. Their single-minded focus makes them deaf to different perspectives and considerations. They will sacrifice their own comfort for their art and anyone else’s. Heartless, uncaring, and ambitious to a fault, they have subverted their creative genius talents and descend into the realm of the mad scientist.
What is the Purpose of a Creator Archetype?
Characters who embody the creator archetype can inspire others to look at problems and situations from another point of view.
Because they approach their tasks with a sense of adventure and unconventional attitudes, they encourage others to also look for unique solutions. Instead of following in the path of others, they trail blaze new opportunities, alternate ways to approach old problems, and foster reinterpretations of past attempts.
Creator archetypes bring new ideas to life and shape their world to reflect their distinctive brand of breakthrough thinking. They are proud of their nonconformist ways and typically are delighted to help others break through barriers to find a way forward, either by example or by directly intervening to the benefit (or sometimes the detriment) of the world around them.
Creator Archetype Personality Traits
Creator types are focused on bringing something from their imagination into reality. This something might be concrete and tangible such as a work of art, a structure of pioneering design, or a radical new invention, or it might be advice and guidance that helps another look at a situation with fresh eyes. Their motivation is to create things of enduring value to society and to help others succeed in fulfilling their dreams as well.
They are most satisfied when they see their new ideas take shape, both in reality and in the hearts and minds of those around them. They can be powerful sources for change within a story world, driving the protagonist and other characters to alter the course of their future. Creator archetypes see opportunities when those around them see closed doors.
Traits often found in creator archetypes are high creativity, frequently startling or even shocking in their originality. They also exhibit a strong and sometimes single-minded focus on innovation, discarding past solutions as derivative, obsolete, useless, or just plain boring.
Creators are driven, eager, and enthusiastic when immersed in their creations, although typically they are oblivious of the world around them. They are not afraid to give their all to what they stand for and have no qualms about departing from what society expects of them.
From the self-sacrificing artists wasting away in their garrets, putting all their money to the purchase of paint and canvas, to the endearing, absent-minded inventors who forget that dinner is getting cold, the creator archetype is less practical than many and less grounded in their everyday world.
These traits can have negative connotations as well as positive ones. The obsession with innovation can overwhelm their interest in other facets of creative thinking, such as practicality, organization, consistency, and user-friendliness. They can be overly excitable and impulsive in their pursuits.
Their narrow focus and driving ambition can cause them to disconnect with those around them, ignoring their own needs, and shirking their responsibilities. Their overarching goal to create can make them seem self-absorbed and insensitive, even when they see themselves as selflessly pursuing their creative visions for the betterment of society.
They can foster ignoble causes on their way to bringing innovation to their world as well as more noble ones. They have no trouble in believing their end result will justify the means. Their desire for originality can lead them down impractical paths, allow them to make unethical choices, and cause them to lose touch with the everyday world. This tendency in the creator archetype can even drive them mad.
Creator Archetype Examples in Literature
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1887–1927
These novels and short stories follow the unparalleled ingenuity of the world’s first consulting detective as he applies his astonishing original thinking and highly-developed intellect to baffling cases from missing persons to stolen gems to fiendish murders. Holmes resolves these investigations with an ease seemingly unfathomable to his friend Watson and the local police.
Holmes’ creative and agile mind, his unwavering motivation to uncover criminals and make the world safe for society, and his unswerving confidence in his abilities are hallmarks of the Creator archetype.
He is known to sacrifice his comfort and health to catch a criminal, and he regularly derides the local constabulary for not being of sufficient caliber to handle the more perplexing inquiries. Additionally, his egotistical nature is legendary.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, 2011
Wade Watts has devoted his life to studying the bewildering puzzles hidden in the digital world of OASIS. With each creative solution he devises to unravel the clues, the more inventive he must become, both to survive his competitors who paint a target on his back and to reach the next game level.
His determination and drive keep him competing for the grand prize despite seemingly impossible odds, testing his arcane knowledge, his well-honed gaming skills, and his extraordinary knack for unconventional approaches, which all lead him to the reward and beyond.
The Martian by Andy Weir, 2014
Mark Watney, an astronaut on a mission to Mars, is presumed dead after a devastating storm and is stranded alone on the empty planet. He must summon all his ingenuity and bioengineering skills, and draw on his indomitable need to surmount the odds against him.
Faced with an unexpected environment, Watney creates ground-breaking and unconventional solutions to survive on an unforgiving alien planet.
The creator types also make excellent secondary individuals in a story line, supporting their protagonists, acting as foil characters, and sometimes just adding color and comedy to the plot.
For example, the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling demonstrate remarkable ingenuity in their oddball inventions, as well as a contempt for the conventional and a disregard for authority.
Another famous example is “Q” from the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, the inventor who modifies everything from cars to toothpaste into quirky but effective weaponry.
On the other side of the coin, creator archetypes and their less sanguine traits can have profoundly negative consequences for a storyline.
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, 1818
The novel’s title character, Victor Frankenstein, begins as a sympathetic character, bending his considerable medical knowledge and skill toward the preservation of life.
Eventually his single-minded pursuit leads him to cross the boundary, truly believing he can harness the godlike power of bringing the dead back to life. The consequences of his hubris are devastating to all around him.
The Talented Mr. Ripley series of novels by Patricia Highsmith, 1955–1991
The novel’s protagonist is a highly intelligent, fantastically creative sociopath, brilliant at inventing convenient backstories for himself on the spot. He uses his talent to weave acquired confidential information and fanciful but plausible lies to maneuver himself into the high class circumstances he feels he deserves.
His ability to fit into any societal niche, his knack for making people feel at ease in his presence, even the way he berates himself when he makes a mistake, all fit the profile of the creator archetype. Ripley genuinely believes his abilities entitle him to cheat, deceive, and murder to achieve his goal.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, 2012
Is it possible to describe the ingenious creator archetype in this book without revealing a spoiler? Let’s just say there are diabolically inventive machinations that cause incriminating circumstantial evidence to pile up against the accused, complicating the question of who did what to whom in this unconventional murder mystery.
The perspective from each point of view seems unshakably honest and yet, someone is creatively hiding the facts while manufacturing false evidence.
Tips For Writing a Creator Archetype
As with the creation of any character in a story, it is important to give the reader a rounded picture. An archetype is just the beginning, giving the character a solid base in which to ground the reader, from which to branch out and form a solid link with the reader, connecting them to the character.
Every creator archetype will be passionately and steadfastly true to their creative vision, and yet each character will express their fervent leanings in their individual fashion. Even with minor characters, it is important to give them goals and stakes. Showcase their personality growth over the story. Show their kinships, associates, and the struggles that make them more than mere plot devices and embed them in the story conflict.
Readers might not see all the details spelled out for the minor characters, but glimpses of their character arc will make them seem more developed.
Creator archetypes can have back stories that enhance their creative progress over time, such as showing them as a child disassembling a kitchen appliance to see how it works. Or describing the inspiration and process through which they achieved their latest success (or failure). Creators can be shown balancing their overarching desire to create against the human requirement for personal relationships and societal expectations.
Display creator archetypes interacting with their everyday world. Typically they will have their heads lost in the clouds while they dream of their creative endeavors, and yet they have the same kind of dilemmas to face and triumphs to enjoy as others.
Whether awkward and shy, or well-spoken and polished, creator types must negotiate their everyday world like everyone else. Except in their case, they focus on their vision throughout time. There will likely be repercussions from their achievements, which might deter them from going forward with their plans, or cause them to cast aside those who try to dissuade them from their appointed tasks.
In particular, the creator archetype is well-positioned to cast a light on social ills, ethical dilemmas, and the impact of shifts in cultural norms. Their innovations, in whatever realm of creation they espouse, will conflict with the status quo, disrupting belief systems, dividing opinions, creating strife, and opening the way for change in the story world.
The creator archetype, whether as a main character forging a major shift in a story world, an ally aiding the protagonist, a villain opposing the protagonist, or a foil providing contrast to the protagonist, is a powerful tool for a writer.
Archetypes are versatile literary devices for adding depth and nuance to a story, as well as shaping the narrative and sharpening characterization.
