An Extra Glimpse - Collab Project Video - Tropes and Archetypes (with special guests) (Patreon)

Well, we have all of our love interests!

The bodyguard, the matchmaker, the heir to the previous throne, and a royal from another kingdom.

I’m already getting some major inspiration on stories for these, as well as how unique to make them!

We touched on developing personality for characters through different ways on the post before that too. I showed how it’s fun to think out of the box sometimes when it comes to developing character personalities/backstories.

But what about something more ‘traditional’?

When I came up with Wayhaven, I was really quite young, lol! And the characters at the beginning were definitely built upon solid tropes and archetypes—which I didn’t want to get rid of and you can still see shine through the vampires.

The most obvious being Adam/Ava, who is the typical brooding, pining vampire who has centuries of hurt that makes them The Ice Queen/King.

But as they developed over the years they gained more layers and more complexity. But it was such a good base to work off of before then, and the familiarity appeals to people, as well as myself.

Sometimes it’s just as amazing to know what to expect than it is to be surprised by the twists of a character. It all depends on what you like to write and read.

Using character types that are already well used isn’t a bad thing. It’s your character, your story, and though many people may have written a certain character type, you may not have and that’s what matters. So go for it if you want to and don’t let people ever put you off with, ‘Oh, that’s been done so many times’ blah blah! Always write what you want to write, you will never please everyone, so don’t try. Focus on writing for you and what you love.

Although you may use the tropes and archetypes as basis, I expect the character you develop from it will begin to evolve into more anyway. But sometimes you just need a starting point or stepping stone to help you begin.

And we already have a couple of love interests that would be perfect to build off of an already well-used archetype: the bodyguard or the royal heir.

The bodyguard trope and story is one that is well done by many people. The bodyguard who protects their person and falls for them even though it is against their duty, morals, etc. Oh guys, it gets me every time! And I will re-read and re-read this story in different forms over and over because I love it, hehe!

But we also have our royal heir. This person has more scope to deviate from the traditional lazy heir who is spoiled and just expects our MC to fall into their gilded, open arms, lol. But we could go for that—as again, the spoiled heir slowly learning to be self-reliant with the help of the MC and falling for each other is another story written over and over for a reason…people love it!

Do you guys enjoy the tropes as much as me? Do you feel a bit of comfort in knowing a character achetype when going into a love interest story, or do you prefer being surprised?

I suppose when it comes to this kind of story-telling with branching and routes, you get to enjoy both!

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(Sorry this one is a bit less clean than the other videos, I'm still struggling a little with the flu. And sorry for any interesting background noise - my nephew has a perforated eardrum and mum was providing childcare whilst Nai and I filmed the video)