Hero Archetypes – Where Does Your Hero Fit?

I’m chasing heroes.

You heard me right. I’m chasing heroes. (Yes, I’m married, and my husband’s fine with it).

Who doesn’t love a bad boy, or need a professor now and then. The swashbuckler or the warrior can defend my honor or take me on an adventure any day of the week. And after they have, and then have left for their next battle or adventure, the best friend can step in and offer support. I’ll be bolstered enough to offer my own support to the lost soul, and with any luck, I’ll be on the receiving end of the charmer’s skills.

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These men, in all their glory, are a big part of what romance books are all about. An author can tap into their emotions, delve into their complex character, and voila!, a compelling character is born. Most of us have favorite heroes. They can be classified into one of the eight major archetypes. Whether you love to hate, love to dream about, or just plain love them, those archetypes form the core of the heroes that speak to us.

Here are the eight main archetypes and a few examples to get you thinking about the heroes in your books:

Chief (think Nathan Petrelli in the t.v. show Heroes or Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice ~be still my heart!)

Bad Boy (Patrick Swayze’s an easy peg in Dirty Dancing. How about Sawyer on Lost? Perfect.)

Best Friend (Tom Hanks is the quintessential best friend. So is Jimmy Stewart.)

Lost Soul (Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Is there anyone more tragic and lost? What about Edward from Twilight? Of course he’s sort of a blend of Lost Soul and Warrior, but my vote is for Lost Soul.)

Charmer (Titanic fan or not, Leo DiCaprio is quite a charmer. And I think Bruce Willis did a fine job of it in Moonlighting.)

Professor (Harry Potter? I think he fits the bill here. And of course there’s Sherlock Holmes.)

Swashbuckler (Captain Jack Sparrow, anyone? Johnny Depp makes swashbuckling, yellow-toothed pirates sexy. And Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone is a swashbuckler if there ever was one.)

Warrior (Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Then there’s Bastien Toussaint from Black Ice, a total hard-a** warrior. And who can forget those dastardly muskateers. They came from a novel before they hit the silver screen.)

Now it’s time to get to work. When you’re writing, identify the main archetype that defines your hero. If you do, your hero will be more authentic and you’ll stay true to him.