Archetype or Stereotype?
After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what has gone unmentioned in this feedback is that he's African American.
My first impression of this feedback was that this is a prejudice: White man in a hat = cop/detective. Black man in a hat = some kind of musical entertainer. (I didn't test a control group with a white man in a hat to be sure.)
But when I heard it again, rather than get defensive, my second thought was (since it's out there) I should let these comments inform what kind of character I'm creating. It wasn't what I'd intended, but sure, why not? This is what feedback is for, right?
My rationalization went something like this:
Old Noir Detective = Old Jazz Man
☑ Same gender, same generation, same country, same economic tier
☑ Associates with floozies and gangsters and other low-lifes
☑ Looked down on by authority, presumed guilt, underdog
☑ Has an implied history and seen some weird sh*t, knows some people are just bad.
☐ Has a defining hobby or quirk. (Didn't consider this before, and seems like an improvement)
☐ Carries a gun (nope, but also feel this is an improvement)
☐ Cynical, potentially self-destructive, bitter, Heart-on-sleeve (um…, not really but could be, I guess?)
☒ Hired to fix people's problems. Conveniently has an office where people make an appointment to have their problems fixed. (That would be a big nope.)
For about 10min I started redesigning the whole story to involve musical metaphors, and his esoteric knowledge shifted from books to music. In some ways the differences were cosmetic or superficial, and in some ways there wasn't any difference at all. Seemed like a win, just do the same story with a music twist.
I like the idea of an accidental detective. I like the musical aesthetics, and honestly think the visual potential is as strong, maybe even stronger (in a visual novel words will be scarce, ambience is everything). Unfortunately my story begins with a client bringing her problem to his office, but I can massage the plot to contrive a more likely introduction.
What I don't like is I started to feel like I was making a shuck n' jive character. Although no one admitted it (and I didn't push it), the origin was likely a racial stereotype, and making him a "jazz musician" feels more like a skin color than an archetype. I doubt I'd ever need to explain how a white guy is in a room telling everyone their business with authority – but a jazz musician? I also doubt I'd ever hear that an old white man in a hat must be here to entertain the guests. There's some real baggage here. I could ignore it, but I'm trying to be aware of it.
I'm still trying to make this work, but I feel I've erased any authority he would have. Miss Marple is just a little old lady that people dismiss, at the same time I don't find her to be especially empowering or positive as a character (she's barely a character, imho she's just a nosey lady who goes on vacation and people die). Meanwhile I actually find the toughguy detective tropes to be kind of a joke, there is no reason a skidrow noir detective would be hobnobbing with millionaires, he would be treated like a servant not flirted at by the boss's horny wife. I had a moment of wondering how that scene would play out. It wouldn't, and probably not for the noir detective either.
I thought I had hit on a clever cross-over archetype that would allow me to cherrypick the best of a genre. Now I'm struggling to make him seem like something more than a stereotype. The idea of using an archetype is to get to the plot faster. I want to tap into reader expectations so I don't need to start from scratch and they will not question his details, but I seem to have triggered my own stereotype alert system and the more I try to make it work the less I'm convinced.
To put this question into sentence format, how do I tap into archetypes while avoiding stereotypes, and also how do you get around people inserting an unintended stereotype on what you thought was a clever archetype twist?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37706. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
Just break the stereotype, hard.
Perhaps don't make him a professional jazz musician, make him a popular, highly skilled amateur that likes to hang out at jazz clubs, and can pitch in when needed. Perhaps with an instrument one doesn't carry, like pianist; he can spell the pianist for breaks (and they know it). Or he does carry his horn just in case.
Instead, make his profession something more intellectual; an engineer, or a history or sociology professor at a college. He wears his "jazz hat" when he's out clubbing with his jazz friends.
If you make him outgoing, hyper-observant, etc, he may very well meet his "client" when he sees her/him at the club. Say he intervenes to save her against some jerk, thus proving he can take care of himself.
The idea of using an archetype is to get to the plot faster. I want to tap into reader expectations so I don't need to start from scratch and they will not question his details,
That's not a good reason to use an archetype. Just don't worry about explaining things so quickly! Start in the middle of things, don't explain his character, single lines can give clues to the character's situation. e.g. you don't have to tell anybody he's a college professor, just somebody asks him if he'd be available the next night (because somebody else is out) and he replies "I wish I could, but I have to teach an early class the next day." Done.
Invent micro-scenes and dialogue to reveal his character, do not use exposition. Readers are very smart about inferring things from scenes and social interactions without being "told", trust them. Ditch the stereotype altogether, and give us a good accidental detective.
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An archetype is a role. A stereotype is a bundle of characteristics.
Thus the wizard (wise man, not necessarily magical) is an archetype character because he plays a specific role in the hero's journey (providing information, gifts, admonishment, or encouragement).
A common set of characteristics can be assigned to an archetype. Thus the stereotype of a wizard (from Merlin, to Gandalf, to Dumbledore) is an old man with a white beard and a tall pointy hat and questionable personal hygiene.
The stereotype is a quick way to suggest to the reader that a character embodies the archetype. It make it less work for the writer to have the reader recognize the archetype. But a more inventive writer may want to divorce the archetype (which, remember, is a role) from the stereotype. To do this, they have to show that the character performs the role of the archetype through their actions rather than through their appearance. (Yoda, for instance, does not look or sound at all like a wizard. His wizard archetype status is established entirely through his actions.)
So, to tap into archetypes while avoiding stereotypes, establish the archetype through their actions rather than their appearance or other characteristics.
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