An Arche-What?

From "Heroes and Heroines: 16 Master Archetypes," by Caro LeFever, Tami Cowden, & Sue Viders.) Beyond Alpha: The Eight Male Archetypes (more info at Romance Central workshops)

The Chief - The quintessential "alpha" male: tough, decisive, and goal-oriented
The Bad Boy - Dangerous, but fascinating: charismatic and street smart, hates rules and regulations
The Best Friend - The "beta" hero: kind, decent, and responsible
The Charmer - The quintessential smooth operator: Fun, irresistible, and often unreliable
The Lost Soul - The "theta" hero: Tortured and secretive, he's got a vulnerable heart and discerning eyes
The Professor - Logical, introverted and inflexible, but also genuine in feelings, extremely faithful and honest
The Swashbuckler - The Man on the Go: Action and adventure is his motto; he's physical, daring, mercurial
The Warrior - The "delta" hero: The reluctant rescuer; dark and dangerous, driven and remote

The archetypes confuse writers. The truth is, just like there is no one man who falls solely into one archetype, written heroes who fall into the category of 'real' are a combination of several archetypes. They may have a primary that is 'The Chief' but aspects of the 'Best Friend' enter into their dynamic.

Always remember, the Archetypes are basic structures, they aren't the set-in-concrete way a character should act. Next week, I'll go into a few more details of these wonderful titles and how the impact a story.

Until next week—cheers and happy writing,

T.J.