Creating characters is hard work. It’s not easy to build characters from the ground up and make them believable and well-rounded so they fit perfectly into a story. But what if there were templates we could use to make the process more efficient? With a little out-of-the-box thinking, we can start with a few familiar building blocks and end up with a cast of fresh, unique, and authentic characters. 

We’re talking about archetypes and tropes—but what exactly are they? And how can we use them to speed up the process of character creation? 

Archetypes in Psychology