Archetypal characters and family update

I expressed a desire to my editor for the characters in my upcoming book Seeds of Calamity to be more archetypal. Readers connect quickly with people they recognize, so by using archetypes I could quickly establish character dynamics and reader expectations.

I can think of few examples where deliberately eschewing archetypes for the main character succeeded. But the best example would have to be Die Hard. Every time I rewatch that Christmas classic, I'm fascinated with how unheroic John McClane seems in the first 20 minutes. He's afraid of flying. He interacts stiffly with the airplane passenger and the limo driver. He fights with his wife within minutes of meeting her at her office. He quips about Ellis's cocaine use and fruity Californians. The movie goes out of its way to make you think twice about liking this man. The filmmakers may have been motivated to purposefully break the audience's prior identification with Bruce Willis, who was known as a comic actor in the '80s, not an action star. Nevertheless, they did a super job introducing that character.

In my first book, Tendrils to the Moon, Ames is the hero, but I didn't initially present him as such. He comes off as an uptight, no-nonsense everyman, who happens to be XO on a spaceship bound for the Moon. His character arc is to become the magnanimous leader that his boss proves not to be. One of my readers thought Sheridan, not Ames, was the hero until roughly halfway through the book.

Anyway, my editor was skeptical. She likes my characters and thinks I shouldn't try anything different with them. They're interesting without seeming fake, she said. I'll lean on her judgement for now. She is my wife, after all!

This Thanksgiving is special for my family because last Friday we welcomed our second daughter into the world.

Life has been pretty full since Diana was born, and the writing has not come as quickly as I would like. But I wouldn't trade this child for 20,000 words of clean prose.

Let me know what you think in the comment section below! I'll reply to you as soon as I can. I invite you to read the first three chapters of Tendrils to the Moon for free, and see if the last 9 chapters are worth your time. The paperback version is on sale at Amazon for $8.99. The ebook is only 99 cents.