16 March 2020

Archetypes are the building blocks of story. But why are archetypes important? Aren’t they just a fill-in-the-blank structures for trite stories about chosen-one farm boys? Not even close. This post is part one in a series that explores and defines archetypes, their origin, and their purpose. The series will correct misinformation and help writers and narrative designers utilize a much maligned tool to connect with audiences.

2 March 2020

Back in 2014, before my confidence in everything I once knew was shattered by doing my PhD, I taught a class in archetypes for writers at North Seattle College’s Continuing Education Department. As part of the marketing for my class, I was interviewed for their blog. Well, as I no longer teach there, that post…

24 February 2020

Once-beloved words like “story” and “narrative” have been co-opted into the business world, and so too has “archetype.” It was inevitable. I was taking a seminar for entrepreneurs today and they were going on about “your business’ personality archetype” and “your ideal customer archetype!” No. Stop it now. It was very hard not to say…

25 August 2015

In honor of spending the next few days at PAX Dev and PAX Prime, I thought I’d go on a little rant on that which shapes everything I think about and everything I do: narrative. The transcript of my presentation, “The Future of Video Game Narrative: Player, Agency, And Negative Space Storytelling,” can be read…

19 December 2014

Update – 24 February 2020: As the original blog post containing the entirety of the interview is no longer in the NSC:CE website, I have provided a full copy of the interview, only slightly updated, here. It is part of my Archetypes in Myth and Writing series. My dear readers who do not follow me…