Winnie teaches how to build narrative characters using archetypes: hero, antagonist, mentor, allies, and enemies. She walks through an example with Amber, a cheerleader whose dad Rufus mentors her against bully Viviana, showing how to develop each character type and answer key questions about how they meet and what the hero wants.
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Hi everyone, this is Winnie or Miss Tang. We are going to help our main character survive, and we're going to do this by having a look at some character archetypes. Character archetypes. So this is the type of character that reoccurs in stories. It creates an immediate sense of familiarity because we become more aware of these archetypes and these characters. And then our audiences can then relate to that character and know what their role in the story is. The hero is the protagonist, who is the main character. There is then usually an antagonist, which could be a villain who creates a threat or a conflict, and they're usually opposite of the hero. There could be a mentor character. They may instruct the hero or give them some abilities or knowledge or maybe even a gift to help the hero or the main character of of the story meet their challenges. There could be allies, so people who— the characters in the story who help the hero or help the main character through their challenges. They might support them. They might give them knowledge as well. There could be enemies that the main character comes up against, characters who might help the antagonist or the villain, who also cause conflict to the hero. Today we are learning to develop relatable and engaging characters, namely the mentor, allies, and enemy enemies. This is because we want to entertain our readers and we want our audience to relate to and connect with our characters. Our success criteria today includes: I can develop the character archetypes for my narrative, I can develop the mentor character, and I can develop the allies and the enemies. Today's video, we are going to come up with the mentor character. Our mentor character helps our main character survive their obstacles and challenges. They help them with their knowledge, their skills, tools, anything that can help the main character solve problems because they'll need to be able to do this on their own. I have a step-by-step guide on how to develop your protagonist and how to help them develop and grow throughout the story with links to the theme or the message. In this video, I'll give you an example of developing the main character named Amber and how she, um, develops and grows throughout the story. So what is she like before and what is she like after? We also learn how to develop an antagonist, a villain who causes a lot of chaos. So in this video, there is a step-by-step guide on how to do that, and I'll walk you through my template on how to develop an antagonist, which is usually opposite to our hero of the story. Here are some questions that we are going to focus on. So how does the main character meet the mentor? How does the mentor convince the hero to go on the journey? What is the treasure? What is at the end of this journey? So let's actually do one now. So we've already come up with our main character Amber, who is a, um, 10 or 11-year-old cheerleader. She is in Year 5. We have an antagonist, our person of the story, um, called Viviana. She is, um, the bully in the story. And now we are going to come up with our mentor for Amber. Our mentor for Amber is going to be her dad, Rufus. He convinces Amber to go for cheerleading captain position because he believes in her and he thinks that she would be a great role model and a leader. What else does he do? He persuades her, telling her that her mother was a cheerleading captain. This could be a really big deal because maybe Amber's dad Rufus rarely talks about her. Treasure. Is the cheer captain position. What knowledge, experience, and/or supernatural abilities— so if it's a fantasy— does the mentor have? Well, our mentor is Amber's dad, Rufus. He could have knowledge and experience because maybe he also used to be a cheerleader as well, and maybe that's how her mum and dad met. What knowledge, skill, and/or tools does the mentor provide the main character? So something important to the quest, maybe a wand, a weapon, medicine, food, magic, clue, some information. Knowledge that Rufus could pass on is that her mum was a cheer captain. His past experience as a cheerleader. Maybe we could add a little bit of magic in this, and maybe, um, Rufus as the mentor could give Amber, um, her mother's magic ring, and maybe it grants her 3 wishes. For other, I would say, um, Amber's dad probably gives her a lot of encouragement and confidence. We have come up with the mentor character. Our hero and the villain are also going to need characters that support them on their goal and their journey or their quest. So the hero will need some allies, some friends, people who will support them, and the villain may need some followers as well. And these followers will also become the hero's enemies. One ally that we can put in here is maybe, um, is maybe Amber's cheerleading coach. Maybe her cheerleading coach is the one who encourages her to go for, um, being cheer captain. Let's name her Mrs. Robinson. Appearance, she can have glasses, black hair. We can describe her as a kind, encouraging She encourages Amber to go for cheer captain because she believes in her. Another ally for Amber could be one of the girls on the cheer team. Let's name her Elizabeth. We could describe Elizabeth as maybe she's tall, Maybe she's graceful. She could also be kind and loyal. Elizabeth could support, support Amber and help her achieve her goal. So we already know that Viviana will be the villain of the story or the antagonist. Now we will come up with some enemies. So people who may be followers of the antagonist. So maybe some of the enemies could be bystanders. So sometimes when there's a bully, there's sometimes people who stand around who are bystanders who don't do anything about the situation. So We can put maybe other members of the team, and then in brackets we can have bystanders. Males and females on the team, ages between 6 to 12. Well, if they're bystanders, then they're silent. They don't say anything. They are bystanders. They see the bullying happening and do not react. In doing so, they allow this behavior to happen. And we have our allies, we've got enemies as well, and we have also created our mentor character. Now it is your turn. So if you would like to come up with your characters and come up with your protagonist and your antagonist, the mentor, as well as the allies and enemies, I do have this booklet that I will be putting out in the description below. Up next, we'll have a video on how to help your reader visualize the setting, and then we are going to start planning for our story, and we are going to start writing the orientation. I hope this helps you create some fun and engaging and memorable characters for your narrative. See you in my next video. Bye! [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
