: Re: Archetype or Stereotype? After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what

@Holmes449

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Just break the stereotype, hard.

Perhaps don't make him a professional jazz musician, make him a popular, highly skilled amateur that likes to hang out at jazz clubs, and can pitch in when needed. Perhaps with an instrument one doesn't carry, like pianist; he can spell the pianist for breaks (and they know it). Or he does carry his horn just in case.

Instead, make his profession something more intellectual; an engineer, or a history or sociology professor at a college. He wears his "jazz hat" when he's out clubbing with his jazz friends.

If you make him outgoing, hyper-observant, etc, he may very well meet his "client" when he sees her/him at the club. Say he intervenes to save her against some jerk, thus proving he can take care of himself.

The idea of using an archetype is to get to the plot faster. I want to tap into reader expectations so I don't need to start from scratch and they will not question his details,

That's not a good reason to use an archetype. Just don't worry about explaining things so quickly! Start in the middle of things, don't explain his character, single lines can give clues to the character's situation. e.g. you don't have to tell anybody he's a college professor, just somebody asks him if he'd be available the next night (because somebody else is out) and he replies "I wish I could, but I have to teach an early class the next day." Done.

Invent micro-scenes and dialogue to reveal his character, do not use exposition. Readers are very smart about inferring things from scenes and social interactions without being "told", trust them. Ditch the stereotype altogether, and give us a good accidental detective.

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