45 Master Characters

Having just read '45 Master Characters' I feel the need to post what I think about it. The book is a tool for writers, classifying personality types into 45 archetypes. By trying to fit in your half-fleshed out character into one of these archetypes, you can make the characterisation more believable by fitting him into one of the classic types.

The first question that comes to mind is "Is it correct?" Has she correctly classified all the myriad personalities of the world into 45 types? I don't believe that she has. Or that it can be done - I think that humans have a tendency to classify things, and to then see the world in terms of those classifications. The real world is woolier than that, and when you look closely at any classification system you see flaws. Take our species classification system - different species aren't supposed to be able to mate, but we have mules, and ligors.

Even the most basic classification - the 0s and 1s of digital computers - breaks down when you look at it closely.  Zero turns out to be 0 to 0.5, and occasionally something that should be a zero shows up as a 0.51 and you get an error.

Despite this computers still manage to work most of the time. Correct isn't as important as useful. So is the book useful? I think so. I'm finding that the artificial constraint of the archetypes is giving my characters more life than they would otherwise have. And the structure of the journey that it talks about is giving me something to do with them - even when I disagree with the structure.

So thus far, it seems worth the price. If I become a world famous author, I'll be sure to mention it as an influence.