ABSTRACT
Characters in a dramatic story are at a significant turning point in their life and faced with making difficult choices they can no longer avoid. Story characters fall into two types, stereotypes and archetypes. Viewers are already familiar with these categories, either consciously or subconsciously. Stereotypes are a simplified version of specific groups of people, by their gender, race, occupation, culture, etc. Character-driven stories focus on the internal change a character goes through—that can be perceived/seen by the viewer. These stories include love stories, coming-of-age, redemption, institutionalized, education, and disillusionment genres. Character-driven stories often start with someone stuck in life. Stories share universal character types called archetypes. The most universal archetypes are Hero, Mentor, Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, Shadow, and Trickster. A character might enter the story as a shadow/villain archetype only to become the hero by the end of the story. Backstory is comprised of what has happened in a character's life before the story starts.
