Saturday, May 4, 2013

Earth Girls Ain’t Easy: An SFR Archetype Series By Maybelle



[The Galaxy Express is excited to present a series of posts by a Very Special Guest. Her name is Maybelle and she's here all the way from sweet home Alabama to give us her take on archetypes in science fiction romance. This is the first installment of a ten part series. Maybelle's posts will go live Saturday 9 am EST).]




Let me tell you a story. No, sit your butt back down, and let me tell it. Heather here at the Galaxy Express said I could after we had a little talksie about the alien abduction article by Diane Dooley.

The Mars Needs Women premise is popular. Readers like all them alien probes, you know what I mean? Yeah, you do. Now that you’re listening, I’m going to start my story. It’s the true version of Mars Needs Women and getting abducted by space aliens. That before stuff wasn’t the start, that was the PRO-LOG. I can use big words too. I got a dictionary app. Here we go.

Picture these words scrolling across a movie screen:

“Once upon a time in a galaxy, I mean a decade, far, far away, a book for writers called The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines was published.”

That there was passive tense. PT for short. PT wasn’t covered in this book, but I tell you what was. Archetypes.

They got no relation to architects. I found that out quick. Archetypes are pretend people that characters in books and movies kind of act like. The authors gave theirs handles like The Chief, The Bad Boy, the Best Friend, the Charmer, and so on.

Anyways, in that far-ago decade, after studying this book, I came to the conclusion that the authors had got some of it wrong. And I fixed it all here.

But that ain’t actually the story I want to tell you. That’s the PRE-QUILL. The story is the next part that takes place after the abduction. Or at least the beginning of the story because Heather gave me a wordcount limit.

What are the men from Mars like, you ask? They got any archetypes? Is it safe to go off with them after they lost their females? How do they decide what Earth girls get abducted and who don’t? And how hard is it for a girl to get picked? You’d think they’d want volunteers...and you’d be wrong. But more on that later.

Anyways, now that I've been to another galaxy and back myself (told you there was a story), I thought you might want to hear my expert tease on people not from Earth. Then you readers can gain insight into these dang needy Martians, and you writers can write them more real.

Next week if Heather lets me come back, I’ll tell you about some of the people you’ll encounter in the Milky Way based on the sixteen master archetypes. Whether or not any of them had expert tease with their probes I can’t say. Oh, who am I kidding? I will totally say. But you have to come back for it.

About the author

Jody Wallace writes sf and fantasy romance as herself, contemporary as Ellie Marvel, and obeys the whims of Meankitty the rest of the time. Her archetype is probably the Freaky Librarian. Maybelle's archetype is open to interpretation. FMI www.jodywallace.com & www.meankitty.com