For years, I’ve been obsessed with finding an answer to these questions: Why do writers get stuck and discouraged? Why do we lose inspiration? Why are we averse to putting ourselves out there and promoting our work?
Over the past five months, I’ve been developing something that has been swirling around in my mind since I started the Write Catalyst Mastermind—the writer archetype model.
The Journey to the Writer Archetype Model
I’ve always been fascinated with astrology, other realms of existence, and the occult, and have practiced reading rune stones since I was a teenager. As an adult, meditation has become the foundation of my life, along with accessing different brain states.
Early this year, I had the mind-blowing experience of attending the Maha Kumbh Mela in India, the largest spiritual gathering in the world, where I studied yoga and meditation with my Vedic meditation teacher, Jeff Kober, and master yogi, Sri M.
In tandem with my esoteric experimentation was a constant absorption of psychology and personal development content. In my day job as a digital marketer, I’ve worked for some of the top self improvement podcasters. Through this education, I began to realize that certain parts of me that needed to evolve if I was to ever enjoy a happy life, have fulfilling relationships, and live to my full creative potential.
An extreme crisis eventually forced me to seek therapy. During this dark time, I also increased my studies on psychology, mindset, and shadow work.
It wasn’t a hobby. It was survival, and it helped me to summon the strength to step out from the wreckage and start over in life. I found myself at a crossroads, where it was riskier to stay on my old path than to take a leap and invest in a passion project that had been put on the back burner for far too long.
All the stars aligned, so to speak. The tools and resources I needed to build this dream suddenly converged. And so here we are.
What I created is a system that combines what I’ve learned about psychology, consciousness, and the creative process into something practical for every fiction writer.
The Writer Archetype Model
The Write Catalyst Writer Archetype system is rooted in the Jungian tradition of archetypal psychology, informed by the broader archetype literature (such as the work of Carol S. Pearson), and independently developed for the specific context of fiction writing identity. In working closely with members of the Write Catalyst Mastermind (our virtual online writing group) I’ve become familiar with the gifts and blind spots each type of writer has.
As I worked to apply these personality types specifically to writing fiction, they seemed to unfurl on their own. They have shaped themselves so recognizably, a writer’s archetype can be determined just by reading their work. With some people, their archetype is revealed just by talking to them.
How Do You Find Your Writer Archetype?
I have created an introductory quiz to assess which type of writer archetype you are. It is a short quiz, but it’s tough if you overthink it. The best approach is to go with the first answer that grabs you, before your logical brain steers you into the answer you think you should pick instead of your innermost desire.
I’m a Mystic Writer—and once I understood my writer archetype, everything about my fiction career suddenly made sense.
Mystic Writer Traits
Mission: Conduit for otherworldly wisdom, weaving magic into words
Motto: “I channel divine wisdom through sacred stories”
Core Desire: To serve as a bridge between the spiritual and material worlds, translating cosmic revelations into accessible stories
Goal: To create transformative fiction that awakens readers to higher consciousness and universal truths
Greatest Fear: Losing connection to intuition; being dismissed as “too woo-woo”; spiritual transformation that bypasses authentic human experience
Strategy: Channels inspiration through meditation, dreams, and intuitive practices; weaves metaphysical and abstract ideas into compelling narratives
Weakness: May struggle with practical story structure; tendency to prioritize message over plot; can become ungrounded in ethereal concepts
Talent: Exceptional ability to access non-ordinary states of consciousness; writes with prophetic insight; creates atmosphere that feels truly otherworldly, yet familiar
If you’ve read my work (like Sick, Popsicle, and The Sculptor books), you might think the Mystic archetype doesn’t add up. I’m known for dark, provocative, disturbing fiction, not wispy tales of spiritual awakenings.
But if you revisit the beginning of this article, it’s no surprise I’m a Mystic writer. The intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and the divine nature of consciousness is my greatest interest. Between the lines of my stories are my characters’ quests to evolve into their best selves, and through painful transformation, live in their truths. They are full of psychological breakthroughs, spiritual revelations, and self-actualization.
Now that I know the deeper purpose of my fiction, I can use my Writer Archetype as a reference. Am I getting influenced by what I think I should be writing? What’s missing from my current WIP? Why don’t I feel good about promoting my new release?
Here’s what knowing your archetype can do for you:
Stop comparing yourself to writers with different archetypes (their process won’t work for you)
Identify your blind spots before they sabotage your work
Market authentically instead of using strategies that feel icky
Write with more confidence because you understand your unique creative voice
Choose projects that align with your deepest values
I need to tell you about something I’ve been working on for a while now.
For the past 5 years, the Let’s Get Published community has been supporting each other, sharing writing advice, and working toward our publishing dreams together. That hasn’t changed. But we are evolving into a new platform for 2026.
From the beginning, the relationship between Let’s Get Published (blog + writing contests) and Writers’ Mastermind (membership group) was confusing. It’s time to unite everything under one clear identity.
Let’s Get Published has become Write Catalyst.
Here’s why:
Since COVID lockdown, when our members first started meeting, I’ve realized getting published is an important goal, but the magic happens on the journey to discovering who you are as a creative force.
Before you can effectively and confidently market your work or pitch to agents, you need to understand something deeper—what kind of writer you are.
Not only your genre, or your skill, or your work ethic, or your marketability. But your creative identity—the unique psychological traits that drive your writing.
To write on a level that deeply resonates with readers, you have to ignore the world and be 100% tuned in to yourself.
You need to have a purpose beyond selling books to develop your best work and tools to keep you locked in your highest creative state.
That is why I’ve spent the last 5 months developing a comprehensive Writer Archetype system based and I’m excited to share it with you.
The Writer Archetype Quiz
In just 3 minutes, you’ll find out:
• Your Writer Archetype (out of 12 possible types)
Are you a Mystic Writer who helps readers experience revelations? A Rebel Writer who challenges the status quo? A Healer Writer who transforms pain into art?
It’s fascinating how clear things become when you understand your deepest values and commit to a creative path that is true to you.
Your self-doubt fades, your motivation increases, and you feel empowered with every word you write.
Our website: LetsGetPublished.com will move to WriteCatalyst.com
Future emails will come from christa@writecatalyst.com (add us to your address book)
Our focus: Understanding your unique writer identity + giving you science-backed tools to thrive
What’s NOT changing:
Me! Still your guide on this journey
Our supportive community
Our commitment to helping you evolve into the author you were meant to be
Writing contests, events, critique swaps, and classes
Thank you for being here through this evolution—from our first Short Story Contest, to our crazy COVID lockdown beginnings, to seeing what our members have accomplished today!
What do your characters’ names say before they ever speak?
At birth, we are given a name—the one thing we carry with us for the entirety of our life. We are told, “This is your name,” and we are taught to respond to it.
Some of us grow to love our name. Others wish they could change it—and some do.
But over time, something remarkable happens—we give our name its meaning.
At a memorial service, attendees will often pause to reflect on who “So-and-So” was. They were kind. They were brave. They were funny. They were the life of the party. But we are not one thing—we are many things to many people. Each person who hears our name conjures their own version of who we are.
I am Brenda. Someone gave me that name before they knew who I would become. It is I who gave it a personality.
The Writer’s Gift
As writers, we hold a rare kind of power. We choose our characters’ names—not just to identify them, but to hint at who they are, or who they might become.
When I studied literature in college, I was fascinated by allegory. In Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, characters are named quite literally: Goodman Brown represents a faithful, morally upright man, while his wife, Faith, becomes a symbol of belief—both spiritual and personal.
In the morality play Everyman, characters wear their values like name tags: Fellowship, Kindred, Goods, Knowledge, and Confession. While these works are heavy-handed by modern standards, they demonstrate the lasting impact a name can have.
Today’s writers might be subtler, but the principle still stands—names matter. They guide the reader’s perception before the plot even unfolds.
A well-chosen name can suggest courage, gentleness, mystery, or even insecurity. Researching the origins and meanings of names allows us to bestow layers of depth to a character before a single word of dialogue is spoken. A character named Miles, rooted in the Latin for “soldier,” might carry quiet strength. A Celeste could evoke serenity, sky, or the ethereal. Even choosing an ironic name—like a hitman named Lamb—can reveal volumes.
Naming with Intention
As we shape our characters, we have the privilege—and responsibility—of ensuring their names say something about them, even if only in a whisper.
We don’t always choose the names we live with, but as storytellers, we get to assign meaning from the very beginning. We can give our characters the names we might have chosen for ourselves—names that reflect strength, hope, humor, or vulnerability.
I didn’t choose my name, but I’ve spent a lifetime making it mine. Now, when someone says it, they’re not just saying a name—they’re calling forth a carefully crafted identity—mine.
What do your characters’ names say before they ever speak?
About the author
Brenda Wilkins Brenda Wilkins is an up and coming author with a gift for evocative storytelling and profound narratives. With a lifelong love of stories and a passion for exploring the lessons from the challenges of life, Brenda began her writing journey at an early age. Her works often explore themes of identity, resilience, truth, and the human spirit, forcing readers to view new perspectives.
Welcome to Cosmic Ink, a blog series with bits of fuel for a stellar creative life.
There are times when life goes according to plan, and everything I have scheduled falls into place. But, in recent years, this is steadily becoming a rare event.
I keep waiting for the space-time continuum to open up for me, a future when I can dedicate a solid scheduled block of time to work on the projects in my head, but conditions are not improving. And instead of getting little done, I’m getting absolutely nothing done.
Having a clear vision of what we want to create, why we want to create it, and a plan to accomplish this is the most fundamental part of making the untold stories in our heads a reality in the physical world. However, we must not toss the whole dream aside whenever things get hectic.
Creating is our life blood. It’s what keeps our fires alive. It gives our lives meaning.
It’s not always something that can be slotted in like a dental appointment, and it should not be treated as such. It is far more important than that.
So during those days when you feel you “don’t have the time” or have the perfect conditions, remind yourself that you don’t have time not to.
You can find twenty minutes, I assure you.
Do it. It’s not just for your benefit, but for everyone’s.
(I am writing this pep talk for myself as well as you guys)
I recently read a book called F*ck Like a Goddess by Alexandra Roxo. Contrary to the title, the book is not really about sex, but about approaching life with the force of creation, to learn how to interact with your experience as a conscious, spiritual being as if it were your lover.
While it’s not my favorite book on self-actualization, I appreciated the premise.
Writing is an act of love, of observing and appreciating things others don’t notice in the world.
We artists immerse ourselves in the moment with all five senses. We savor everything there is to feel—blissful or painful. We do this willingly, with passion and adoration.
“If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die,” is a quote attributed to Mik Everett.
This is an extraordinary power.
Who or what will you use your artistic gift to immortalize today?
Let me know by replying. May the muse be with you!
