Archetypes are recurrent themes in literature and films. You can use these tropes to inspire your characters when writing a novel.
AMNESIA: Is he/she married, a parent, a missing bride/groom, presumed dead? Did she kill someone? Did someone try to kill her? Is she a witness to a violent crime? Is he an undercover agent who got hurt by the bad guys? American Dreamer, The Bourne Identity
BRIDES: marriage of convenience, fake fiancé, mail order bride, virgin bride, runaway brides/grooms, green-card, royal, shot gun, jilted, terms of the will, mismatch. Runaway Bride, Father of the Bride, Wedding Crashers, Sleepless in Seattle
CHILDREN: abandoned, lost, adopted, biological, inherited, stolen, secret baby, true identity unknown, switched-at-birth, kids playing matchmaker for single parents.
DISGUISE: secret identity, switching places: True Lies, The Prince and the Pauper, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Freaky Friday
FISH OUT OF WATER: Enchanted, City Slickers
MAKEOVER: The Ugly Duckling, The Princess Diaries, My Fair Lady
MISMATCHED COUPLES: Bad boy/Good girl, Cowboy/Lady, Pirate/Princess, Wanderer/Homemaker, May/December, Duke/Governess, mentor/protegé, opposing occupations, boss/employee. Romeo & Juliet, Beauty and the Beast, Six Days Seven Nights.
RAGS TO RICHES: Cinderella, Pretty Woman, Ever After
REUNION: former lovers, estranged spouses, lost love, thwarted romance, divorced but still in love. Sweet Home Alabama.
SINGLE PARENTS: struggling unwed mothers, clueless divorced dads, inexperienced surrogate. Three Men and a Baby, Baby Boom
TWINS: switched identities, mistaken identities, trading places to fool people and having the tables turned on them instead. Parent Trap, New York Minute
Think about the books on your shelves at home. Do you tend to repeatedly buy the same types of stories? Does this tell you something about the plot devices that appeal to you?
Try picking out a couple of your favorite archetypes and mix them to create a new story.
Creating Characters from Archetypes Share on X
Great post. I’m in the thinking stage for my next manuscript. This gives me a few new ideas to add to the mix. Thanks.
It has just been pointed out to me that I tend to read books about strong women with falling down houses, family curses, creepy exes…… I guess I need to watch what I lend to my friends.
I tend to go for the reunion stories and the mismatched couples. In fact, I tend to write those as well. Hmm…
I love to read people in disguise stories. Fish out of water tales are popular in the movies…just saw a preview for one coming out about an estranged couple from the city who witness a crime together and have to go into the witness protection program out west. It’s a romantic comedy, can’t remember the title but it looks cute.
I don’t know that I do any of this consciously, but they do seem to come about instinctively in each manuscript.
I love anything with hidden passageways.
And what a great post, very helpful, in a here’s-a-new-way-to-think-about-it kind of way. Glad I found your blog!
I like the single parent stories especially when they look as good as the guys in 3 Men and a Baby
I’ve read every one of the situations you offered, multi times
over, in my more than fifty years reading “experience.” Combining
titles of some gave me these new titles: “The Spy’s Baby Gamble”
“The Forbidden Touch of Savage Thunder,” and “For The Children’s
Second Nature.”
Pat Cochran
If I am doing any of those things, I am not doing them consciously. I’ll have to start thinking about that. Interesting post Nancy, Cool!
Texanne, if you like hidden passageways, you’ll love Dead Roots. It’s my haunted resort story.
Lots of secret passages. Pat, that’s a cool way to get new titles!