The romance plot is one of the main things that can draw readers to a story. While romance isn’t everything, it can make or break your novel even as a subplot. Some books do not include a romance plot at all, and that’s great. But if you find yourself writing one, it can be the easiest part of your process or the biggest let-down. Readers want to get invested in your character’s relationships, but you can alienate them if you don’t handle it correctly.
I’ve had a lot of experience with romance plots, so I’ve compiled a few tips below to help you write a killer one. Check it out:
Wait Until the Last Second
In any novel, but especially if the primary plot of your novel is a romance plot, you want to put it off for as long as possible. In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Elizabeth don’t get together until the final pages. Same thing in really any Austen book, and she’s an expert on romance plots.
Getting your characters together too soon will kill the tension and readers will not feel as invested. This is especially tricky in a series because you might have already had your characters get together in book one. Unless you have a great idea in mind for how to keep the tension going, do not let your romantic pair get together until the very end.
We’ve all fallen in love with a couple only to see them break up in the sequel. This can be poignant if done on purpose, but most often it’s done because the writer didn’t have a clear plan for the rest of the series (or they didn’t plan on there being a series in the first place) and found themselves in need of a new tension builder.
At the beginning of your novel, you set up questions. Will the hero defeat the villain? Will the protagonist get the guy/girl?Can this family ever be close again after tragedy? You wouldn’t put the climax halfway through your book, so why would you solve the romance before the end of the story? Let it breathe. Let it linger.
Obstacles, obstacles, obstacles
Depending on the genre and setting of your book, your obstacles will look different. In a contemporary romance plot without a larger action plot, the obstacles will largely take the form of your character’s shortcomings and other people/entities/policies ge
Their own shortcomings
The first place you should start with obstacles is the characters’ personal shortcomings. Is he/she slow to open up to people? Are they selfish? Is she struggling to choose between work and romance? Whatever the flaws are, take time to explore them and look at them from different angles. How do these flaws effect the romantic prospects? How do they effect non-romantic relationships? Your character’s flaws will bleed into every aspect of their lives, so don’t even think about a resolution until you’ve fully described the problem.
Other people in the way
Whether an ex, a protective mother/father, a societal construct, or other, there are plenty of people you can stick between your romantic leads to keep them apart. Try to be creative with the one because it can get tired pretty fast. The jealous ex is a little overdone, but you can revive anything with the right spin. Think of ways to make it unique in your story. Maybe the hero is an orphan and he/she doesn’t have time for romance because they have to play parent to their sibling(s). Not all obstacles have to be antagonists. Let real life get in the way, too.
If your romance is a subplot, don’t forget that the characters have bigger problems than who they’re dating. Romance happens during tragedy/action, but it won’t be fulfilled in the middle of a battle. That would be irrational. Let your characters be distracted by the bigger picture. This will slow down their romance because they don’t have enough consecutive time to think about it.
Geography
This one’s especially helpful in a series because you can keep up the tension without destroying your romance plot with a breakup. Aragorn spends the majority of The Lord of the Rings away from Arwen, so they couldn’t physically be together even if they didn’t have to contend with her father or her immortality. Aragorn’s got bigger problems to deal with, but you get the picture. There are tons of different things that can stand between your characters, and most of them are better than a breakup.
Timing
Sometimes your characters both know more or less how they feel about each other, but they can’t seal the deal with that romantic kiss or love scene because the timing just doesn’t match up. She’s about to tell him she loves him, but then someone interrupts. He’s going to reach for her hand, but she doesn’t see him and she turns away before he can. The near-miss is a very effective way to build tension when the flavor of your romance plot is sweeter and more subtle.
Play with this one even if there are bigger obstacles in their way, because nothing gets readers pumped like reading that almost touch. It keeps them interested in the pairing and they’ll be rooting for your characters to get together because they’ve spent so much time getting so close.
Make it Multifaceted
Gone are the days where He-Man rescues a faceless princess from the dragon and they pop out a million heirs. Readers have always wanted a deeply cultivated romance, but these days the simply won’t tolerate a romance that lessens either character. Don’t let the romance define them or your readers might reject it. And make sure you don’t let either character become a device of romance instead of a fully-realized person with multiple motivations and personality traits.
But what do I mean by multifaceted?
There’s nothing to say romance can’t be important to your characters–especially if your romance plot takes the center stage. It’s perfectly okay for a character to desire love. But real people want more than just one thing, so your characters should, too. Or, if they start with a single, tunnel-visioned desire, they should learn there’s more to life than that one thing.
Along with other desires, your characters should have multiple reasons to start a romance. Sexual tension is great, but it’s not everything. Give them a lot of complimentary traits that make it feel destined (but don’t be too obvious about it. Yuck). Add dimension to those traits by making some of them more subtle than others. Your character doesn’t have to think about every single thing they like about the romantic interest in explicit detail, and you don’t even have to tell your readers about it. It’s all in the details.
The Bottom Line
Waiting is the best part. Readers want to find fulfillment in their novels, and in a romance plot, fulfillment is earned by taking your time and building complexity into every aspect of your story and your characters. Give the audience as many reasons to cheer for them as you can so that when the romance is finally fulfilled, your readers are on the edge of their seats.
Let your readers crave that connection and refuse to give it to them until the last second, if at all. Sometimes the best romances are the ones that never resolve.
Feel free to comment your questions and your favorite romances below. See you next time!
If you’re an aspiring writer (and if you’ve told anyone about it), you’ve probably been told at least 10,000 times by now not to quit your day job. Haha. Hilarious. So original.
Yes, writing is a tough industry. No, you probably won’t turn into a sensation with your first book, or ever. It’s a lot harder than some people might lead you to believe, but it’s also less impossible than your critics will tell you.
I finished my first serious manuscript in college. It was something like 40 or 50,000 words and it was complete trash (but even trash is GREAT for experience). I re-wrote the whole thing line by line (and I didn’t edit nearly enough. Don’t be like me). I have since reenvisioned that story and re-written it at least four times. Right now I’m on draft one of concept 4 or 5.
Fast forward to 2018 when I wrote two more manuscripts (new books, though). The first was 75k and the second was 98k. That’s at least 300k that I wrote without a plan to market myself as a writer.
Can you spell stupid? I can. Times 300k.
Anyway, like all things, writing takes a lot of hard work and time. But I’d like to save you some heartache with the following 10 tips I wish I would have known before I started writing my first book. Trust me, you’re not going to want to pass on these.
Tip #1: Writing is a Business
When I first dreamed of being an author, I pictured a solitary cabin, preferably in the mountains, where I would stare at the wilderness and sit by the fire in between crafting my masterpiece. That’s not what it’s like at all.
Becoming a writer is just like starting any other business. You are an entrepreneur more than anything else—especially if you want to do it full time. The day you decide you want to be a writer is the day you need to start marketing yourself online. It’s never too late to start, but the earlier the better.
Do you really need to put in all that fuss?
Yes. Why? Because someday you’re going to want to pitch your manuscript to an agent. And when you go to write your first query letter, you don’t want to write “I have no experience and no following, but will you please buy my book?”
Getting an agent is hard enough as it is. Having a blog, website, or social media following in your niche (preferably all three) will be invaluable to you when it comes time to sell yourself to agents and publishers.
What if I want to self-publish?
Great. You still need followers to buy your books. Build your email list and write your blog ASAP so that when you have a book, you have a built-in audience to read it. I promise all the hard work will pay off, but you need to put in the time for your future.
Feeling overwhelmed? Here are the basics:
Start a website
Do it as soon as possible, and buy a real domain. It’s worth it to have a professional site. If you have to start out on a free website, you absolutely should. But buy that domain (especially if you want to keep your name) as soon as possible. Domains disappear fast and your name may not be there when you come back.
You can use your personal accounts for this if you want, but I recommend starting a separate account for your business. Having a presence online is not an option in today’s social climate. You can’t be a writer in a cabin in the woods. You have to learn how to use social media to your advantage.
Follow publishers, other bloggers, and agents online. It’s a great way to do a little research every day and get a feel for your industry instead of doing it all at once when you start selling your writing.
The most important thing is to think of it as a business. Your attitude will have a huge effect on your decisions, and therefore your success. Treat it like a job and take it seriously from day one. Writing can be a lonely job, so it’s important for you to take it seriously or you won’t have what it takes when the going gets tough.
Tip #2: Your Friends and Family Might Not Be Supportive
One of the biggest reasons that writing is so lonely? People who aren’t writers usually don’t get it. It’s easy for people to respect an established author like Rowling or King, but tell them you want to be an author and they’ll look at you like you just said you want to sit on the couch mooching off the system for the rest of your life and never contributing to society.
It’s not that they don’t care (well, sometimes it is). But generally, the people closest to you want to see you succeed, and they know this is a tough business. Because they don’t want to see you fail, they may subconsciously or directly dissuade you from writing.
I don’t say any of this to bash your friends or to discourage you, but I wasn’t prepared for how much my friends would turn out to be…rather unsupportive.
My advice? Don’t tell anyone you want to write (other than your fellow writers, of course) until you have something to show for it. There is scientific evidence to support the idea that keeping your goals to yourself will make you more likely to achieve them. It’s hard not to talk about it with the people you care about, but in hindsight, I wish I would have kept it to myself. Food for thought.
Tip #3: Enter All the Contests
This, more than anything else on this list, was my greatest mistake. I wish I had taken writing seriously enough to enter contests back in middle school and high school when I had more time and a guaranteed place to live. But it’s never too late to start!
There are so many free contests you can enter which is hands-down the best thing you can do for your career. Getting published is a HUGE advantage in every way and submitting your work will give you tremendous experience even if you don’t win. It’s also the best way to learn how to write for an audience which will improve your other writing endeavors.
What if I don’t get accepted?
You won’t most of the time. But it’s never too early to get used to rejection. I had a professor at UVU who said he aimed for 100 rejections a year because that’s how he knew he was submitting enough. “No” is a word you’re going to hear a lot as a writer and you need to build a tough skin so you can keep trying when you inevitably face rejection.
At the end of the day you can sit on “what-ifs” until you’re 80 years old, but you should be asking yourself “why not” instead. Why not give it a try? There’s no such thing as wasted time if you learn from your failures.
Tip #4: Bulk Up Your Savings
Okay, so you should do this anyway. But starting your own business requires a lot of input. That means cash money, my dudes. Not only is it in your best interest to start a website with a real (as in paid) domain, but you’re going to need to go to writer’s conferences as often as possible. And you might even consider some paid marketing campaigns to get your brand out there.
What’s a writer’s conference?
At a writer’s conference, authors, writers, agents, and publishers meet to discuss books, topics, industry, and so forth. A lot of them will have guest speakers and classes you can take to improve your craft, and it’s a great way to meet people. Networking is SO HUGE for writers and you will do a lot for your career by meeting these people in person. If you’re an aspiring writer you can get great tips and meet people who can help you build a writer’s community. And if you have a manuscript ready, you can pitch it to agents in person (so much better than sending a query letter. They get hundreds a day).
If you want to look into conferences, here’s a great resource for you. There are also free conferences every so often, but the best ones are going to cost you. I promise it’s worth it. There is no good reason to make it any harder for yourself to start a business. Take all the help you can get and invest in your future. Take writing classes before you go to college (if you can afford a formal education, which I know is not always possible). Writing in your basement is decent practice, but it’s not as valuable as getting tips from professionals. And there’s an added benefit to classes because you have someone who has to read your work and give you feedback.
The other reason you need money? Check out tip #3:
Tip #5 Get Yourself an Editor
I don’t care how great of a writer you are. You will miss things in your own work. Your brain will literally skip over misspelled words. Beyond that, you will keep sentences and ideas that seem important to you but that will hold your work back. Beta readers are great, and they can give you awesome feedback for your plot and character reception. But the only person who can give you professional feedback that will improve your manuscript is a professional.
Whether you want to look at self-publishing or go the traditional route, you will want an editor. Self-published books have come a long way and readers have high expectations. If your book has spelling and/or formatting errors, you will get negative reviews that will haunt your book sales for all of time.
Isn’t that what a publisher is for?
Yes and no. If your book gets picked up, the publishing house will almost certainly hook you up with an editor to make sure your book is the best it can be. But in order to get a publisher, you have to get an agent, and literary agents are inundated with thousands of queries a day from aspiring authors. You need every advantage you can get, which is why I suggested entering contests. Agents are somewhat forgiving for editing mistakes if your story grips them, but too many mistakes in your sample will turn them off right away.
Picture a query letter where you can tell the agent that you’ve been published in x magazine/journal, you have a blog with 20k followers, AND your work has been professionally edited. Your letter just shot to the top of the query pile. Here are some great tips on finding the right editor when the time comes.
Tip #6: Don’t Limit Yourself to Just Books
It’s a romantic notion to think you can be the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King and get famous for writing books, but that’s the best-case scenario. I’m not saying you should shoot for the stars, because you have to have a vision for your future and you should set your sights as high as you want. But in the current climate, you can’t get away with writing the occasional book and hope it will take off. You won’t make it as a one-trick pony, even if your trick is seriously awesome.
Consider starting a blog (meta, right?). If you do want to create a website, use my link to get yourself a discount from Bluehost. For the record, I do get paid by Bluehost if your sign up through my link, but it’s at no cost to you and you can do the same thing after you sign up.
Anyway, blogging is a great way to get started as a writer. But there are plenty of traditional jobs for writers that can help you get paid for your talents while you work on your books. The point is, writing takes a lot of input and it can take years to start making real money. You can only benefit from throwing out as many possibilities as possible. You can always drop the things that don’t work for you, but you’re more likely to be successful if you try as many things as you can.
Tip #7: You Don’t Have to Live in New York
This one comes with a caveat. Because if you want to work in publishing or something, you should definitely move to New York or Chicago where those industries live. It can also help you on the networking side because the best networking happens in person, so if you’re living in New York and putting yourself in events where there are publishers and agents, you’re that much more likely to build connections.
As we all know, New York is hella expensive. And those tips you’re making at Starbucks won’t get you an apartment in one of the most expensive
Tip #8: Be Careful What You Give Away For Free
BTW, Jerry Maguire is a classic and you gotta watch it.
Any exposure is good, right?
Wrong.
It’s great to get a following. So if you decide to start a fiction blog where you post stories or even books, make sure you only give away the stuff you don’t intend to get paid for, ever. I never say never, but an agent/publisher is not going to take a risk on your book if thousands of people have already read it for free. Who’s going. to buy it when they publish it?
Now, this is different from contests. You should absolutely submit your work to magazines, journals, and whatnot. But sites like Wattpad or Critters that allow you to get your work online can damage your ability to sell that work later on. Sites like these are great for building your community with other writers, and I’m not saying you should never use them. I’m just saying you should be very careful about what you put out there and make smart decisions for your career. Remember, if you’re good at something, never do it for free.
Tip #9: Self-Publishing is Not as Great as it Sounds
For a minute there, I was fully prepared to self-publish through Amazon. The kindle publisher is super helpful and easy to use, and I figured I’d take home more of the profits without a publisher/agent taking most of my cut.
The main reason I wanted to self-publish? It’s shocking to see the numbers for traditionally published authors. Most authors make little over $1 per book. Scary, right? I was having a Robin Hood moment and I couldn’t stand the idea of someone else getting rich off my hard work. Lots of people will try to scare you into self-publishing with numbers like this, but take a moment to think about it:
Publishers take a big cut because they take a big risk in publishing your work. As you’ll find out if you follow tip #3, marketing is expensive. A publisher has to pay print costs for your novel as well as advertising, and there’s no guarantee they’ll make that money back. Remember when I said writing is a business? It’s their business, too, and you can’t expect them to take care of you without taking care of themselves.
I have nothing against indie authors, and if you feel it’s the right course for you then you should definitely self-publish. But it’s not right for everyone, and it’s a lot more intensive than it sounds. In this scenario, you take on all the risk. Any marketing you choose to do will come out of your own pocket, so if you can’t afford the ads, people are less likely to find your book.
Tip #10: It Takes Time
The main reason I suggest doing all the things above is that it takes time to make a living as a writer. Entrepreneurs cycle through multiple business ideas before they find the one that sticks, and writing is no different. I knew it would be hard to get published. But knowing that and living it are two different things. When I got my first round of rejections for my first manuscript, I was crushed—even though I went into it knowing I would be rejected more often than I’d be accepted.
The important thing to remember is that there’s a lot of luck involved in any business, but especially in books. The timing has to be right for an agent to fall in love with your book and sell it to a publisher. That blog you’re writing needs time to build up an audience and it will take months (at least) to get people listening to you. Your freelance business needs time to acquire clients and get reviews. Whatever you’re doing, you need to be patient. You also need to have multiple things going at once so that you can budget your waiting time and get a head start on the success part.
Stay Positive
I wish someone had told me all of this before I got started, but all hope is not lost. No matter where you’re at in your writing journey, you can take these steps today and start building your career as a writer. Have courage, have patience, and have fun.
See you next time! Post your questions and thoughts below, and have a wonderful week.
Boy, do I love archetypes. How does anyone write stories without them? Answer: they don’t (at least not good ones).
In case anyone is unfamiliar, an archetype is simply the framework for a character’s behaviors and beliefs. There are twelve major archetypes in literature as established by Carl Jung. He was a pretty interesting guy, and you can read more about him here if you’re interested in psychology. But for now, I’m going to stick to his connection to literature.
Now, you may have been told that archetypes are tired or that you need to have a fresh take on everything you write, which is true to an extent. But archetypes exist for a reason, and there’s no good reason to steer clear of them. They can help you develop more depth and background in your characters, giving them a more solid foundation than if you simply threw some ideas on the page without checking to see if they flow. The fact is, readers enjoy having their expectations met. And archetypes are one of the first building blocks of that process.
Why Should You Use Archetypes?
Have you ever read/watched/listened to a story where the characters made decisions that didn’t seem to fit their personality? For me, Jaime Lannister in the HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones comes to mind. By the end of his arc, he was making decisions that were totally out of character. As a result, many viewers found his conclusion upsetting and nonsensical. No author wants to hear that about their characters, am I right?
That being said, some authors (they’re called pantsers) talk a lot about how characters create themselves, but that’s not exactly true. Even if your writing style is very fluid and you allow for in-the-moment changes based on inspiration, characters have a finite set of traits that will lead them to make decisions. These personality combinations are so innate (as established by Carl Jung and other psychologists) that it can sometimes feel like the character is acting autonomously, but in truth, they are acting based on a specific code or set of morals that come directly from their archetype.
Don’t fret if you want your characters to feel spontaneous. Archetypes help to give you a basis for your character, but that doesn’t mean they’re already written for you. Just like two real-life people with the same personality type (16 Personalities) can have radically different dispositions and ideas, not every character with the same archetype will be exactly the same. This is where it becomes important for writers to have a fresh take on a classic character type. You don’t want the archetype to be so obvious that you’re readers are bored, but you do want them to be able to fit your character to an archetype should they go looking for one.
Archetype 1: The Warrior/Hero
The warrior is the classic hero archetype. This character’s main desire is to unseat the antagonistic force in their story, whether the antagonist is a person, a system, a government, etc. The warrior comes equipped with certain strengths (either mental or physical) and generally has a fear of failure. They can also suffer from inflated ego due to whatever strengths they begin with.
The key to making a dimensional warrior character is to remember their weakness. No one wants to read about a hero who is fully equipped to defeat the antagonist from the first moment we meet them. Supply your character with ample weaknesses, both physical and mental/emotional. If your hero is an excellent swordsman, consider giving them a weak position in battle or force them to fight with their non-dominant hand. If your character’s strength is emotional (Luke’s biggest strength is his enduring hope), put them in a position to lose it (say Vader didn’t come back in the end).
In the Disney version of the Greek story, Hercules has a number of weaknesses because of his desire to belong (he is a combination hero and orphan archetype. I’ll talk more about combinations in a dedicated post). Although he has god-like strength, he lacks the invincibility of a god. Aragorn is a terrific warrior, but he’s running away from his true calling. There are many ways to make the hero stand out, but it does take a little more work than some of the other archetypes because this is the most common protagonist. Run your hero by some of your friends and mentors before you nail down their arc.
Archetype 2: The Child/Innocent
The child or innocent archetype is the character you could never have an ill feeling toward because they are too pure for this world. This character wants to be good and remains untouched by evil. They are characterized by their kindness, sincerity, and optimism. As a result, they tend to be naive, helpless, and extremely vulnerable.
Sometimes people try to make a protagonist out of this archetype which is where it gets tricky. I never say never, but the innocent tends to be pretty stale for all their goodness. Without George to combat Lennie’s innate innocence, Of Mice and Men would be a very boring, albeit tragic, story. Now, if you want to combine the innocent with another archetype and show how the protagonist/antagonist used to be innocent before the outside world breached the safety of their walls, you can certainly turn them into a bigger player. Otherwise, this archetype is best kept for friends and side characters.
Even in the case of a side character, it’s important to give the innocent a unique quality that endears them to the audience and makes readers feel fiercely protective. Don’t let your innocent be boring just because they don’t have that struggle for good and evil like other archetypes. Dory and Lennie both have mental illnesses which makes their protection feel paramount to the hero as well as the audience. If your innocent is neurotypical, try giving them a unique passion or love. And then consider yanking it away from them.
Archetype 3: The Orphan
The Orphan just wants to belong. This is a popular archetype because most people can relate to feeling outcasted at some point or another. Even someone with a reasonable family and a good number of friends can feel a connection to an orphaned character because it’s about the feeling of being unwanted more than anything else. One of the great fears of an orphan archetype is being let down or finding their effort fruitless.
This archetype comes with a wealth of backstory options and can be especially fun to craft because they have so many weaknesses. The key to making a decent orphan character is to remember not to make them stale. Just because someone is an orphan doesn’t mean they have to be benevolent. The orphan can be humble and kind because of their “lost” nature, but they can also become jaded—especially if the belonging they seek is taken away or seemingly impossible to find. It’s important to give this archetype a unique response to their surroundings. Make a character who is boisterous and friendly but secretly harbors a deep-seated fear of abandonment (think Jack in Newsies). Or make them quiet and brooding with enough negative traits that they could easily become a villain if they choose the wrong path.
Archetype 4: The Creator
The creator’s central desire is to bring their vision to life. These characters are eccentrics and out-of-the-box thinkers who see the world in a unique way because of their artistic gifts. Creators can get themselves into trouble because they lack the foresight to see where their artistic endeavors will lead them.
The key to making a good creator character is to focus first on their one true vision and then work your way down into the events of this particular story. What is your creator’s central dream? In Jurassic Park, John Hammond’s dream is to see the dinosaurs he loves so dearly brought back to life. Alan Grant shares his love of dinosaurs and is at first willing to look at the possibility of a dinosaur park, where Ian Malcolm is a skeptic from the beginning. Surround your creator type with people who understand parts of their vision as well as people who want to see it fail. This will give your character more depth and you can let the audience examine the validity of the dream and the pros and cons of reaching it.
The creator can make a stellar villain or anti-hero should you decide to twist the vision into something sinister. In the case of a creator villain, they can either start out with a sinister vision or see their artistic dream become evil as a direct result of the opposition they face throughout the story. It’s a great way to make a sympathetic antagonist.
Archetype 5: The Caregiver
The caregiver lives to help others. They tend to have softer personalities, though they can be fierce when they need to protect the people they love. Caregivers are selfless, loyal, and compassionate. They feel things deeply and they always put others ahead of themselves. As a result, they are easy to take advantage of and sometimes lose sight of their own needs.
As for unique characters in this archetype, it’s really about playing them off the people around them. Samwise Gamgee is selfless and compassionate, but his particular relationship with Frodo makes him seem all the more real and relatable. His easygoing nature holds through most of the story, but he surprises the audience with his tenacity when he follows Frodo into the river, then again at Osgiliath, and finally at Mount Doom when he takes on Shelob to save his friend and carries him up the mountain. Sam’s strength is uncovered, tested, and developed over the course of the whole story which is what makes him interesting.
Don’t feel like your caregiver has to be a good guy, either. The evil side has caregivers, too. This is especially true when the caregiver in question has a martyr complex because that brings in a whole new level of selfishness and confusion to their protective acts.
Archetype 6: The Joker
The joker, not to be confused with the Batman villain, is a genial character who just wants to have fun. Their main goal is to enjoy life and they want to put a positive spin on whatever they can. But they can serve other purposes, too. The joker often provides insight that the other characters miss, whether for comic reasons or because their light attitude allows them to see things that others miss.
There’s nothing wrong with some comic relief, but a good joker character has moments of depth, too. Genie is incredibly funny, but he also serves as a mentor-type character, giving Aladdin some much-needed advice. Likewise, both Merry and Pippin have moments of extreme bravery or understanding as they delve into the action of The Lord of the Rings. Your joker can have similar qualities, making them valuable friends to have around in times of crisis. Just make sure they have fully rounded desires along with their levity and easygoing natures.
Archetype 7: The Mentor
All 12 of these archetypes are classic, but the mentor is like a gold classic; this character never goes out of style. The mentor takes the form of a wise character with a lot of experience under their belt. They are filled with knowledge and, as a result, sometimes struggle over how much they should share with the rest of the world (especially where there’s magic involved). The mentor can come in various forms of willingness to help the main character, but they always have a lot to offer.
The key to making a great mentor is to build them off your main character. Yoda’s early refusal to teach Luke has a huge effect on the rest of his training. The thing Luke needs most to save Vader is hope, but when he first meets Yoda he has a habit of giving up too quickly. The Jedi training Yoda offers is only half the benefit; the real skill he teaches Luke is endurance. When writing your mentor, make sure they have something essential to offer the protagonist beyond physical skills. Craft these two characters to have subtle and obvious give and take, and you’ll get readers invested.
Archetype 8: The Magician
The magician, unlike the mentor, has a penchant for world domination. This doesn’t always mean subjugating other people, but it does mean this character wants to uncover the secrets of the universe. The magician is highly intelligent, observant, and in some stories has literal magic. They suffer from an inflated ego and tend to be power-hungry as a result of their prowess.
Magicians can be off-putting if you’re not careful. The secret here is similar to villains. You want to give them a few redeeming qualities to balance their ego-centric qualities. It’s also important to focus on their interpersonal relationships. Loki’s relationship with Thor in Ragnarok does a lot for his character arc. He’s not just the God of Mischief anymore; he’s finally a good brother. Make sure you put a lot of thought into how this character interacts with the world around them and balance them with another character who can call them on their bullshit when necessary.
Archetype 9: The Ruler
The ruler can be benevolent or evil (or somewhere in the middle), depending on their role in your story. The nice guy ruler rarely starts in power and when they do, they don’t stay there for long. Benevolent kings are killed off early or we spend most of the story waiting for the right person to ascend. More often we see an evil dictator in power and the plot revolves around defeating them. This is because power tends to corrupt people and there’s not really a good reason to tell a story about a good king who did his job and everyone was happy.
When trying to make a unique ruler, I recommend writing down their core goal as well as their limits. If your ruler is evil, is there anything they won’t do? Tywin Lannister is a great example because he’s pretty much despicable in every way until we see him interact with Arya Stark. Of course, he doesn’t know who she is, but he’s a chill guy when he doesn’t think it interferes with his plans. Interactions like this offer depth to characters who otherwise fall prey to boring cliches. If you really want to make a unique ruler, find a way to make their ousting (in the case of a good guy) especially heinous. In the case of an evil ruler, give them just enough redeeming qualities that the audience accidentally roots for them sometimes—or at least respect their position.
Archetype 10: The Rebel
The rebel archetype is independent—sometimes to a fault. This character sees the flaws in the system and has an innate desire to break the rules as a result. Maybe they break the rules because they had an absentee or overbearing caregiver. Maybe they believe/see that freedom has been taken away by a governing agency and they want to restore free will. Whatever the reason, this archetype is very defiant and finds it difficult to trust others.
The important thing to remember here is that no one is a rule breaker just for the hell of it. When writing this archetype the first thing you should do is write them a code: what line is this character unwilling to cross? Are they protective of children? Sensitive to true love? The individual’s code will likely be different than polite society, so don’t be afraid to play with that.
This archetype comes with a lot of freedom because it is easy for these characters to take on villainous traits. Let your rebel make mistakes. Let them be right sometimes even though other characters criticize them for breaking the rules. Make things muddy so the audience has to decide who is more right. In my opinion, the rebel is one of the easiest archetypes to make your own because there is so much room for personalization.
Archetype 11: The Lover
The lover’s primary goal is, you guessed it, to find love. They seek meaningful relationships from family, friends, and lovers. This archetype comes with a lot of emotional intelligence and dedication. They will fight to the last breath for those they love, often culminating in a great act of sacrifice. As a result, they tend to suffer from tunnel vision and they bruise easily (emotionally, that is).
My best advice for the lover is to remember to give them a personality outside the object of their affection. Peeta has spent years in love with Katniss, but he does have goals and wants outside of her. And he’s only willing to put up with so much of her B. S. before he stands up for himself. Give your lover a backbone and remember to flesh them out as a fully realized individual instead of making them entirely dependent on the love interest. Pining lovers bore easily.
Archetype 12: The Seductress
The seductress is one of the most misunderstood and misused archetypes. This person is characterized by oozing charisma and generally has a total disregard for morality. This can be a strength and a hindrance. The seductress often has an underlying desire to take back power or love that was stolen from them.
The biggest problem you’ll face with this archetype is a cliched backstory. It makes a lot of sense for the seductress to be a prostitute or a slave, but you need to be careful to give them their own identity. In Hercules, Meg is indebted to Hades and therefore has to do his bidding. But the story doesn’t write her off as some slut who uses her body to get what she wants (bodies can definitely be tools, but there’s always more to the story). Meg is a character who we know loved somebody deeply in the past. She also shows a distaste for Hades and often tries to do the right thing in spite of owing her soul to the god of death. The seductress backstory doesn’t have to be tragic—maybe he/she acts as a temptress for a different reason. Just be sure to give us that reason.
The Bottom Line
Archetypes aren’t there to box you in. They exist because they’re relatable, and it’s a great starting point in character development. The basic guidelines for these archetypes won’t make fully fleshed out characters, but they will give you enough direction to design characters that your readers want to get to know. I highly recommend going through your main character list and figuring out their archetype before you start writing. It’s a lot harder to go back and fix a nonsensical character than it is to just set them in the right direction in the first place.
Especially for anyone who is just getting started, writing a book can feel like an insurmountable task. After the initial excitement that comes with the first spark of inspiration (whether that’s a plot idea, an interesting character, or just a really cool setting), comes a slump when you realize how much work it is getting those words on the page. So I’ve decided to lay out the five aspects that will help you write a decent novel.
But at the end of the day, writing a novel is just telling a story. And every story is made up of the same basic elements. There’s a lot that goes into the process of writing your book, but for anyone who doesn’t know where to start or finds themselves feeling in over their head, here is a comprehensive list of the five basic traits every story needs:
Theme
Plot
Characters
Story Structure
Setting
1. Theme
No story is worth telling without a reason. What’s your reason? Classic themes include love, death, good vs. evil, coming of age, etc. Whatever story you tell, it must have a theme woven into every fiber so that when potential readers pick up your book, they have an idea of what to expect. And, more importantly, when readers finish your book, they feel fulfilled because that expectation was met. Even the best plot and the most interesting characters can be ruined if there is no driving force behind your story.
Don’t know how to pick your theme? Ask yourself a few questions:
What would I change about the world if I could?
What big-picture idea do I want to examine?
Can love change people?
How can a person choose between two horrible outcomes?
What is the purpose of life?
What is the reason this character/plot/setting needs to reach an audience?
It doesn’t have to be something huge. Not all themes are about life-altering quests or answering life’s biggest questions. Your theme is simply the purpose of your story. Metaphorically speaking, the theme is the heart of any body of work. You can say Star Wars is about Luke or Anakin or Jedi or any number of other things, but at the heart of the story, it’s about good vs. evil and the power of hope. Those are the things that keep viewers watching, even if some of them only came for the light show.
While nurturing your theme might seem like a pain at times, it can be very helpful to have your story grounded in thematic elements while you’re struggling to plot and/or get that first copy down on paper. And the good news is, while a weak theme can tank a great character or plot, a stellar theme can lift an otherwise lacking story. So do yourself a favor and put the work in.
2. Plot
Once you have a theme in mind, it’s time to put together a plot. I’ll touch on this more in the structure section, but in the most basic form, you need a series of events to get from point A to point B, where point B is any kind of meaningful resolution to the problem introduced at point A.
Some writers come up with plots very naturally while others struggle to come up with a plan. If you have a hard time plotting, don’t fret. Odds are you are more interested in either character development (like me) or setting (like many fantasy authors). It’s okay to be more excited about these elements than you are about the actual events of the story as long as you understand that the plot is what moves readers through your characters and setting.
The best way to come up with an interesting plot is to research. History is rife with possible story ideas, but research can also come in the form of reading fiction. Think of the stories you like to read most and try to find a pattern. If it’s what you love to read, it will more than likely be what you love to write.
3. Characters
In my humble opinion, solid characters are one of the most important elements of any novel (second only to theme). Since I used Star Wars earlier, I’ll touch on it again here. The ultimate battle of good vs. evil is the first building block of the story, but Darth Vader (and later Anakin) is the reason the audience is on the edge of their seats. George Lucas told the story in non-chronological order for the explicit purpose of telling Anakin’s story. Every decision he made for the plot, setting, supporting characters, etc. revolved around telling Vader’s story in a sympathetic and engaging way.
Nobody (at least nobody I’ve met) is interested in reading a book that has a fabulous plot if they don’t like any of the characters. Think of Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo, or Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. People don’t watch Rocky because they like boxing; they watch it because they want to witness the triumph of the human spirit against insurmountable odds.
But I digress. Whether you have a character in mind when you start your story or you’re looking to fill a scene with players, you need to craft a deep and engaging cast. This is where archetypes come in. I’ve covered the basic archetypes in another post, but the general idea is to figure out your protagonist and antagonist (which is not always a person) and then fill in the supporting roles with people who will add to your theme, challenge your main characters, or act as entertainment.
Whatever roles these characters take on will be specific to your story, but keep in mind that even side characters need to have a wealth of development and thought behind them. Don’t think that your hero’s best friend can get away with a few quippy remarks and zero substance. I highly recommend writing a character bio for every single one of your characters — even if they appear only on one page. Not everything you plan will end up in the final product, but the extra thought you put into crafting your characters will come through regardless.
4. Structure
I’ll be adding a dedicated post on the three-act structure soon, but for now, I just want to highlight the simplest form:
Exposition
Introduce your setting, main characters, and a central problem.
Rising Action
This is the part where your protagonist starts their journey. There will be many obstacles along the way whether it’s an action-packed epic or a contemporary romance. The characterizing feature of this portion is the shift of power that goes back and forth between the hero and the antagonistic force. This, in a nutshell, is how you create tension.
Climax
The tension builds to a breaking point at the climax. It is the moment in the story that changes everything. Nothing will be the same from this point on. Here are a few examples:
Darcy proposes to Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice)
Harry finds out Sirius is innocent (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Frodo destroys The Ring (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
The climax is generally the easiest moment to pick out in any story because it is the breaking point. When writing a novel, it is helpful to start at this point and work your way backward.
Falling Action
Falling action sees the loose ends tied up at the end of the book. It should be concise now that the tension has broken in the climax, but if there were any questions opened up at the beginning of the story (especially true for mystery and suspense), now is the time to start wrapping those up.
Resolution
The final point in the story, the resolution should give a final answer (or not) for the question set forth at the beginning of the book: will the hero get the boy/girl? Will they defeat the villain and save the world? The resolution should be relatively quick but very fulfilling—unless of course you’re ending on a cliffhanger.
5. Setting
I listed the setting last because your plot and characters could technically live in any setting, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Sometimes it’s the first thing you plan (especially as a science fiction or fantasy author), and that is 100% okay. But whether you have one in mind or decide on one after you’ve got a plot cooking, you need to flesh it out as much as any character. Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings are both great examples of a world so expansive and thought out that readers/watchers want to climb into the world and live there. And because of the amount of work the authors put into those worlds, they practically can.
If you’re writing a fantasy or a science fiction, you need to be ready to write unique languages, cultures, geography, the whole nine. The more reality you inject into your world, the more readers will get pulled into your story. That means that if your story takes place in a real place, you need to do a lot of research. Don’t set your story in Arizona and then have your characters walking around in parkas, for example. It sounds obvious, but the setting is a weak point for many new writers. Research, research, research! Your readers will thank you for it and your story will thrive in the good soil of a beautiful setting.
That’s it!
So there you have it. The basic elements of any novel. Not so scary, is it?
There are definitely a few moving parts, but once you break it down into these five elements, it’s not so daunting. As you keep writing and practicing your skills, the planning part will come more naturally and your brain will automatically fill in the various elements so it won’t feel like such a chore. Just make sure you have a notebook, phone, or computer handy at all times to jot down your thoughts because at some point it will hit you like an exorcism and you will want to write it down before it disappears.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to roam around my topics. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Reach out to me directly! I’m happy to answer questions and write new posts for highly requested content.
