Writers in the Storm

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Some books open with a tornado roaring through town and leaving the protagonist without any house, transportation, light, or even food.

Others open with the protagonist discovering their soon-to-be spouse is already married with six kids at home.

Some open with a protagonist getting a phone call: “To get your twin back alive, bring three billion dollars to the Marrakesh airport Tuesday at noon.”

Any of those incidents COULD be where the trouble starts.

But not every reader -- or writer, for that matter -- wants this kind of external drama on page 1.

Some prefer seeing the tension build more gradually.

Some enjoy the kind of suspense that leaves ‘em afraid to turn out the lights.

Some want a conflict where the protagonist’s biggest challenge is more internal than external.

Some readers like ALL those possibilities, both the externally dramatic and the internally dramatic, along with thousands of others. (Those are the ones we want to be writing for!)

But either way, we want our characters challenged.

When you look at the trouble in your book, where does it come from?

Ideally some of it is external, because characters who decide to take any specific action are just more interesting.

And some of it is internal, because knowing this person more deeply increases how much we care about their outcome.

Pretty much all of us, whether we’re reading OR writing, want a book’s characters to be interesting...and we want them to make us care.

One very effective way of accomplishing both those goals is to -- oh, right -- get ‘em in trouble.

“The flood waters are rising and I can’t find Jacob!”

“Until that summer, I always thought I’d see my mother again.”

“No matter what, I cannot lose this job.”

“Brad and Gina are BOTH coming, and I just know Roxy’s gonna be there.”

“How could a simple mosquito bite have gotten this bad, this fast?”

Seeing people in trouble makes us curious.

We want to know more. What’s going on?

How did this come about?

Why were they caught by surprise?

Who’s on their side?

What are they gonna do?

What if that doesn’t work?

If we like what we see of these people, it makes us want to know a LOT more. Not just about the situation they’re in, but also how this particular person is going to handle it.

Anybody, for example, could get a simple mosquito bite that turns into a festering lesion five hours later. But their response to this situation will be tremendously different, depending on the kind of person they are.

Someone who’s a perfectionist will have a different reaction than someone who’s an adventurer. Neither of ‘em is likely to have an easy time dealing with this suddenly dangerous wound, unless they happen to be a doctor specializing in weird diseases, but the WAY they deal with it is gonna create different types of conflict for each of them.

It goes beyond the conflict caused by just the situation.

We can bet that perfectionist P.J. will immediately start seeking out expert advice, following the instructions on WebMD right down to the millimeter length of the cotton swab, and looking for the doctor’s phone number to display prominently on the refrigerator door in case paramedics have to come rushing in. “Hmm, is that red-letter printing big enough? Is it TOO big?” And so on.

On the other hand, adventurous Ali will be posting photos of the growing wound, debating with the pizza delivery guy whether this is worse than the time Marty got bit by a snake, and wondering whether it’s faster to skateboard or hitchhike to the ER. “Whatever happened to that skateboard, anyway? How come nobody stops when you wear a windmill beanie?” And so on.

Same challenge. Completely different story.

So you can see how the trouble starts long before the mosquito ever bit Ali or P.J. The trouble begins with the kind of person they are.

Conflict Starts in the Head

That’s why it makes sense to look at each character’s type or subtype or archetype, and how ANY conflict in their life will be influenced by what makes ‘em unique.

If we've got ten people on a leaking boat, for instance, all ten will have a different struggle ahead of them. Stay afloat, sure, but that doesn't stay intriguing for long. Who's gonna blame the captain? Who's gonna watch for sharks? Who's gonna write texts to their loved ones? Who's gonna inflate life rafts? Who's gonna jump first? Who's gonna panic? Who's gonna pray? Who's gonna tell jokes?

Knowing the answers to such questions makes it far easier to create characters who’ll naturally encounter their own conflict, no matter what challenge they face. Because it’s already built into the kind of person they are.

And that’s what makes conflict “from the head down” so important!

Prize Drawing Question

Speaking of conflict, how would the protagonist of whatever book you’re currently writing or reading react to a mosquito bite that seemed ordinary a few hours ago but now seems to be turning dangerously strange?

Would they panic? Would they do research? Would they call a friend? Would they laugh it off? Would they -- well, you get the idea.

You might know this person so well it’s like answering how YOU would react. You might still be just getting to know them. Either way, I’d love to hear what comes to mind…as soon as I close the blinds to avert any potentially fatal mosquitoes!

By the way, somebody who comments on that question will win free registration for “Building Conflict from the Head Down,” a May 8-19 email class on creating characters who’ll automatically run into trouble not only with each other and with various situations...but also with themselves. On Friday evening I’ll have random dot org draw a name and post it waaaaay down at the end.

About Laurie:

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then she’s taught online and live workshops including the one at groups.io/g/ConflictHD, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 50+ titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

Top image by Deleyna via Canva

By Kris Maze

The term YA as it refers to novels only requires that the protagonist be a teen and ideally the plot is shown through the experience a teen would face, but it can be difficult to write young adult stories in a believable and engaging way. Writing for young adults (YA) can be a tricky petulant monster, but it’s full of fun tropes and has a strong fan-base.

How can we pull of believable and enticing YA? As long as the main character is between the ages of 13 and 19, or could be in high school, and the plot aligns with a teen’s reality, the basics of good grammatical writing still apply. But there are a few extra caveats to make your YA stories shine brighter than an application of Kissing Stick Lip Gloss.

YA writers may run into common issues because of these specific requirements (teen protagonist, plot and theme centered on teen issues, teen problems inform the story.) We have to be careful not to alienate our audience by acting like we are currently that age, and let’s face it, most of us have left those years far behind. But it is also important to write in teen-speak and to house our story within the constructs of believable characters and events.

So how do non-teenaged writers manage to create novels that will engage both teen readers and adults alike? Well, in true teen style, we learn to break some of the traditional writing rules.  What is more appealing to an adolescent than reading something that would make their traditional English teacher cringe? See what tips can make your YA story the page burners these books tend to be.

Dialogue is fair game for tomfoolery.

Dialogue is a great tool to draw readers into a story and YA writers should use it a lot. One reason YA readers enjoy this type of book is the ease of reading. It’s easier to focus on the story and when the eye sees breaks on the page with short dialogue segments, it’s like a mental breath of story air. One way dialogue works its magic is that it breaks up white space on the page.

Short segments of description and action with quick-paced dialogue can keep a YA story moving along in the same way a teen experiences life, through what they hear. Let the characters tell their thoughts and feelings (or what they are refusing to talk about), and the reader will pay attention.

Consider having characters that have a variety of backgrounds and dialects.  Each character’s voice should be easily identifiable through their choice of words and personality. Teens have different ways of speaking from adults, but also with a lot a variety. Make it easy for your reader to understand who’s speaking and bring them into your story.

Keeping that dialogue authentic is key. Teens may speak in grunts or eloquent snarky jabs. But one thing is certain. It is not long grammatically correct sentences. Try saying any section of dialogue aloud to check for authenticity.

We don’t always speak with grammar in mind.  Let the dialogue reflect what the speech sounds like. Does it sound like the kid down the block? Your niece or babysitter?  Minimally, does it sound like a popular teen character in a series you love?  Be sure to make your characters sound like teens and your story will sparkle because of this extra attention to detail.

Grammar be damned.

Grammar is great if you are trying to get a perfect SAT score, but we are writers. Purveyors of story and fantasy.  We have unique license to break these rules in the name of provocative storytelling. Readers expect a voice that is inexperienced, unsure, impulsive, and not full of stoic, grammar-police perfectly practiced English.

Grammar is a vehicle for communicating and it should make reading easier. To keep the grammar as smooth as possible and adhere to good writing skill, consider the following:

• It’s a good idea to use grammatically simple expressions. For example, for whom is grammatically correct in specific cases, but awkward in YA works. It could just be my opinion, but breaking some rules for the sake of readability may be something to discuss with your editor.
• Other cases where you are tempted to add big, flowery, literary examples of beatific writing, it’s probably going to stick out like a sore thumb.
• Avoid cliches that may be dated and not make sense to younger audiences. Why is it a sore thumb? Who’s thumb is it? What are we talking about?
• Shorter sentences are better but use variety. Whatever grammar tools make your writing super smooth will keep younger; less-into-reading-readers interested in your story.
• And avoid using semi-colon.  I’m pretty sure I have never seen one in a YA book.  Please correct me in the comment below if you can identify one.  😊

Run on sentences? It could be just the right thing.

 Have you ever been told in English class that you have run-on sentences?  There is a time and place for a version of this mishap of writing, and it can be a great addition to YA fiction.  Anyone who has learned the Deep Edits system designed by Margie Lawson, would be familiar with her teachings on rhetorical devices.

One that is appropriate for YA works is polysyndeton. It’s writer uses a really long sentence that doesn’t use commas or punctuation and goes on and on and on.  Just like a teen when they are excited, upset, or in full stream-of-consciousness mode. This device, along with asyndeton, or replacing all the conjunctions with commas and letting the sentence ride on.

Avoid using cliched and hot vernacular

Many expressions have the shelf life of unrefrigerated yogurt on a hot summer afternoon. You could taste it, use it, but it’s risky.

Many cool and catchy expressions have also changed their meaning over time.  It is better to use plain English to get across ideas.  Sometimes a simple “cool” will do. Tic Tok might make certain expressions and trends not stop, but those trends will burn out before you finish your first draft.

Keep your work relevant and don’t use trendy expressions.

Technology

Nothing can date a piece of writing quicker than using the latest technology of the day. Keep technology vague or chose to write in an era that doesn’t have as much quick changing tech are a couple ways to handle this.

Anyone remember a nano? That super cool new I-pod? Flip phones or Blackberries?  All the coolest things in their day.  We hope our novels will last longer than the time those must-have items stole the spotlight.

Are your characters deep and observant? 

Add dimensions. Teens feel things deeply and often see things adults have forgotten to appreciate.

A wonderful example of complex and deep thinking characters in YA is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In this look at American teenaged life, Stephan Chbosky’s main character Charlie starts his high school career alone and depressed and finds companionship with a group of seniors dealing with their own dark pasts. He also connects with his English teacher who gives him multiple books to read. 

The topics covered in this novel are timely and sensitive, trigger warning worthy, as ‘well-adjusted kids’ work through the issues of abusive boyfriends, mental health problems, suicide, sexuality, homophobia, divorce, drug use, child abuse and how to have real conversations around these topics.

Keeping it Real.

Do teens in your novel have the same constraints as actual adolescents? Teens all have high learning curves in life. Be sure in your story that your teen characters have layers of appropriate challenges and concerns that teens would face. Be certain that they don’t know everything (although they can think they do.)

An example of appropriate learning curves for teens is their first time operating a vehicle. Learning to tackle transportation, subway or first car ride, horse and buggy or spaceship could cause similar hangups, problems, and complex feelings in your main character.  Remember your first brush with freedom that driving or riding a bike gave you?  That is the stuff that makes YA shine.

Firsts

First love, first independence, first disappointment, first brush with mortality. Choose a theme around one of these and your story will be much stronger than if it is just an adult story with a precocious young person acting like an adult.

Get to know many teens.

One of the best ways to tackle the voice of a teen is to spend time with young adults.  Try one of these ideas and connect with a young person.

• Volunteer at your library of school.
• Do a book talk. 
• Join an organization that supports ecology or the humane society. 
• Befriend a young person or become a writing mentor.
• Support a writing contest.

Developing a better understanding of issues unique to teen life today can round out your story telling from a teen perspective as well.

Final Thoughts

What makes YA fiction a go-to for you? What was one of the first books that really meant something to you? Let us know in the comments below.

About Kris

Kris Maze is an author, writing coach, and teacher. She has worked in education for many years and writes for various publications, including Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish and the award-winning blog Writers in the Storm where she is also a host. You can find her horror stories and young adult writing on her website. Keep up with future projects and events by subscribing to her newsletter. And other writing work HERE.

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors.

And occasionally, she photographs flowers.

by Becca Puglisi

What exactly is a character archetype? How many are there? And how are they different from character tropes?

These are the questions that were keeping me up at night as Angela and I started research for the newest thesaurus at our blog. So, as I often do when I’m confused by terminology, I started with a generic definition.

Archetype: a prototype that can be copied, adapted, or used to create other versions

Ok, so a character archetype is a common kind of character that others are fashioned after. That led to my next question: if there are certain prototypes off which other characters are patterned, what are those original archetypes? I went looking and immediately got buried in a deluge of contradictory information. So many lists, each with its own variety of characters. Some people called them archetypes, others called them tropes, and there was very little documentation or references to verify what I was seeing.

As a truth-seeker, the lack of consensus was driving me a little crazy. So I armed myself with chocolate and did a deep dive into psychology—directly to the source of where character archetypes began and how they evolved. I’m clear on this now, and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned with you.

Archetypes in Psychology

The term “archetype” has been referenced in various historical documents all the way back to the time of Christ, so it’s by no means a new concept. But it wasn’t until the early 1900s that Carl Jung, a cohort of Freud’s, applied the term to psychology and brought it into the mainstream.

Jung had studied many myths, fairy tales, stories, religions, and dreams throughout history and realized that there were repeated events, figures, and motifs in these narratives—despite them coming from wildly disparate cultures and time periods. After a ton of research and discussion on the subject, he deduced that there are 12 archetypical figures that are common to the human experience and have become part of the stories we tell. Definitions vary, but here are Jung’s character archetypes.

1. The Caregiver: Caregivers are helpers—typically categorized as supportive, selfless, and nurturing.
2. The Creator: Imaginative and driven, creators are the artists, inventors, and scientists who are driven to come up with something new and innovative.
3. The Explorer: Explorers are adventurous and are intrigued by the unknown. Where others quail, explorers are keen to explore new places and ideas and go where no one has gone before.
4. The Hero: Heroes are driven to right wrongs and prove their own worth. They often achieve their goals by employing their own specific mix of strengths, talents, and skills.
5. The Innocent: Morally upright and blind to the evils of the world, innocents are dreamers and optimists who have good intentions and tend to do the right thing.
6. The Jester: As comedians and tricksters in the story, jesters make light of serious things and provide comic relief. They often impart wisdom through their shenanigans.
7. The Lover: Lovers are romantics who are all heart. They're highly relational and are guided by their passions.
8. The Magician: For magicians, the pursuit of knowledge isn't enough; fulfillment only comes through understanding and mastering the seemingly unknowable. For this reason, they make great shamans, seers, and wise men and women.
9. The Orphan: Orphans are characterized by trauma, neglect, and/or rejection. Having lost their own family (or never having one to begin with), they're driven by a need to belong and will go to great lengths to find acceptance.
10. The Rebel: Rebels are out-of-the-box thinkers who like to push boundaries and are undaunted by chaos. They’re often the catalyst for change.
11. The Ruler: Rulers are leaders with a measure of control over others. Their intentions—good or bad—and the level to which they desire power will determine the kind of ruler they are.
12. The Sage: Sages are wise, always seeking knowledge, but they also desire to impart their learnings to others. This makes them ideal mentors and parental figures.

According to Jung, character archetypes are recurring figures that show up in the dreams of all people and the stories of all cultures. They can be part of any narrative, regardless of the time period or audience. This universality is what makes a character an archetype. It’s why these 12 made the cut.

Jung’s is the original list of archetypes. Since he pretty much invented the concept, I feel good using this as my go-to index. But there’s another list many people like to use, and it has merit because its archetypes are established according to their roles in storytelling.

Archetypes in Storytelling

Forty or so years after Jung, Joseph Campbell was also exploring narratives throughout history and noticed a similar pattern in their structure. He discovered that many of these stories contained the following archetypal structure, which he titled The Hero’s Journey:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

~Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Through his exploration of this mythical structure (and greatly influenced by Jung’s teachings) Campbell identified some characters that appear again and again in these stories over time. But while his thoughts on the subject were insightful and inspirational, his writings weren’t the easiest to understand for many lay people. And this is why we all owe a debt of gratitude to Christopher Vogler.

Vogler was a devotee of Campbell’s and used his ideas frequently in his career as a movie script analyst. They were so helpful in troubleshooting and strengthening the stories he read that Vogler wrote a seven-page guide about The Hero’s Journey and began distributing it to his colleagues at Disney. It soon became required reading, and the demand for his pamphlet was so great that he expanded it into a book called The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Twenty-five years later, it’s still being sold and has become a foundational text for storytellers.

In this book, Vogler distilled Campbell’s ideas into an accessible list of 8 character archetypes:

1. Hero: The protagonist who has a goal to achieve, will undergo change or growth along the way, and will need to make some kind of sacrifice to succeed
2. Mentor: A positive figure who helps or trains the hero
3. Threshold Guardian: A creature, person, or force who guards the gateway to the new world the hero must enter
4. Herald: Someone who issues a challenge to the hero or informs them of significant change to come
5. Shapeshifter: A character whose nature is shifting and unpredictable, causing uncertainty and doubt for the hero
6. Shadow: Someone or something that opposes the hero, often manifesting as a villain, antagonist, or enemy
7. Ally: A character who accompanies, assists, complements, or constructively challenges the hero along their journey
8. Trickster: A mischievous character who often shares wisdom while dispelling tension through comic relief

These are essentially a reconfiguring of Jung’s archetypes so they’re defined by the role each plays in a story. As writers, we can see how valuable this perspective can be.

When it comes to archetypes, you can’t go wrong with either of these breakdowns. Personally, I prefer Jung’s because his is the original model—the prototype—that everything else is based on. But both are valid for establishing the kinds of characters you’ll want to include in your story.

Now. If these 12 or 8 characters are the only true archetypes, what about all the rest of the character types you find on the internet? There are dozens and dozens of listings containing 25, 50, 200+ characters. The queen bee, the mad scientist, the nerd, the class clown, the hot billionaire—are these archetypes, as well? If not, what are they?

Simply put, these are character tropes, not archetypes. Here’s why.

Character Tropes

A literary trope is a recurring element that’s frequently used across narrative works. This makes character tropes very similar to archetypes. The difference is that archetypes, by Jung’s original criteria, are universal in nature and can be found in any story from any culture and time period.

If a character couldn’t appear in multiple narratives from multiple time periods for multiple audiences, then that character isn’t an archetype; it’s a trope. And most of the time, the character is a trope because it has been culturally influenced so it only works within a certain culture or timeframe.

Let’s take the nerd trope as an example.

Conventionally, nerd characters are highly intelligent, socially awkward, and are hyper-focused on topics most people aren’t interested in. They’re also clueless about fashion and style. This rendering is specific to Western culture and wouldn’t translate for certain other people groups. This makes it a trope rather than an archetype.

Class clowns need a classroom or school setting, so this character is a trope.

You wouldn’t find hot billionaires in a culture without an über-rich demographic, so this character is a trope…

It’s a relatively easy litmus test for determining whether a character is trope or an archetype.

Another clue that you’re dealing with a trope is when the character is clearly a derivative or modified version of an archetype. The class clown, for example, is a trope based on the Jester. The nerd is a form of either the Sage or Magician. The queen bee is a specific kind of Ruler, and so on.

A Quick Summary

So, to sum all of this up….

• Character archetypes are universal figures that are repeated through narratives across cultures, time periods, and locations.
• While there are many lists of archetypes, the most commonly accepted are the ones established by Carl Jung and by Joseph Campbell/Christopher Vogler.
• A character trope is a familiar figure that recurs in many stories, but unlike archetypes, it isn’t universally recognizable.
• A character trope can also be a modified—often more specific—version of an archetype.

On the surface, it’s not easy to the see the difference between these kinds of characters. But this historical study has helped me understand things better. I hope it also clarifies these important character elements for you.

Angela and I are actively exploring this topic through a new thesaurus at Writers Helping Writers. The Character Types and Tropes Thesaurus will dig into Jung’s archetypes and many tropes—what the commonalities are for each and how writers can modify them to fit the needs of their stories. As entries are added each Saturday, this may become a resource to help you establish the cast for your next project.

Have you used archetypes or tropes in your writing? Do you find them helpful?

Additional Resources:

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, CJ Jung

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structures for Writers, by Christopher Vogler

(Note: the above resources contain affiliate links)

About Becca

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online resource for authors that's home to the Character Builder and Storyteller's Roadmap tools.