Plot Archetypes III

Credit for this overview of plot archetypes goes to SB Morrison. I debated about including this, because his own article is well-written and it’s his work. But the internet is uncertain and I wouldn’t want to merely link to a page that suddenly changes or goes missing. This is the original article.

Below is my summary of his work on plot archetypes.

A note about archetypes

The idea of these archetypes is to be general (so they can apply to a multitude of stories), but also specific enough that they actually help you. Most stories do not stick to one archetype, but they combine multiple. More importantly, this combination often isn’t on equal terms. (Half the story follows plot A, the other half plot B.)

It’s usually a nesting. The main story is maybe a Heist, but it has subplots (which are clearly less important and get less time) that are about a Relationship or Family.

As such, archetypes aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s a lot of overlap and part of the uniqueness in your story would come from picking the area on which you focus the most.

The 8 Plot Types

That said, here are the 8 main archetype categories.

• The Procedure Plot
• The Information Plot
• The Relationship Plot
• The Family Plot
• The Work Plot
• The Becoming Plot
• The Journey Plot
• The Overcome Plot

What I like about this, is that this collection of archetypes seems to cover all the basic needs or elements of life. Family is important, so is work, so are relationships, so is getting things done (procedure), so is self-growth (becoming), etcetera.

This feels like a list that covers pretty much all bases in a simple way. The archetype you choose determines the main theme upon which your story will focus.

Now, each category can be explained further and subdivided into some more specific plots.

The Procedure Plot

This plot is about action: “get this thing done”. A character wants something (which is hard to get), and we’re going to watch them try and get it.

There might be different people involved.

• The Obsessed Individual: wants to do it all by themselves (a negative trait)
• Person with the Plan: same thing, but seen as a positive trait
• Coordinate the Team: bring people together and lead them

Below are some common Procedure Plots.

• The Rescue: save a person or thing
• Get to the Place: we must get to location X to do what’s needed
• Build the Thing: we have to build something to reach our goal (or that is the goal)
• The Competition: we have to win something. (Can be applied more generally, like winning a court case.)
• The Chase: someone is chasing us and we have to get away
• The Escape: we have to get out of here
• Get Revenge: get even with someone who wronged us

Let’s highlight two specific implementations (that are very common, and fun) in particular.

The Heist

Typically a combination of a crew and a get the thing plot. You could have a

• Large Crew Heist: everyone has their own unique role/function within the group
• Small Crew Heist: everyone is doing the heist together (sharing responsibilities)

The Con

The con is defined as: “make someone believe”.

There are many different types, mostly based on who performs the con and how.

• The Team (Duo) Con: people work together (in clever ways) to make others believe something that isn’t true.
• The Con Contest: otherwise called Cat and Mouse, or “I know that you know that I know that you know”. These are nested cons and a battle of wits between people who are both trying to dupe each other.
• The One with the Strings: not a team con, but one person convincing everyone else of something.
• Trading Places: someone is switched (usually unwillingly) and now has to pretend they are something which they’re not.

As mentioned earlier, Cons and Heists are often nested in each other.

The Information Plot

This is about revealing information. Almost always, this is framed as a mystery, or a Plot of Revelation.

It’s placed second on the list because almost all stories revolve around unanswered questions. The reason stories interest us, and people continue reading/watching, is because we want closure. We want to know what happens next. We want to know where this character ends up. We want to know the truth about their past.

Even if you don’t intentionally introduce something as a “mystery”, any information you add to the story has the potential to become an information plot.

Below are some common and specific types.

• Whodunit: a crime is committed, suspects are known, and we have to determine who did it.
• Spy: otherwise called “who do you work for?” or “who’s in control?” There’s tension on who can be trusted and where someone’s true allegiance lies.
• Solve the Crime: same as a whodunit, but the details (such as suspects or the crime) are not known to the investigator.

The Relationship Plot

This is about understanding how people are going to have a relationship with another. Interestingly, relationships are rather simple in theory. Just let the other know you like them, and if they like you as well, you’re done. Great!

That’s why such stories are mostly about adding some procedure plot as a contrivance. Something else is needed to get in the way and actually turn it into a story.

Some types include.

• Get Over Yourself: the couple can’t get together until they sort out themselves (their insecurities, or high expectations, or whatever inner demons they have)
• The Situational Romance: similarly, the couple can’t get together until they sort out some obstructing situation
• Mismatched Pair: or “Opposites Attract”. Two people who shouldn’t be together (on the surface), actually have to be together.
• The Choice: or “The Triangle”. Multiple partners and we have to pick.
• I’m Good on my Own: the hero already has a relationship (or really tries), but realizes they might be better off without one. (A more modern flavor of the plot, although I personally don’t like it, as it’s often portrayed with the underlying message of “only think about yourself and ignore help or social relationships”.)
• The All Consuming Fire: a tempestuous relationship that causes both parties to blow up. Their mutual love causes a fire that destroys the relationship, one of them, or both of them.

These plots are generally romantic. But you can obviously do something outside those bounds:

• Buddy: a friendship variation of any of the above plots
• Master/Apprentice: someone is a student, the other teaches them. (This is often part of a Becoming plot or Underdog plot, see below.)
• Overcome Loss: a relationship has ended (often because of dead), and the plot is about putting that relationship in perspective.
• Reconcile: similar to Overcome Loss, but instead the point is to make amends for whatever “loss” happened before the story began.

The Family Plot

This plot centers around a “family”: the group of people in which you belong or feel most at home. So it could be a biological family, inherited, found, created over time, whatever.

More so than 1-on-1 relationships (see the previous section), it deals with how characters relate to this larger family as a whole.

Common types are …

• Fit In (a New Family): similar to “Meet the Parents”. The character suddenly enters a new group and tries to understand them or fit in.
• Build a Family: people are forced together (usually from very different backgrounds), and must find a way to make it all work. (Similar to people in which people build a team. But in this plots the purpose for that team is the focus, while in this plot the actual team dynamics are the focus.)
• Keep the Family Together: you already have a group, but it’s falling apart. The hero tries to prevent that.
• Coming Home to Your Family: the hero left, changed, and then tried to come back and fit in again. (Sometimes coming back at all is the goal.)
• Overcoming your Biological Family: most family plots have a positive take on family and its importance, but certainly not all families are good. This plot is about working around some evil that invades your life because it comes from family (which surrounds you all the time). It’s the wicked stepmother, the creepy uncle that becomes your guardian after your parents died, the parent who’s too busy with work and has no time for you.

The Work Plot

These plots revolve around somebody’s profession, skill or career. (Not necessarily the workplace, as that is a setting and not a plot.)

• Removing the Occlusion of Work: what you want is not really what you want. In this plot, someone’s focus or obsession with accomplishment occludes what they actually need or think is important.
• Outcast to Exec: the best person for the job is someone different (usually the “least expected” one)
• Underdog Excels: a variation of the above, but in this plot the person needs to practice and transform to become the best. They generally don’t want this, due to distaste of work, but learn to value it. (Often applied to sports stories.)
• Victim turns Table: revenge against a (terrible) boss.

A Journey Plot

This one is about discovering or moving to new worlds. Very common in science-fiction and fantasy. Common types are …

• Discover the World Outside: travel to the known unknown. Someone chooses to go visit a (known) place to learn more about it, achieve something in it, whatever. Non-fantasy applications could be cultural or class comedies.
• Discover New Worlds: travel to the unknown unknown. Involves worlds that are entirely novel, maybe the hero is even surprised that they ended up somewhere else. Quest narratives follow this type.
• Portal Narrative: a door opens to someplace new, and we have to decide whether to go through.
• Time Travel: instead of location, we travel through time. Generally, these plots are about fixing or defying the past/future. (A prophecy plot is usually a variation on time travel, as we get information that’s out of time, but the story itself still happens chronologically.)

The Becoming Plot

A becoming is basically the character arc of a character. When does it become a plot? If the action of the plot is completely centered around the character’s development. Some variations are …

• Coming of Age: otherwise “grow up” or “learn the hard truth”. Generally reserved for young characters who mature and learn something new.
• Transform to Become the Thing: the character has to become something very different from what they are now. (The Hero’s Journey almost completely revolves around this.) It’s often about death and rebirth, or attaining mastery (see Work Plots above).

The Overcome Plot

These plots are about one major evil or obstacle that needs to be defeated or overcome. Where Procedural Plots are mostly about smaller object and the specific steps to get there, they usually combine into a bigger “umbrella plot” that is an Overcome Plot.

The first distinction is whether it’s a team or an individual.

• Build the Team: the hero realizes they can’t do it on their own, and need a team to defeat the evil.
• The Ultimate Sacrifice: or “The Hero Alone”. The hero realizes they must face evil by themselves (or maybe minimal help) and often end up sacrificing (part of) themselves.

The second distinction is the source of evil.

• Monster / Disaster / Aliens: evil that is unknown or could not be anticipated. It is overwhelming, uncertain, and coming for us.
• Frankenstein’s Dilemma: we created the evil ourselves. Usually, it started benign, but spiraled out of control.

The third type is evil larger than one entity or oe army. In those cases, it’s a system being challenged.

• Win Better: we figure out a way around the rules of the system and still win.
• Survive the Onslaught: sometimes winning is just a matter of surviving. The system keeps trying to defeat you, and it’s impossible to win, so surviving (and perhaps getting away) is the goal.
• Defeat the Empire: or “Burn it Down”. You search the source of the evil’s power and then completely destroy it (from within).
• Expose the Lie: the evil is hidden. Simply exposing it changes the world.

Each of these are written in a winning state. But there’s obviously the inverse result: you end up losing. That’s the tragic variation. This is often applied to the non-final book in a series. To bring the heroes to their deepest point, the terribly system or evil wins and the whole world suffers.

Finally, you can do a variation that turns this plot into character development. It’s not about defeating the evil, it’s about whether a character ends up embracing or rejecting it.

Now write!

The challenge is the same as the other plot archetype characters. Pick one and write a story around it. Or pick multiple, but nest them (one is clearly the main storyline, built from smaller parts).

I like this list because it’s a nice balance between too vague and too specific. It also illustrates something I’ll reiterate in the next chapter (the final one on plot archetypes): as you write more stories, you’ll notice your own recurring archetypes and create a list like this.