Write Your Novel Step by Step (Step 53)

Man Made follows a mysterious force as it sweeps around the globe erasing anything man made - from buildings, vehicles, and technology to medicines, clothing, and dental work.

Governments stagger under the panic, religions are at a loss for an explanation, scientists strive for any means to stop or divert the phenomenon, and the world’s population from families to individuals struggle to prepare for The Event, which will drive humanity back beyond the stone age.

The Event is coming.

Are you prepared?

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~ Step 53 ~

Structural Roles

You've already chosen a protagonist and an antagonist, but those are not the only structural roles you can assign to your characters. In the hero's journey there are structural archetypes such as The Mentor, The Threshold Guardian, The Herald, The Shape Shifter, The Shadow, and The Trickster. Other Archetypes include the Sidekick, the Skeptic, the Love Interest, the Sage, the Fool, the Caregiver, Reason, Emotion, and many, many more.

Don’t be worried that giving a character an archetypal role will diminish its humanity and make it stilted or stereotypical. Selecting an archetypal role for each character gives that character a center and an important dramatic function in the story, rather than being there for entertainment only.

For more information on Archetypes, search the web for "Hero's Journey," "Joseph Campbell Archetypes," "Carl Jung Archetypes," “Dramatica Archetypes,” etc. Or, read Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Chris Vogler's "The Hero's Journey," or Dramatica: A New Theory of Story.

For this step, review your cast of characters and if possible, select an archetypal role for each. List each character, the archetypal role you are assigning to it, and a brief description of how that role pertains to its actions in your plot (referring to your story synopsis).