A Writer’s Mission is to Connect with Holistic Habits – Living in the In-between Zone between

Reality and Fantasy

She offers a DIYMFA – Do It Yourself MFA Degree

Writers should Always Keep a Personal Story in their Back Pocket, Ready to Pull Out and Share  “How Did I Become a Writer”

It Gives Yourself Snippets of Flavor, Anecdotes as Speakers

The Gems in a Longer Story that Paint a Picture

Make it Appeal to the 5-Senses and Add Color

         Look at the Quirky, Weird Moments in Your Life

It Creates a Connection with the Reader

Every Book Looks Good Before You Begin

         You Learn Fastest by Failing

         Do the Work to Learn the Techniques  and Skills

         Occasionally Rebel by Allowing the Rules to Break Themselves

There are Always Two Stories: The Story in Your Head and the Story in Your Readers

         They are Never the Same because Your Reader is Different than You Are

         Use Archetypes to Make a Connection

Stories are Composed of One Each of Two Sets of Different Fictional Characteristics Portrayed

in Action

The First Set is Their Character – Who They Are:

1.   Must be Relatable – Like One of Us

2.   Must be Larger than Life

They Must Show Either Real with Vulnerabilities or Be Inspirational

The Second Set is Their Goal

1. Changing (Something in) Their Life

2. Preserving (Something in) Their Life

These Dual Sets of Archetypes Create a Grid

         Their Characters are: Underdog, Survivor, Protector, or Disruptor

At His Core, Your Protagonist is One of These Four

You Present These Characters to the Reader as They are Now and/or as They Want to Become

Ask: Why would my Reader be Interested in my Character?

         The Character Must Be a Jump-off Point to Get That Interest

Use an app called Paper Illustrator

         Story Board Product

         Gives a Deeper Dive Sequence

Go to DIYMFA.com/stsp to Discover Your Archtype

Here’s a rundown of the four archetypes.

Underdog

The underdog is an ordinary Joe or Jane who wants to change something. This character doesn’t have a whole lot of amazing superpowers, skills, or assets, but they want to change their life and shake up the status-quo. You can play this dynamic out in any number of circumstances, like the classic “rags-to-riches” makeover story or a comeback story where a powerful character has a major setback and has to pick themselves back up. Even though all underdog characters have a common thread (regular people who wants to change themselves or the world around them), that story can play out in many different ways depending on the situation you put that character in.

Disruptor

The disruptor is my favorite of the archetypes. It’s a larger-than-life character who wants to change something, whether that’s something small in their own life or something large in the world around them. Usually the disruptor is the revolutionary, the character that wants to change the world. What I find interesting is that, when I look at the data for of all the archetypes in the quiz, the disruptor is the smallest slice of the pie. My hunch is that while disruptors might be entertaining, they’re also very hard to like. So if you’re writing a disruptor character, help the reader find something in that character that they can relate to.

Survivor

The survivor is the same everyman character as the underdog, except that instead of wanting to change something, they want things to stay the same. The classic survivor stories are battles against nature, where some big disaster happens and the character has to struggle to survive. What makes this archetype so relatable is the everyman-ness of the survivor. If the character can get through this horrible situation, then so can we. Survivors are characters that have hope woven into them. No matter how bad things get, survivors believe that they can get back to a time when things were good. They don’t just give up, and that makes them compelling.

Protector

The protector is your typical superhero, larger-than-life and using their superpowers to protect the world and the people in it. What’s so great about these characters is that they’re noble and heroic. They don’t have to be superheroes, either. It could be a doctor or a lawyer, someone who wants to save those that can’t save themselves. The thing you have to watch out for with this archetype is that, because they are protective, they can sometimes overstep their bounds. Like the disruptor, the protector is larger-than-life, so the key is to show some vulnerability. With the protector it’s a little easier to do, though, because their goal (i.e. protect others) seems more selfless than that of a disruptor.