7 Basic, Beautiful Story Archetypes

I’m currently going through a situation with a client. He insists that his story is the hero’s journey. I wasn’t sure, so I researched the hero’s journey archetype and found he was correct.

Then something dawned on me that probably should have sooner. A ghostwriter in Kansas City or anywhere else had better know all the basic story archetypes because, since we are in the business of storytelling, it’s important to recognize which archetype the client wants us to follow.

The Hero’s Journey

All seven, in various ways, follow one main character: the hero, or protagonist, on what is called the hero’s journey, or monomyth. It can be summed up in three acts: departure, initiation, and return.

In the departure, the hero is living a normal life when someone or something calls on him or her to embark on some sort of journey or quest. The hero typically refuses the call at first before some force leaves no choice but to begin. The hero meets a guide who assists on the journey with advice, tools, knowledge, insight, or a combination. Departure ends when the hero leaves the known world and enters the first test/adventure/situation.

In the initiation, the hero undergoes a series of tests or trials (often called “The Road of Trials”). These often come in threes (which is where the Rule of Three comes from), and the hero typically fails and might feel hopeless before succeeding and moving on. These trials often require the hero to face temptation that may lead to considering abandoning the quest/journey. Or the hero will come up against the very reason for the quest/journey and make peace with it. Then the hero achieves the quest and gains greater understanding and appreciation and knowledge, which prepares him or her for the return.

In the return, the hero must come back to where he or she started, physically or symbolically. They might need another guide to get them home, or they might do it themselves. Once home, the hero fixes what needs to be fixed and applies what was learned on the quest/journey. The story ends with the hero reaching some sort of self-realization.

In the memoirs I write, the client is almost always the hero. Marc Lieberson felt despondent when he couldn’t walk on his own following heart surgery. Cindy White suffered tremendous PTSD while defending herself as the state came after her for the money her ex-husband stole. And yet Marc relearned how to walk and recovered in time to start school again. Cindy successfully got the $1.4 million judgment thrown out and got the laws changed so it could never happen again.

I’m using what I consider the definitive book on the subject: The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker. I have yet to find an archetype that does’t align with one of these seven story arcs.

1. Overcoming the Monster. This is where the hero defeats some antagonistic force that threatens the hero or the hero’s home, family, or friends. The monster could be literal like a shark in “Jaws” or supernatural like a vampire in “Dracula” or Lord Voldemort in “Harry Potter.”

2. Rags to Riches. The hero begins poor but rises to a higher station in life. The hero often has humble beginnings but possesses some special quality that no one recognizes at first. Then the hero has an opportunity to escape and rise in fortune, dealing with obstacles and setbacks along the way. But ultimately, the hero wins out and undergoes some sort of transformation in the end that makes him or her richer for the experience. 

Horatio Alger’s stories are great examples. Other great examples are Cinderella, Aladdin, several Charles Dickens stories, Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper,” and “The Ugly Duckling.”

3. The Quest. Here, the hero embarks on a mission to accomplish or get something. The hero might do this alone or with friends or companions.

This is the story my current client wants to tell, but what’s holding us back is his quest has not been clearly defined. He has hinted at his desire to be important, but I need to get him to get specific. Then I need to have him answer why this is his quest.

I would say Homer’s Iliad is the most famous example, but I’m sure people would argue that “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Divine Comedy,” the Aeneid by Virgil, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”—which inspired me to ask my client, “What is your quest?”—are just as, if not more, famous.

4. Voyage and Return. The hero travels somewhere, overcomes the threats, learns important lessons, and returns more experienced and wise. 

The most famous literary example is Homer’s Odyssey, but “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” “The Time Machine,” “The Hobbit,” “Gone with the Wind,” “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” “Gulliver’s Travels,” and “Peter Pan” also are well known.

5. Comedy. This archetype usually is light and humorous and ends happily. The hero still has to overcome some sort of obstacle, but everything works out in the end. Many of these types center around confusion or mistaken identity, leading to hilarious hijinks before one single thing, person, or event leads to everything making sense again.

Pick any Shakespeare comedy (my favorite is “Twelfth Night”) and you’ll understand what the archetype is. But you also can look at “Four Weddings and a Funeral” or “The Big Lebowski.”

6. Tragedy. Here, the hero is fatally flawed, and it’s that flaw that ultimately leads to the hero’s undoing and defeat. Maybe the audience/reader will feel pity.

Pick any Shakespeare tragedy (“Hamlet” or “Macbeth,” anyone?) to understand but also check out “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Great Gatsby,” or “Hamilton.”

7. Rebirth. The hero is forced to change, often becoming a better person in the process. Usually, this change is foisted on the hero, who initially refuses to change before realizing he or she has to change.

Many Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales fall under this archetype, but so does “The Secret Garden,” “Groundhog Day,” and “Iron Man.”

I like the way Holly Riddle summed up the need for ghostwriters to know these seven archetypes: “A tried-and-true format that thousands of other stories have successfully followed in the past, a plot archetype is like your pre-pre-outline. It tells you what should happen in your narrative arc and when, so you can plan the more unique and personal elements of your plot around its framework.”

Feel free to read and check out my other posts related to ghostwriting, including memoir ghostwriting. Go to leebarnathan.com/blog.