Common Thriller Archetypes (Character Types)
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- Опубликовано: 4 авг 2024
- I'm going over a bunch of common/popular archetypes in thrillers to help those of you out there writing or revising. They are in no particular order and cover a breadth of character functions, including main characters, antagonists, love interests, and more.
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"Most of the times, people with anxiety will write characters with anxiety"
*me realising all my main characters have anxiety*
Honestly writing fiction went a long way to help me understand my own anxiety! It's been eye opening.
Alexa, I was conflicted when I first watched your videos. I don't remember which video it was, but you had commented that dream sequences were over done clichés---oh but it didn't stop there---you mentioned that going through a character's day, was also overdone and boring. In one felled swoop, you had smashed my first actual writing project to pieces. I was upset and heart broken...BUT THEN, I really thought about it, and you were so totally right!
My new opening for my graphic novel is a cold open where the two main characters find themselves in a dangerous falling situation. I won't go into more details, but it made me rewrite it! And I love it even more than my old opening. (Which I've decided wasn't entirely scrapped because it's something that we can visit later in the story, once the appropriate time arrives, of course.
Anyway, not too over do this comment, (too late!) I have only you to thank. I wasn't mad at you, no. I was mad at myself. "I'm better than this!" I told myself. I can't thank you and your advice enough for it.
One day I'll share my work with you, if ever you're interested. I don't think I can make money with it, but it's the story I want to tell. I will give it away for free, gladly. I just want to pour my heart and soul into it and see what I can do.
Take care and be safe! (P.s I will take a look at your books and see which one I want to buy, cause I need new reading material.)
My current project opened the same way. It was three chapters of procedural stuff because, you know, the cops do have to show up and investigate and the coroner has to be involved. I changed the opening to the protagonist showing up in town as a consequence of the murder, THEN, I went back to the procedure which was more interesting as we know about the victim's past enough to see that items were stolen from the home and that the nosy neighbour is in on it, not just being annoyingly nosy.
I just finish Brightly Burning and I'm on to The Stars We Steal and Oh. My. God!!!!! I normally hate romance books but I actually enjoyed it a lot!!!
Hello!
I just wanted to say that you have a very nice voice. It's very pleasant to listen to^^
I totally second this. Sometimes I play her 2 hour stream videos just to have her speaking in the background 😅
Great smile and persona, too.
Who writes thrillers? Raise your hand!
I do, and Alexa is the only RUclipsr I've found that offers advice for thrillers.
I haven’t yet. I’m an action adventure type of gal. But to be honest, Alexa’s passion for this genre has me considering writing a thriller. Maybe a short story to start with.
*raises hand*
Meeeee 😂😂😂😂
@@madisonmaya94 YA, Adult? I write a little of both.
I feel like my town is ripe to be the inspiration for a scary thriller.
Do it!
@@VickiPetterssonAuthor I'm thinking about it. It's very small town, old, with plenty of odd people. Nice on the surface, not so nice when you get to know it better.
@@emilyestelle7471 Sounds like it's full of mental jewels. I hope you're collecting them!
The smaller the town, the more horrible the secret. X-Files taught me that.
I miss the X-Files.
The X-Files was the best at not showing too much and letting your imagination do the work. Mostly due to a tight TV budget, but they made it happen!
i’m sorry you had to suffer through Frey, but i am loving all the thriller content
My goodness so many ads! Why were there so many ads???? Great video Alexa
That last one.... Have you been looking over my shoulder? I didn't even know it was a trope
Awesome video, as always. Haven’t written a thriller yet, but I like character driven stories and exploring different archetypes. This was fun.
It's always interesting to learn more about the different genres! Great video! Have an amazing day!
Drinking game: take a shot every time Alexa says 'texture' in this video.
Seriously though this was really helpful!! Thank you!
Alexa! Archetypes for fantasy next, pleaassssseeeee!
This actually helped me categorize my characters 🤣 thank you 🙌🏽
Oh! The professor. This person isn't the investigator, but they aren't normal. They have a very specific area of interest. We all know who I'm talking about 😅😅. Great video, to Alexa, from Alexa.
Good one. And it gives them a special skill set without them having to be in law enforcement. I never wanted to do FBI research so I love this one.
@@VickiPetterssonAuthor This work especially well when the law enforcement becomes either a stake or a conflict. 😉
Hi Alexa, can you do a video on how to master multi PoV?
Yes a 1000000000000000 time
Hello, thank you for all your videos!🙏🏻 Could you please to a video about writing a series, or writing so that making it a series can be an option.?? Pretty please😁😁
And the Everyman/Everywoman archetype. I love writing that because the reader can more easily see themselves in him/her. Draw them in, make them relate, then pile on the trauma. :)
Thank You! Your tips are always helpful and your'e such a cutie! 💕✨
I liked this video a lot! The unreliable substance addicted narrator is a big one. Could you make a video of YA Thrillers that follow these archetypes or other YA thriller archetypes?
My favorite definitely sociopath 😂 I can never get enough of those. Also alcoholic detective. PTSD detective.
Soooooo tired of the substance-abusive unreliable narrator. I wish writers would stop relying on their protagonists getting too stoned or drunk to remember anything. It’s just lazy writing.
I'm not a huge fan of it, myself! And when everyone started copying The Girl On the Train...
I think I'm really sick of the "toxic spouse" trope. I find them incredibly triggering and I for one, want to see more thrillers where the MC and their partner become a power couple - they can have their problems but at the end of the day they stick together to overcome their challenges and work together against the baddie.
I'm doing this because I'm quite sick of the always-alone and sexually frustrated sleuth. Also I think talking to her spouse will be more natural than constantly running into friends that somehow want to get dragged into mystery solving.
I have characters who are an odd combination of a bunch of these... I must be doing something right!(?) Hahaha
Yeah, I counted four myself. ;)
From other sub-genres of thrillers:
The spy/enemy agent that doesn't want to defect, but has a bigger problem that means teaming up with whoever their usual enemy is. Especially when they're still loyal to whatever their original cause is, and thus there's a conflict between that loyalty and doing the right thing to face a bigger threa. Taleniekov from Ludlum's 'The Materese Circle', for example.
The kind of intelligence/spy/detective character that is really good at cleverly talking to people and subtly gaining information by reading situations, reading the way people bounce off each other and noticing what isn't being said. Their dialogue reads as perfectly normal, and sometimes it's not revealed that they were spying on the other characters until the end, and then you read back and it's like "ohhhhh".
The reluctant killer/assassin - they've been tasked with murder, they don't want to go through with it, but whatever nefarious forces are the primary antagonists of the story are forcing their hand. Especially fun when the story follows the question of 'will they do it? will they face the consequences of refusing? will they find a third option?'
The lateral thinker. MacGyver and Sherlock are probably the most extreme version of this, but the kind of person that looks at ordinary things and sees anything from clues in unexpected places to ways to figure their way out of trouble, and comes at things with a very unique perspective.
how to create plots for psychological thrillers??
I second this!
Omg you have social anxiety, Me too🥺🥺🥺🖐🏻
I didn't know all this. I try to write villains you hate to love.
What are archetypes that readers enjoy? Any suggestions???
I am writing a retelling of and then there were none
Take a shot every time Alexa says "texture"!
hm, I feel like it should be said, that one should consider what a character adds before writing them in. You may like an archetyp and develope an awesome character based on it, but if it does not fit the story, they are dead weight.
Do not write character just to have them, it might make the story overcrouded and uncoheisive. If you need a character to fill a specific role, to get certein information to the protagonist, give them a reason to be at a specific place, sure, add a character and why not use an archetyp as inspiration, but they really should fit in and benifit the story more than just beeing indulgence on the writers side.
Is it only natural for them to bring a friend along, sure, get them a friend, people do not exist in a vacuum. Does your mc have a very social nature and hits of with people all over . . . ok, but be cautious on how much time and energy you spend on those loose aquaintances.
Always be aware and how and why you add a character.
I relate, in my story there's a MC that is awesome but his desire and fears don't improve the plot and other characters. It's so sad when you realize that and don't know what to do.:'(
@@poppyto7273 ok, thats a whole new layer of problematic, for the mc is a charter one can not simply cut out, been there myself. Three main characters and and awesome story and world only to notice, that the carcters have no dynamic ins sense of they are static, I got now clue how they change over time, the are pictures instead of alive . . . . no clue how to fix it though.
my mc is often the weakest character, they are the one needed for the story while the other characters develope way more freely and naturaly.
is there a way to rearrange tthe story around another character?
@@SingingSealRiana I don't think so , it's a romance haha. Thanks for reply. I will figure it out.
Bog-standard. 😁
Just thinking about Jason Bourne here 😅
Can the straight laced cop be a sort of rival to protagonost who is a rough around the edges private onvestigator?
You forgot the mc madness arc
Would you consider adding captions to your video?
If you click the CC button above, RUclips automatically captions videos. I just watched back a few minutes of this video and they're pitch perfect. Hope that helps!
@@AlexaDonne Thank you for responding, I should have clarified. RUclips plans on removing the automatic captions feature, as well as only letting the person who published add caption. I meant to ask if you'd mind adding for when they stop.
@@hidepurple5105 Where did you see that news? The only thing I found via Google is that they'll no longer allow community contributions for captions. I don't see anything that says automatic captions are going away. It's such a good feature so I would hope they would keep it...
@@AlexaDonne I must have misheard, or something, I'm sorry. I just looked it up again and didn't see anything about them taking it away the automatic ones. Apparently the automatic are still not reliable and community captions are better suited, my guess being because it done by a human person...
I really like the Unreliable Narrator
I’m trying to write a thriller/horror in a submarine where the main character is a schizophrenic…I know I’m a genius
Dude, Jonathan...That's awesome. I'm a fellow novelist and I'm looking for other writers to learn from and read their work. I would love to be a beta reader of this project for you if you would like.
@@surgeorosgo I appreciate it but it never really took off lol I do have some other projects I could send your way if you're interested!
@@jonathankey6444 Are you able to send me anything? Just wanted to check back in. It's been a few days.
This is why this genre is and will never be for me. Yikes. I like that you mention mental health and how it's not to be taken lightly, I think that's the most important thing to take from this video tbh.
Anybody looking for advice about writing thrillers- PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE! They are so overdone and we are sick of them.
I am looking for recommendations of great stories w the sibling who wants justice archetype. Any thoughts anyone? @AlexaDonne