Project Sites: Archetypes for Writers | The Writers' Order

Betty Edwards writes in her book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, that drawing is a global skill, made up of component skills. "Once you have learned the components and have integrated them, you can draw,” she says.

The same is true of “doing archetypes,” which is the foundation for discovering and writing your own already-existing characters. This new approach to characterization is a global skill, made up of component skills.

The ability to draw, according to Edwards, is not made up of drawing skills, but of five particular perceptual skills. Similarly, doing archetypes – or arkhelogy (from Greek for arch(e)- primary, chief, highest, and logy [from logos]– knowledge) – is not made up of the usual writing skills, but rather of distinct, separate non-writing skills that, together, enable one to do “one’s own writing,” and, in particular, to access and develop one’s existing characters, and, ultimately, to write them in the context of their real lives (stories).

The component skills of arkhelogy are developed through a series of exercises which I introduce in my book, Archetypes for Writers: Using the Power of Your Subconscious. The exercises are divisible into two general sections: (1) separating-out work, and (2) integrating work.

The exercises in the first section (Separating- Out Work) are named:

Character Facts and Circumstances
Universal Drives
Discrepancies
Analogues
Being in the Moment
Universes of Discourse
Emotional Access Work

The exercises in the second section (Integrating Work) are called:

Ectypes
Isotypes
Arkhelogy