In an email exchange, I tossed out some plot archetypes. I wish I had then enumerated easily, so I could abbreviate them to simply a number or a TLA (three letter acronymn) to uniquely identify them and be done with the labeling. Instead, I had to fumble for names, such as:

"The defeated conspiracy forever buried." The protagonist(s) discover and stymie a conspiracy (I'd say a hidden conspiracy, but conspiracies by definition are hidden) but, in doing so, are somehow rendered unable to reveal their triumph. It could be the trump of 'national security,' or 'nah, they'll never believe us,' or the simple expediency of the crucial evidence going up in a blaze.

"The wolf wanting to be a sheep." The archetype is a lethal killer -- trained, instinctual, mutant, somehow. S/he (oft-times female due to the stereotypical association of females implying innocence) either is aware of this edge and seeks to hide it, or is surprised by it hirself, perhaps not believing the carnage was wrought by hir own hands.

"Everything has a cost." This is more a tautology or author's axiom for the fictive world, but some authors eye the scales more closely than others. Some stories seem to relish in a 'Monkey's Paw' sort of twisted payback, of that pound of flesh for each granted wish.

The night draws to a close. I can go on and on. I'm sure you can join me as well. We each see common themes in our readings, and (if we've any flow) our writings as well.

These themes and arcs are our tools. They are the guides we use to describe shapes. The material may vary, as may the setting, but the arc is still identifiable. The characters, the setting, the reasons may change, but the plot arcs carry.

Now that the concept of 'arc as tool' is established, the old adage of, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," comes out. Our themes and arcs, archetypes and snippets, these are our tools. They are familiar to us, and we are adept with them. However, we must always pay heed that we do not come to see the world only in their terms.

A contractor's hammer is 16" tall, from the end of the handle to the top of the head. This is to correspond to the spacing between studs in walls. 16". A contractor will oft-times use hir hammer as a rough guide, to see where next to sound for a stud when hanging drywall.

But a contractor will never use that hammer-length as a golden measure.

Likewise, so should we all become adept with those literary devices most dear and familiar to us. We should learn to wield them with not just force, but versatility. From them growing to be part of us, we can then impress the reader with nuance and insight, with unforeseen angles for what could otherwise be treadworn.

But we should be wary that our tools do not define how we write, what we write, or why we write. We use our tools, not the converse.