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Overview (TL;DR)

An "archetype" is the dominant visual representation of the thing in Midjourney's training data, which it will offer you as a default unless you guide it otherwise.

• Lean into the default by “Invoking” the archetype by naming a stereotypical character type, action, or scene - Midjourney will fill in the details. Say a puppy delivering mail instead of a puppy with an envelope in its mouth walking down the street toward a mailbox
• Move away from the default by “breaking” the archetype by using one or more promptcraft techniques: describing all the details you want to see, referencing alternate archetypes, modifying words in the prompt, etc. </aside>

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What are archetypes, and why are they important in prompting?

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An "archetype" is the dominant visual representation of the thing in Midjourney's training data. Understanding this concept is a prompting superpower that you can wield in two ways:

1. Invoking Archetypes - naming the thing and letting Midjourney provide the details.
2. Breaking Archetypes - describing the thing yourself and guiding Midjourney away from the stereotypical representation (to any degree you want).

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General info about archetypes in the literary sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

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How do I invoke an archetype?

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To invoke an archetype, you can use the name of a stereotypical character, action, pose, or scene that Midjourney already knows from its training data. There’s no need to describe all the details!

Let’s look at how this works. See how you can either use a bunch of words or very few words to get a similar visual result?

Instead of: A bearded man wearing a baseball cap, black and red checkered flannel shirt, work boots, denim jeans, carrying an axe

For the same result, say the archetype: A lumberjack

Using the word "lumberjack" and letting Midjourney supply all the default archetypal details makes your prompt more efficient … it uses less processing time than describing the lumberjack yourself. However, if you don’t want your lumberjack to have default characteristics, then you may want to work on Breaking the archetype instead.

Say this, not that!

• a puppy with an envelope in its mouth walking down the street toward a mailbox ****> a puppy delivering mail
• a middle-aged woman wearing glasses sitting behind a desk covered in books and one apple ****> a schoolteacher sits at her desk