Recently I went to lunch with another author friend and I mentioned I'd been having a lot of trouble with the story for my next book. She said, "Have you resorted to reading The Seven Basic Plots yet?"Why yes, as it happened, I had started it that very morning. The basic premise is this: every story that has ever been written - or written successfully - can be boiled down to fitting in with one of the Seven Basic Plots. (One or more, that is. Lord of the Rings is all seven.) The plots are: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy and Rebirth.
[Aside that few will get: turns out I don't favour the Oxford comma after all, Persephone. But then again I am a Cambridge girl.]
To get detail on how those plots work, you'll have to read the book - which is 700 pages long, so you'll need some spare time - but you can get the gist just by looking at their names. They're archetypes which provide satisfying arcs for stories, without which you can be left feeling that something is wrong, that your plot's not "happening", not moving. They can be perverted and inverted but ultimately, if what you're working on doesn't even almost cosy up to one of these plots, it is worth giving some thought to why not. I am sure that you can get away from them and write other types of stories (stream of consciousness poeticism or whatever - definitely not my style) but you will need something damn impressive to replace them with. Ultimately, these arcs are satisfying, and there's a reason we have been using them over and over again for thousands of years.
I am only halfway through Tragedy with Rebirth yet to go, and then hundreds of pages of explanation of archetypes within archetypes, but already I'd say it's proving enormously useful in terms of how I think about story, and spotting where things that I have written have got wrong - and right. Gods Behaving Badly is a Quest with a Voyage and Return in it, possibly a touch of Overcoming the Monster, and the whole thing plays out as a Comedy. Not bad for 80,000 words.
I'll report back when I've finished it (if indeed I do finish it - book is *long*) but so far so useful. Highly recommended to other authors, struggling or not.
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Ooh yes, have heard of this book and love the idea of seven basic plots. Might have to buy it myself. I also found Stephen King's On Writing really helpful. Mind you he claims that you don't need to plot, you should just take the walk in the mists approach. I am a plotter, but do a fair bit of walking into the mist too. I do think you have to have at least a BASIC idea of where you're going though... Hope this very helpful in sorting out your plot dilemmas.
PS Have never EVER used the Oxford comma in editing. I have a feeling Harts doesn't recommend it...
Oxford comma, paradoxically, is more of a US thing. I don't favour or favor it either.
You'll be on Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey before you know it, you know.
I like Stephen King's 'On Writing' too. I suspect it is all right for the likes of him to go off walking in the mists, because I think he has a natural instinct for story. Some of us are less blessed.
Strangely I got really annoyed about Christopher Booker today. He writes incredibly stupid articles in the Telegraph about global warming, and how asbestos is actually great stuff (seriously). The man is a nut job. I'd try to avoid giving him any more money.
I think Rob has a point. When I was taking my Master's in Creative Arts in Learning years ago, we had a course on Storytelling. It sounded much like the archtypes you mention, only we were isolating the elements of fairy tales, folk tales, myths, and legends. Our professor was well-versed in Joseph Campbell, so it sounds like this fellow is repackaging old stuff.
"I think Rob has a point"
That doesn't sound right...
I'll probably get around to Joseph Campbell eventually but post GBB I'm still not ready to immerse myself in something so entirely mythology-oriented. Having said that I was just wiki-ing Hero With A Thousand Faces and discovered that Northern Exposure - one of my favourite TV series of all time - is based on The Hero's Journey, which I didn't know, and makes me more inclined to read it. Assuming Wiki is telling the truth, of course.
As for Booker, I am rather put off by his views on global warming and asbestos, but so far the only really egregious thing I've found in The Seven Basic Plots is his belief that Lolita was a willing partner to Humbert Humbert, when Nabokov makes it clear that she was raped and held as his prisoner.
Heroes Journey started off on the mythological side of things, arguing that myths that have lasted the test of time conform to certain basic plots. The problem is that it's now been extended to other forms and is taught in various film schools to aspiring writers, mainly because George Lucas used it so readily for Star Wars and everyone wants to write the next Star Wars.
The result is a whole load of movies that all seem the same because no one really grasps The Hero's Journey properly.
Oh, and that he thinks the line that Princess Leia says in Star Wars is "Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only remaining hope." And that Leia was in love with Luke. At that point the editor should have stepped in to save him from himself.
Barring the sort of slightly dumb errors mentioned in Booker's book - and frankly I'd always avoid columnists anyway - I really liked the 7 plots book. It is weighty but there are some intelligent nuggets in there and it does give a great overview of structuring stories. I'd recommend reading it - and if people don't want to put too much money into Booker's pockets to fund his nutjob columns then visit a library...
A painless introduction to Joseph Campbell is a remarkable series of programmes he did with the American TV presenter Bill Moyer called The Power of Myth. I watched this several times through and never got tired of it. If you can't play a Region 1 DVD, there is a paperback version available with the gist of the interviews. (So where is your point, Rob? Or don't you care to discuss it?)
"So where is your point, Rob? Or don't you care to discuss it?"
I'm not even sure I know what you want to discuss!
Good girl. The Oxford comma is for plebs and fools.
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