Are there only seven stories in the world

Rags to Riches Rags to Riches stories have a poor and unhappy hero facing incredible challenges. They gain something, lose it, and then gain it back after overcoming great odds. Overcoming The Monster Overcoming the Monster explores the idea that everyone feels scared sometimes and that reading monster stories can help people overcome their fears, whatever they are. Cinderella doesn't have to be a girl, nor does it even have to be a love story.

What is essential is that the Good is despised, but is recognised in the end, something that we all want to believe. Achilles - the Fatal Flaw that is the groundwork for practically all classical tragedy, although it can be made comedy too, as in the old standard Aldwych farce. Faust - the Debt that Must be Paid, the fate that catches up with all of us sooner or later. And in a completely different mood, what else is The Cherry Orchard? Tristan - that standard triangular plot of two women and one man, or two men and one woman.

The Constant Nymph or almost any French farce. Circe - the Spider and the Fly. The Barretts of Wimpole Street if you want to change the sex. And if you don't believe me about Othello the real plot of which is not the triangle and only incidentally jealousy try casting it with a good Desdemona but a poor Iago. Orpheus - The Gift taken Away. This may take two forms: either the tragedy of the loss itself, as in Juno and the Paycock, or it may be about the search that follows the loss, as in Jason and the Golden Fleece.

The best example of this is that splendid play Harvey , made into a film with James Stewart. These plots can be presented in so many different forms - tragedy, comedy, farce, whodunnit - and they can be inverted, but they still form the basis of all good writing.

The fault with many contemporary plays is simply that they do not have a plot. Rory Johnston, London NW3. Nobody to my knowledge has improved on Polti's 36 possible plots, though some of his sub-divisions taken from classical models are, to say the least, tenuous Situation 26e: 'A woman enamoured of a bull'. Confusion may have arisen with the old saying among comedians that there are only seven basic jokes.

Learn more about how FutureLearn is transforming access to education. Learn more about this course. The seven story archetypes Can all stories be defined by archetypes? Here, we outline Christopher Brooker's theory of the seven basic plots. By now, you should have a good understanding of what we mean when we talk about storytelling, and why you might use narrative to enhance and underpin your creative work.

Want to keep learning? Share this post. See other articles from this course. This article is from the online course:. Sara, I think that would vary by episode, although there might be some meta-narratives that extend over several. I agree with the first list Mrs. Post told you about… but the second list …I think its a list of possible components of a story rather than the basic plot itself.

Acually if you consider the whole series it has all the parts of the second list. Pingback: Why I Write — maggiewritesthings. I know real mature. Pingback: 6 writing beliefs every post-secondary teacher should consider academicswrite. Pingback: Thursday 15th September — Site Title.

To kill or not to kill? Pingback: Can a remake enhance the original? Pingback: Sounds Familiar — Meggen Pigram. Nonsense…do any of you really realize that the first three movies are very different in quality, history, and point? This is artificial traditionalism. Stories are all individual and unique, as the individual who creates them is individual and unique. These categories are always created, made very broad in order to fit everything, without really being a story in itself.

Tell me the name of the hero in Overcoming the Monster? Are they immortal? This is the same nonsense everyone tries. They try saying there is really only one story in the whole world, everything is hopelessly unoriginal, and things are so very predictable, both as a story and as a quality of story. You are either a part of the type or will never work in their minds. And everything, however different, defiant, and can be defined very specifically, realistically, and uniquely is all the same to them.

There is also the forbidden romance people compare to romeo and juliet, despite the strong difference, and the rogue and the princess you could just try and typify in there. Look at what the journey really is with Vader and Luke.

All of that detail, depth, interconnectivity, and rich layers are done away with when we accept this broad, meaningless reduction of the actual story. I have never even read of protagonist before. Who are they? Or are we talking about people like you and me, with names, fate, and no easy way of sorting as one and the same?

Apples and oranges. Your first list, however flawed is a list of types of conflict. If your starting point is a list about types of conflict you should either stick to that or be clear about which of the elements of literature you trying to describe.