[Link] Every Story in the World Has One of These Six Basic Plots

by Miriam Quick

“My prettiest contribution to the culture” was how the novelist Kurt Vonnegut described his old master’s thesis in anthropology, “which was rejected because it was so simple and looked like too much fun”. The thesis sank without a trace, but Vonnegut continued throughout his life to promote the big idea behind it, which was: “stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper”.

In a 1995 lecture, Vonnegut chalked out various story arcs on a blackboard, plotting how the protagonist’s fortunes change over the course of the narrative on an axis stretching from ‘good’ to ‘ill’. The arcs include ‘man in hole’, in which the main character gets into trouble then gets out again (“people love that story, they never get sick of it!”) and ‘boy gets girl’, in which the protagonist finds something wonderful, loses it, then gets it back again at the end. “There is no reason why the simple shapes of stories can’t be fed into computers”, he remarked. “They are beautiful shapes.”

"Thanks to new text-mining techniques, this has now been done. Professor Matthew Jockers at the University of Nebraska, and later researchers at the University of Vermont’s Computational Story Lab, analysed data from thousands of novels to reveal six basic story types – you could call them archetypes – that form the building blocks for more complex stories. The Vermont researchers describe the six story shapes behind more than 1700 English novels as...

Read the full article: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180525-every-story-in-the-world-has-one-of-these-six-basic-plots

[Link] GOOD WRITERS BORROW, GREAT WRITERS REMIX: WHY IT’S OK TO REUSE, REPURPOSE, AND RECYCLE FICTION

by Lincoln Michel

This morning I took my cup of coffee and laptop to a desk to work on an old short story I’ve been kicking around when I made the greatest mistake any writer can make: I opened Facebook.

Between posts on the current horrors of the Trump administration, my timeline was filled with discussions about Sadia Shepard’s debut short story “Foreign-Returned” in this week’s New Yorker, which the author Francine Prose had been attacking in a series of Facebook posts. Prose was offended by the fact that Shepard’s story used plot elements and even language from a story by the late Mavis Gallant: “the only major difference being that the main characters here are Pakistanis in Connecticut during the Trump era instead of Canadians in post-WW II Geneva,” Prose said, calling the story a “travesty.” Other authors pushed back, with Marlon James, for example, noting that he didn’t notice this “self-righteous venom being dished out […] when Jonathan Safran Foer took as much as he wanted from Jessica Soffer’s “Beginning, End.”

The short story I had opened, and then abandoned as I fell into the social media hole, is titled “A Feeling Artist.” It is an homage to Kafka that takes the plot of “A Hunger Artist,” but sets it in a version of the contemporary world where a “feeling artist” finds his popularity eclipsed by young cellphone app and YouTube artists who do rapid-fire feeling acts instead of his carefully crafted long-form sadness performances. I don’t know if this story will work or not, but I know that taking an element or two (or even three or four) from a work I love and reconfiguring them into something new is one of my most generative practices. So I immediately got sucked into the debate.

In the comments of Prose’s posts, other authors said they were contacting the New Yorker to complain and many suggested they’d never read something that was inspired by another piece or used similar structures or plots because they wanted to read “original” pieces with “imagination.” No matter how one feels about Shepard’s story, the ahistoricity of these comments, though predictable, was still surprising. We know, for example, that William Shakespeare’s plays frequently borrowed plots, characters, and even names from other plays. And we know that countless great works of art have been created by adapting Shakespeare’s plots to different settings (Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood) or reworking his characters in a new way (Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead). And yet time and again I see authors act like homage, pastiche, and remixing is some kind of lesser form of creation. That it doesn’t count.

An art form is a conversation between artists. Literature is massive ballroom stretching through time in which authors debate, rebut, woo, and chat with each other. (A genre is perhaps a dialogue in one corner of the party.) They steal ideas to make them better. Or to make them different. Or to expose the problems in them. We know all this, and influences are regularly discussed in English lit classes. And yet, in the world of contemporary creative writing, people get upset when that dialogue is something we overhear.

Read the full article: http://lithub.com/good-writers-borrow-great-writers-remix/

Hackneyed and Innovative Ideas for Writing Fiction

by Lucy Adams

Have you ever dreamt about releasing a book based on a proven idea? If you did, this article is just for you!

I collected the top 10 ideas I encounters in fiction. Some of them may seem too banal, but I’m sure they will move you towards creating intriguing fiction.

#1 Cloning

This is one of my favorite plot lines. Although the prevalence is not too high, the potential, in my opinion, is very strong.

The use of various kinds of reasonable copies of objects allows you to construct the devilishly twisted plot and completely confuse the reader. This is one of the most simple plot techniques to retain the clues of the story until the very end. However, this extremely effective method should not be abused. Otherwise, the audience will quickly lose interest in such unidirectional creativity.

Examples: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold, Dune by Frank Herbert

#2 Prophecy

This is a quite spread motive that often performs supporting roles and rarely lies at the core of the plot. I think stories based on the prophecy are rather one-sided (basically, in a sense that the author gives us the direction of development of the story while we are able just to guess whether the prophecy will come true or not). In my opinion, this restricts the freedom of writing and virtually eliminates any element of surprise. However, this does not mean that you shouldn’t even try. There are a lot of examples of successful novels based on different kinds of prophecy.

Examples: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

#3 Relics

These works are built around the people or other beings trapped in our time from the distant past. These are not the most spread plots, but that’s the freshness that makes them so perspective. The main challenge of this direction is that the writer must know the way of life in the correspondent epoch to the smallest detail.

Examples: The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov

#4 Robots

Here we are talking about any mechanical devices (both intelligent and managed directly by the person), which are the participants of the story. Of course, the greatest expert on robots is Isaac Asimov, an American science fiction writer. Learn from his works and then, after reconsidering, bring to the genre something new.

Examples: The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

#5 Superheroes

This is the most progressive and fast-developing subject that has recently gained enormous popularity in fiction. Alas, the consequence of the enormous popularity is a great number of clichés. From year to year, superheroes are becoming more and more similar, and their superpowers have long been no surprise.

Some authors turn off the main road of the fight against universal evil and saving the world. For example, George Martin in his Wild Cards touches the psychological issues of people with super-powers, which looks fresh and interesting against the background of ordinary actions.

Examples: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, The Dead Zone by Stephen King

#6 The Salvation of the World

That’s the classics! This direction became popular in adventure literature, and of course, now it is very difficult to come up with something new.

If you want to compete with the famous writers, you have to mobilize all the reserves and abilities; otherwise, the mediocre novel will drown in the ocean of similar opuses.

Examples: The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Dark Tower by Stephen King

#7 The Process of Maturation of the Protagonist

This is a very common way of constructing a plot, which can now be found almost under every third cover. Of course, often it is in conjunction with some other motives, but still, the question of maturing remains one of the most popular in the literature.

I attribute this to the many recommendations that insist on the fact that the main character must evolve in the course of the story. He or she needs to become smarter and more experienced, endure the hardships and make correspondent conclusions.

Examples: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

#8 Natural Disasters

That’s one of the rarest ideas, which is based on some catastrophe or natural disaster, and of course, the main character needs them to be prevented or to survive in the most severe conditions. Again, the theme of the struggle of existence plays its role as one of the most dramatically powerful tools in literature.

Examples: The Terror by Dan Simmons, Les Robinsons du Cosmos by Francis Carsac

#9 The Dark Lord

Are you afraid of a powerful villain, personifying the destructive beginning in all its manifestations? 

When we hear "Dark Lord," we first think of "Lord of The Rings." And for a good reason!

I have to note that there’s always a certain amount of predictability in such plots as the reader initially knows that the heroes will fight against a mighty antagonist, and all the events will rotate exactly on the orbit of the great conflict. Although in some cases, it may be beneficial (no need to dig deep into the core of the conflict), it sometimes hampers the author’s freedom (it will be extremely difficult to move away from the basic line somewhere to the side).

Examples: The Stand by Stephen King

#10 Psychology of the Alien Races

The problem of the psychology of alien races gives a lot of opportunities for writers. There are almost no boundaries – you can bring to light new forms of life, describing their lifestyle and inner world.

However, that’s not as easy as it may seem. So to work in this direction, you have to turn on your imagination and thoroughness in the elaboration of details and little things. Otherwise, you'll get another writer's zilch.

Examples: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Bio: Lucy Adams is a blogger from a home of essay writers. Although Lucy is a generalist able to cover a huge variety of topics, she’s primarily focused on literature and education. Feel free your best ideas with the author and soon you’ll get a grounded response. By the way, blog posts are free.

[Link] More on Characters & Plot

by Jeff Sherwood

Earlier this week I was perusing my usual FaceBook pages and I came across a post asking about characters and plot. They wanted to know if the two are tied to each other or if one is more important than the other. The person also asked how are both developed. This really got me thinking, am I giving proper attention to my characters and my plot? What is the right amount of attention for my characters and my plot?

I first thought about the relationship between characters and plot. I decided the two are intricately woven together. You simply cannot have one without the other. Things are going to happen in a story that affects your character. These affects will change what the character believes and feels. These affects will also change how the character acts, which leads back to the story. How the character acts will affect the plot and could change the direction of the story.

Continue reading: http://fifthwood.blogspot.com/2013/01/earlier-this-week-i-was-perusing-my.html

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#116) -- Oops I Did It Again

Have you ever written a story only to find that you have totally 

written or read the same story with minor differences?

I wrote The Wasteland. You do know that, right

There is the famous quoted and re-quoted adage about how good writers steal:

“Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal.”
- T.S. Eliot

“Good writers borrow from other writers.
Great writers steal from them outright.”
- Aaron Sorkin

And let me add to those this new one... 

"Persistent writers steal from themselves."

So, to answer the question directly, yes, I have written a story to find that I've either written or read that story before. But not exactly.

Usually  it's something of the characters, or a plot point, or most commonly a theme being rehashed. I've written about themes that are common in my work one a previous Question of the Day.

C-3P0 and R2-D2?

Now, before you read more into that than is actually there, do I write the same story over and over? No. But do similarities pop up because of who I am as a person and as a writer? Yes. I am drawn to certain character types and certain types of stories of quests and journeys of self-discovery and learning by failings. But let's be honest... any writer worth his or her fire and passion can recast the same plot, shift the POV character(s), or the setting, and voila! You've got a brand new story. Is it stealing? Maybe. Is it creating something new based from something old? Yes. Is it a common occurrence? Absolutely.

Some examples:

1. Star Wars A New Hope is a recycled use of the plot of Akira Kurosawa's epic samurai film The Hidden Fortress, down to the two loveable but oafish droids (although flesh and blood buffoons in the earlier film).

2. Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres is simply a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, with its setting updated to a rural farming community and a change in the POV to one of the disloyal sisters.

3. Agatha Christie revised a few short story plots into longer works as novels, particularly in her Poirot work.

4. Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg was successfully recycled into a space-themed version of the same book as Zathura.

5. And for a great party game some time, get a group of writers together and make a list of as many "stick in the mud person from our world must journey to another world either magically or on a vehicle of transport to save the new world he's never heard of."

This idea has been covered by better bloggers and writers than myself, and here are a few examples: 

http://www.writingforward.com/writing-ideas/other-peoples-writing-ideas
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/11/17/why-do-great-writers-steal/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/jan/11/fiction-johnirving
http://janetcameron.suite101.com/a-plot-for-your-story-a318513

(Thanks to Stephen Card for today's question.)