The Seven Basic Plots

[lindahoyland]

I have beeeen reading a fasinating book a friend lent me which claims all literature is based on Seven basic plots,
1. The Quest,
2.Voyager and Return,
3.Killing the Monster
4.Miraculous Escape from Death
5.Rags to Riches
6.Comedy
7.Tragedy.
I hope I have remembered correctly ! What was interesting,was the author(Christopher Booker) said the LOTR books and films had such a wide appeal as they were based on all seven.

1.Destroying the ring, Aragorn becoming King
2.The journey,paths of the dead
3.Shelob,the watcher in the Water,The Balrog
4.Gandalf, Frodo and Sam
5,Aragorn, Sam
6.Aragorn and Arwen (Comedy here means a happy ending for the hero and heroine)
7.Sauraman

This is just what imediately jumps into my head both from the book and my own ideas but I'm sure you can think of more.It is great fun watching a film or reading a story and working out which of these elements are present !

[StefaniaB]

Hi Linda -

Thanks for posting this. i remember reading a similar proposition that all stories have the same basic plots. But the some of the plots were way different than the ones you just posted. A lot of them had to do with the hero/heroine's position in the story. Here's what I remember:

o The hero/heroine with the environment as an antagonist

That sounds like a typical SciFi or disaster book/film plot. But it could also be the plot of a political thriller.

o The hero/heroine against an evil antagonist

This one goes back to the melodrama, where the villain ties the
heroine to the tracks, and the hero must rescue her. It's also the basic plot of "Lord of the Rings."

o The hero/heroine with him/herself as an antagonist

That seems like a very modern theme, where the hero copes with a flaw that might be his or her downfall, like addiction, for example. But actually, such a plot goes back to "Oedipus Rex," where Oedipus is his own worst enemy.

And then there is the typical romantic plot:

Boy/Girl meets Boy/Girl, loses Boy/Girl, and sometimes eventually gets Boy/Girl. Of course, if you're writing slash, change the above to Boy/Boy or Girl/Girl, as needed.



Anyone have some more ideas about basic plots?

- Steff

[lindahoyland]

That is fascinating,Steff.I think I once saw opera plots described a bit like this but not novels,It is great fun tracking down these basic plots !

[laerien]

I don't know where I heard this, but someone once said that there are only two things that a story could be about: love and war/fight/struggle.

I don't know, but everything I can think of now can be traced back to these