I just finished reading a very disturbing book all the way from cover to cover—so you know it must be book club time for me. :)
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t pick a story to read that gives me nightmares at night, but my book club seems to have a proclivity for picking them.
I was reading the harrowing and unusual tale with great trepidation when I suddenly came across some story elements so familiar to me that they comforted me—and it all started with a crazy wife locked in a remote section of a large house. Jane Eyre! I thought with relief, and was able to keep reading the book club selection. Sure enough, the story was on a real Gothic kick from that point on.
I’ll sometimes hear writers worry about writing a really original, breakout story.
But I really don’t think there are any really original breakout stories to be written. I think that each of us has the opportunity to do a really bang-up job on an old story in our unique voice.
It’s been said that there are only seven basic plots in all of literature. Actually, there have been said to be several different numbers of basic plots, but seven is the number mentioned most frequently.
This site lists 1 basic plot, 7 , 20, and finally, 36 basic plots.
What if there are as many as 36 basic plots in literature? That’s still not many.
And yet, with all the similarity in theme, we’re not getting bored with books. Or movies, because films are limited to these plot lines, too.
That’s because each writer brings something of themselves to the book. It could be an amazing character they created or a fabulous setting. It could be the writer’s voice in the way he tells the story.
Just the fact that the writers are all different means that their stories will be unique. Their takes on the stories will be unique. Out of the 36 plots, one writer might use a particular plot in a thriller and another might use it in a romance.
It’s our different takes on life that make plots unique.
Do you ever notice this repetition of plots in books and movies? Most of the time, I’ll admit, I don’t…each story seems very different.
I am glad you wrote this. I have read so much, that I am constantly wondering what is mine and what I am remembering from another author.
Pamela Jo
http://theresjustlifeyaliveit.blogspot.com
Even though humans share a basic structure, we all have our own DNA that makes us unique. I think of a story as having a basic structure, and if we don’t copy the story, it will have our “DNA” woven into it making it fresh and our own.
Elizabeth – You’re right; each of us has his or her own voice, and that’s what we bring to writing. So even if we are inspired by something that’s already been written, or a plot we like from somewhere else, we can still make it our own.
I don’t notice the similarity in plots either. I just notice whether I get caught up in the story or not – even if I know how it will probably end, if the writing is engaging, I enjoy it.
Karen
I do like it when the author does it on purpose too – WestSide Story is Romeo & Juliet, for instance. One of my favourite books is Howards End by E.M.Forster. A few years ago Zadie Smith wrote On Beauty, inspired by H.E. It was so wonderful and as I hadn’t read the forward it was a slow realization. She did a brilliant job of it and you don’t need to have read Howards End to enjoy On Beauty. Truly, we have to trust our story telling. Thanks for an evocative post.
There are not a lot of different plots but our unique personality and life situations can add a twist to the classics. Loved the post.
Most of the time I don’t but I recognize ones I love. Capers, mysteries and am glad they are what I expect them to be. :)
I’ll recognize famous plots – star-crossed lovers, shipwrecked on an island, etc. but many times I get caught up in the story. I find the idea that there’s only so many plots depressing. Surely each of us tells a story in our own way.
You’re right – it’s all in our unique take on each storyline.
No, when the writer has done his/her job, I don´t think about it. I think about it when I write, though, and that is when I realize that what I can do is picking up the same old pieces and put them together in a new way so my readers will feel they get a new picture.
I sometimes spot it and I don’t object to these familiar elements, though I really prefer there is a surprise in there that doesn’t fit with some well-known telling. I think, though, there CAN be totally fresh stuff… It doesn’t happen very often, but look at something like The Book Thief… totally doesn’t fit in any of the boxes. i think though, it is riskier to do this, so they don’t pass through the gauntlet–it is probably as you’ve observed… those familiar elements are comforting, and somethign without them has to really knock it out of the ballpark.
You’re apparently in a masochist book club >:D
I usually like original and strange books, like The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, that I read last summer.
Cold As Heaven
Writers take a basic plot and alter it to make it their own. Boy meets girl, girl and boy become a couple, boy loses girl. That changes to: boy meets girl, girl and boy become couple, girl kills boy. Or it changes to boy meets dog, boy and dog grow old together, dog gives up life to save boy.
You’re right. The twists can multiple and change, depending on the writer.
Theres just life–Your voice, your settings, your characters…your background…it all makes these old plots/themes unique.
Jan–Trusting our storytelling–for sure. Although it’s hard to do sometimes, we have to remember that we’re the only ones who can tell our particular take on the story.
Teresa–Such a good way of putting it!
Margot–Exactly! And we have a lot to add to any story.
Clarissa–Thanks so much!
Laura–And there is some comfort in that.
Alex–I think so, too. :)
Karen–It all comes down to the writing!
Elspeth–Do you think so? It doesn’t make me feel that way so much…I just think it means that I don’t have to really just knock myself out thinking up something that hasn’t been done before.
Hart–Good point there, too–the familiar tends to *sell*! :)
Dorte–And if we do our job, it really doesn’t *seem* like an old story–it seems new and fresh!
Cold As Heaven–HAHA! That was my book club’s pick 2 months ago!! But it WAS a very good book. But the ending was the reason my book club picked it (and you’ll know what I’m talking about…)
Helen–And some writers will take the basics and take it in a wonderfully unusual direction until it seems like something we’ve never seen before…but it’s a new take on an old story.
But Elizabeth, did you tell us what the scary book that prompted all this was?
Porter–I think she meant Jane Eyre. It is seriously goth.
This is all so true. Newbie writers are always so terrified somebody will steal their plot. They don’t realize how unoriginal plots are. It’s about how you write it.