#masterplots

Masterplots is a trademarked name, specifically a registered trademark owned by the publisher Salem Press. 

The term is used as a brand name for a reference book series that summarizes the plots of significant works of literature and film. The symbol (®) is used to indicate that the name is officially registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). 

Using the Forbidden Love Masterplot #MondayBlogs #writingtips

Last year we ran a whole series of posts called Masterplots Theater from A to Z. Because we had some plots that started with the same letters, we had to cut several fantastic masterplots. ‘Forbidden Love’ was one of our unhappy victims as Heather wrote about the Fool Triumphant Masterplot instead. We did cover several other love-related plots in the series, Buddy Love, Happily-Ever- After Love,…

Masterplots Theater: Y is for Yarn

Welcome to my last Masterplots Theater post. As is so often the case with the last letters of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (X, Y and Z are so hard), I need to take a few artistic liberties with this post. There are simply no great masterplots for the letter Y. There are, however, Yarns. Do you like to create your own story structure, something not grounded by strict traditional forms of…

#AtoZChallenge Masterplots Theater: Q is for Quest

Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! I often see authors describing their stories as quests in their book blurbs. Sadly, many of these books are not quests and that leads to reader disappointment. The Quest might be the most misunderstood of all the masterplots. Just because a story is High / Epic Fantasy, or follows Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey formula does not make it automatically a…

(via Plotting Revenge: Using a Masterplot)

“Plotting the story – a common stumbling block for even the most seasoned storyteller. The options seem endless. But what if there were just 7 universal plots underpinning all stories? What if finding the right one could bring your message alive and captivate your audience every time?”

“In The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, Christopher Booker explains how our best-loved stories throughout history fall into only 7 distinct story types. He follows in a long line of theorists who have tried to explain why storytelling is such a universally powerful means of communication.”

The 7 basic plots that Christopher Booker explains are key to the understanding of narrative structure, as audiences are still captivated by the same retold master-plots even today! They are:

OVERCOMING THE MONSTER

from the classic tale of David & Goliath, to modern movies and video games like James Bond and Super Mario, a hero character learns of a great evil overshadowing the land (sometimes not his own land). He gets special equipment and/or weapons, heads out, and defeats the evil, freeing the land. The most recent example of this is in Star Wars: The Force Awakens...Or basically any Star Wars film.

Good for:

Talking about succeeding despite the odds being stacked against you

Discussing the life lessons that an encounter like this teaches you

Demonstrating how you, your team or company became stronger through adversity

RAGS TO RICHES

The famed storyline for many Disney movies like Aladdin, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, this development narrative portrays a character in poverty or feeling incomplete, who’s arc shoots them into their happily ever after, whether it be rich, famous, or happily married and settled down.  “Key to this basic plot is the false ending, in which the hero appears to have gained his[/her] heart's desire - but it is too early, and he[/her] is too immature, so he[/she] loses it all”, only after determination and courage in the face of evil or peril can the hero truly be transformed.

 A play on this narrative can be seen in “The Wolf of Wall Street”, in which after being showered with success, the protagonist loses it all once more, demonstrating morals that disregard success achieved through exploitation, crime and other false deeds.

Good for:

Talking about the importance of owning up to your mistakes

Discussing the benefits of taking risks and accepting vulnerabilities

Demonstrating how your protagonist earned their present-day success

VOYAGE & RETURN

The hero heads out to a realm that is unknown to them, often disregarding laws and customs associated with their home. This is the premise of “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz”,  the protagonist finds themself “in the realm where intuition rules, rather than logic, and [is] going to have to rely on the advice of allies or his own heart in order to pass the tests”. 

The narrative is popular among children’s stories, as it provides an often magical realm to explore that is not bound to our world’s norms, standards and rules, it can be as out there as you could possibly want, but when they the return, the hero always learns a lesson, and has a different outlook on their home as a result.

Good for:

Talking about the benefits of opening up to new experiences

Showing what your protagonist learned on their travels

Demonstrating the power of friendship

THE QUEST

The quest is one of the those story plots that can be seen in nearly every story ever told, it’s easy to name a whole bunch of different characters and scenarios from famous stories that fit into the fundamental aspects of the quest:

A close friend who is loyal but little else: Samwise Gamgee, Samwell Tarly, Bolin from the legend of Korra, but they all show their strengths

A companion who is the very opposite of the hero: Toph, Sancho Panza, Diego from Ice Age

A large group of faceless minions who die left, right and center: Stormtroopers, Goblins and Orcs in the Lord of the Rings tales, most Zombies, we relate very little to these characters, and their lack of resemblance to us makes us feel no connection, and thus, little response when they are killed or beaten up on screen or on the page

The list goes on... Here (In the Quest narrative) it's the search for an object, a location or some information that requires our Hero to leave their (usually) everyday life to find. This is seen very clearly in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, as well as many other high budget epics like Interstellar.

Good for:

Talking about the importance of sticking to your convictions

Showing how your protagonist grows emotionally to be able to succeed

Demonstrating the power of teamwork

COMEDY

Usually the most light-hearted and easygoing of the seven universal plots, the Comedy, “for Booker, is the grand mesh of relationships among a large cast, rooted in miscommunication... Unlike the other stories, the villain here is almost never just defeated; he is often redeemed, brought to a point where he admits wrongdoing and joyfully joins the party of the other characters released from the fog.” In the end, after some comedic conflicts and a turn of events, everyone ends up happy and true to their identity, even if the tone is rather dark, a narrative can still be considered a comedy, look at Shakespeare for instance!

Remember, however, almost every story needs comedy in it, even if only small and manifested in a single character, the comedy relief, the “trickster” archetype. These types of characters keep the audience entertained, and provide at the very least a very brief distraction from all the seriousness, otherwise it just gets tiring!

Good for:

Talking about the early difficulties of a partnership – romantic, social or business

Discussing what your protagonist learned from negotiating a difficult situation

Demonstrating how both parties now accommodate and support each other

^ Captain Qwark, a comedy relief character in the series of “Ratchet & Clank” video games who serves his purpose of adding a little bit of humour to all the action and story, but usually does little more than that...

TRAGEDY

“Tragedy is the flip side of Overcoming the Monster: It's the tale of the villain spiraling down into evil and then being defeated by the hero. Here, release comes only with the death or destruction of the main character.” Tragedy stories are less common, they are harder to pull off and end with a very gloomy, sad ending. Common in some horror movies where the monster in question is not defeated or routed, the main character or characters often realise the errors of their ways (if at all) too late and must face their downfall, their punishment or their inevitable demise as a result. 

The prime example is Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, “in which the Tragic Hero realizes his fault at the end and repents - too late to be saved.”

Good for:

Using the principle character to represent and explain a wider problem in society

Contrasting your own values and principles with theirs

Demonstrating how not to do things and what we can learn from their mistakes

REBIRTH

Let’s end on a high note, in the “Rebirth” narrative the main character is a bad or unpleasant person who is shown the error of their ways and redeems them self over the course of the story.  “Rebirth is the more optimistic form of Tragedy, in which the villain spirals down into evil and then at the last second raises his head and gets pulled out of the mire by some redeeming figure, either his other half or a young child.” Though with some notable consistencies in the form of a dark cloud that follows the character around (much like Eminem in “Not Afraid”, about overcoming his drug addiction and the errors he has made in his life), the main character is born a new person through a redemption figure, who awaken’s the hero’s ability to love and/or feel compassion, whether it be a child or a love interest that the character wants to prove them self to. 

A notable example from animation is “Despicable Me” (2010), in which super-villain “Gru” learns the error of his ways, and learns to love and feel compassion through three orphaned little girls that he decides to raise. 

Source and Image References:

Booker, C. (2005) The Seven basic plots: Why we tell stories. United States: Continuum.

Vogler, C. (2007) The writer’s journey: Mythic structures for storytellers and screenwriters. 2nd edn. United States: Michael Wiese Productions. This book outlines the (coincidentally) seven main character archetypes according to Christopher Vogler, one of which is the trickster, which I said about in this post, who provides comedic relief to a story that is otherwise very serious and at times, tiresome as a result -  they “[provide] entertainment in the story through wit, foolishness or other means” -http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/characters/vogler_archetypes.htm

http://www.sparkol.com/engage/the-7-universal-story-plots-that-still-entrance-audiences/

(2009) Available at: http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/Skearney/files/The%20Seven%20Basic%20Plots.pdf (Accessed: 11 January 2016).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRXzDv4IFrI

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3281611/PIERS-MORGAN-Force-Awakens-Sorry-Star-Wars-sucked-40-overrated-overhyped-preposterous-years.html

http://www.playbuzz.com/jennamckenney10/which-cinderella-character-are-you

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/narnia/images/4/4b/NarniaWardrobe.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090103195137

https://guknightline.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/priest-prophet-king-and-the-lord-of-the-rings/

http://lylesmoviefiles.com/2013/05/25/review-the-hangover-2009/

http://ratchet.wikia.com/wiki/Maktar_Resort_Single_Mingle

http://www.pathguy.com/kinglear.htm