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Q&A Successful stories that don't follow the standard story template?

That particular structure is called the "Hero's Journey," and yes, there are many stories which aren't. 1984, Animal Farm, Death of a Salesman, Brokeback Mountain — look for stories with sad end...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10926
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:31:02Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10926
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T03:31:02Z (over 4 years ago)
That particular structure is called the "Hero's Journey," and yes, there are many stories which aren't.

- _1984, Animal Farm, Death of a Salesman, Brokeback Mountain_ — look for stories with sad endings, because that often means the hero didn't succeed in overcoming the problem, and wasn't transformed.
- _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch_ is literally a day in the life of a prisoner in a gulag, so there isn't any kind of journey there.
- I realize it's an episode of a TV show and not a novel, but _Star Trek: Voyager_ had a two-parter called "Year of Hell." Alternate timelines were heavily featured. At the end of part two, the Reset Button is hit, and all the alternate timelines are wiped out. The antagonist decides not to start the temporal mucking about, which might sort of qualify as "transformed," but no one remembers the events of the episodes, so no problem is overcome.
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-05-12T19:39:14Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 1