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Every story is different (or it is just plagiarism); "plot structures" come from generalizing stories and the types of events that occur in them. There are serious analysts that claim there are on...
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#5: Post edited
by
Amadeus
·
2020-01-24T17:07:03Z (almost 5 years ago)
Added Details.
Every story is different (or it is just plagiarism); "plot structures" come from _generalizing_ stories and the types of events that occur in them.There are serious analysts that claim there are only three plot structures, and sure enough you can jam every kind of story into them. Others claim there are 12, or 21, or 32 plots.A story and its plot is like the flesh on a skeleton. The story is not independent of the plot structure, just like my body is not independent of my skeleton. Without my skeleton, I'd be as shapeless (and dead) as a bag of liquid.It may be that my body shape could be supported by other, very similar skeletons: My brother's skeleton; my father's (As a teen I looked like a twin of my father at the same age, in nearly every photo, it's kind of eerie to see yourself in the past like that).The same thing for stories. If you generalize enough (lose enough detail) you can claim their are only 12 kinds of passenger cars on the road, but that doesn't make the car (=story) _independent_ of its classification as pickup truck (=plot). It still has to do certain things and work in a certain way in order to be considered a pickup truck, and those are different than cars classified as "sports car".The story is not independent of the plot.
- Every story is different (or it is just plagiarism); "plot structures" come from _generalizing_ stories and the types of events that occur in them.
- There are serious analysts that claim there are only three plot structures, and sure enough you can jam every kind of story into them. Others claim there are 12, or 21, or 32 plots.
- A story and its plot is like the flesh on a skeleton. The story is not independent of the plot structure, just like my body is not independent of my skeleton. Without my skeleton, I'd be as shapeless (and dead) as a bag of liquid.
- It may be that my body shape could be supported by other, very similar skeletons: My brother's skeleton; my father's (As a teen I looked like a twin of my father at the same age, in nearly every photo, it's kind of eerie to see yourself in the past like that).
- The same thing for stories. If you generalize enough (lose enough detail) you can claim there are only 12 kinds of passenger cars on the road, but that doesn't make the car (=story) _independent_ of its classification as pickup truck (=plot). It still has to do certain things and work in a certain way in order to be considered a pickup truck, and those are different than cars classified as "sports car".
- The story is not independent of the plot.
- In fact, Blake Snyder's "beat sheet" may have been derived from Joseph Campbell's earlier "Hero's Journey", which itself was derived by studying and generalizing the similarities between extant (and usually ancient) Hero myths from many cultures. In fact the antiquity of such myths is a testament to their popularity, and likely indicates that what we humans consider a "good hero story" is inherent to us, it can transcend language, culture, politics and many thousands of years.
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-19T22:13:56Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48613 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T13:09:40Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48613 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
Every story is different (or it is just plagiarism); "plot structures" come from _generalizing_ stories and the types of events that occur in them. There are serious analysts that claim there are only three plot structures, and sure enough you can jam every kind of story into them. Others claim there are 12, or 21, or 32 plots. A story and its plot is like the flesh on a skeleton. The story is not independent of the plot structure, just like my body is not independent of my skeleton. Without my skeleton, I'd be as shapeless (and dead) as a bag of liquid. It may be that my body shape could be supported by other, very similar skeletons: My brother's skeleton; my father's (As a teen I looked like a twin of my father at the same age, in nearly every photo, it's kind of eerie to see yourself in the past like that). The same thing for stories. If you generalize enough (lose enough detail) you can claim their are only 12 kinds of passenger cars on the road, but that doesn't make the car (=story) _independent_ of its classification as pickup truck (=plot). It still has to do certain things and work in a certain way in order to be considered a pickup truck, and those are different than cars classified as "sports car". The story is not independent of the plot.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-10-19T11:51:03Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 4