Recently, on the Catholic Writer’s Online yahoo group I read, this list was posted by one of its members. I am reposting it from the email sent to the group and definitely not taking credit for it’s compilation or any of the plots. Maybe I’ll do a clever retelling, 😉
I had always heard there were only seven basic plots in fiction, but according to this, there are 37 and are as follows:
What’s your story about? A scholar in the early 1800’s (Georges Polti apparently)
identified 36 basic plots, to which later scholars added one. The 37 are:1. Pleading/prayer story
2. Deliverance
3. Crime pursued by vengeance
4. Vengeance
5. Pursuit story
6. Revolt (as in a tyrant versus good guys)
7. Disaster story
8. Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune
9. Daring enterprise
10. Abduction story
11. A puzzle story
12. A story about getting something
13. A story about hating someone you should like
14. Rivalry between friends or family
15. Murderous lovers/friends
16. Betrayal of love or friendship
17. Story about madness
18. Dangerous carelessness
19. Involuntary crimes of love or friendship
20. Stories about hurting someone who turned out to be important to you
21. Self sacrifice for an ideal
22. Self sacrifice for a person
23. Self sacrifice for a stranger
24. Self sacrifice for a loved object
25. Rivalry with a superior person
26. Crimes of love or friendship
27. Discovery of a crime done by a friend/lover
28. Obstacles of love or friendship
29. Sharing love/friendship with an enemy
30. Stories about ambition
31. Conflict with a God or mythical creature
32. A story about jealousy
33. A wrong decision
34. Regret or guilt
35. Recovery of a lost one
36. Loss of a person
37. Argument
Interesting huh? Now… what are my plots? I’ll write more about that later.