The 36 plot lines

From Jerry Michalski:

Today at Tom Munnecke's GoodApples workshop in NYC, our lively moderator Izzy Gesell mentioned in passing the thirty-some fundamental plot lines. I couldn't help asking Google, which swiftly steered me to The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by Georges Polti, and The 36 Plots site by Loren Miller, which lists them all.

And here they are:

1. Supplication - Persecutor, Suppliant, a Power in Authority

2. Deliverance - Unfortunates, Threatener, Rescuer

3. Revenge - Avenger, Criminal

4. Vengeance by Family upon Family - Avenging Kinsman, Guilty Kinsman, Relative

5. Pursuit - Fugitive from Punishment, Pursuer

6. Victim of Cruelty or Misfortune - Unfortunates, Master or Unlucky Person

7. Disaster - Vanquished Power, Victorious Power or Messenger

8. Revolt - Tyrant, Conspirator(s)

9. Daring Enterprise - Bold Leader, Goal, Adversary

10. Abduction - Abductor, Abducted, Guardian

11. Enigma - Interrogator, Seeker, Problem

12. Obtaining - Two or more Opposing Parties, Object, maybe an Arbitrator

13. Familial Hatred - Two Family Members who hate each other

14. Familial Rivalry - Preferred Kinsman, Rejected Kinsman, Object

15. Murderous Adultery - Two Adulterers, the Betrayed

16. Madness - Madman, Victim

17. Fatal Imprudence - Imprudent person, Victim or lost object

18. Involuntary Crimes of Love - Lover, Beloved, Revealer

19. Kinsman Kills Unrecognised Kinsman - Killer, Unrecognised Victim, Revealer

20. Self Sacrifice for an Ideal - Hero, Ideal, Person or Thing Sacrificed

21. Self Sacrifice for Kindred - Hero, Kinsman, Person or Thing Sacrificed

22. All Sacrificed for Passion - Lover, Object of Passion, Person or Thing Sacrificed

23. Sacrifice of Loved Ones - Hero, Beloved Victim, Need for Sacrifice

24. Rivalry Between Superior and Inferior - Superior, Inferior, Object

25. Adultery - Deceived Spouse, Two Adulterers

26. Crimes of Love - Lover, Beloved, theme of Dissolution

27. Discovery of Dishonor of a Loved One - Discoverer, Guilty One

28. Obstacles to Love - Two Lovers, Obstacle

29. An Enemy Loved - Beloved Enemy, Lover, Hater

30. Ambition - An Ambitious Person, Coveted Thing, Adversary

31. Conflict with a God - Mortal, Immortal

32. Mistaken Jealousy - Jealous One, Object of Jealousy, Supposed Accomplice, Author of Mistake

33. Faulty Judgment - Mistaken One, Victim of Mistake, Author of Mistake, Guilty Person

34. Remorse - Culprit, Victim, Interrogator

35. Recovery of a Lost One - Seeker, One Found

36. Loss of Loved Ones - Kinsman Slain, Kinsman Witness, Executioner

That's fun. Well, not exactly fun for the characters in those plots, but presumably, like most good stories, things get worked out in the end. And good stories often involve some kind of big problem or wrong that, against significant odds, gets worked out or reversed or balanced out along the way. An endless number of novels and screen plays and games could me made from those models. One might even imagine that it would be possible to automatically create reasonably gripping stories from such a basis. Oh, takes other elements too of course. But life probably consists of more archetypes and archetypical scenarios than we'd usually be willing to admit.

I also get to think of the power of metaphors, and of a great book, which I unfortunately don't remember the details of right now, and I'm away from my library. As a therapeutic tool, stories and metaphors can be very powerful. See, we all have an innate sense of how good stories are supposed to progress. We can not always express it, but we recognize it when we're presented with it. There are many kinds of stories, but each one has a certain kind of fundamental structure. Now, think of somebody who has a personal problem that seems unsolvable to them, and which is resistant to most direct attempts of helping them change it. Imagine that a wise and resourceful observer recognizes the structure of their problem, and presents them with a story. A story which happens to have the very same fundamental structure as their problem, but very different content, and a story which happens to get resolved in the end, like good stories do. If the person can get sufficiently involved in that story, following along with it, noticing that the difficult situations get resolved, something magical can happen. Without consciously noticing what happened, they might suddenly find that from the depths of their subconscious they suddenly also have the resources for resolving their own particular situation. The structure of a story from a very different setting might transfer to their particular setting, despite any "good" reason that it shouldn't. There's just something compelling about stories that get finished.

Knowing the archetypical structure of many fundamental human scenarios can thus be a tool for much more than just writing entertaining stories. I'm sure there are many more than 36, though. And some of them are more fun.