Master Plots

  • All Subpages
  • Create New

    An attempt to enumerate the Ur-plots...

    What qualifies a plot as a Master Plot? Hard to say. Let's take Tobias' list as a kicking off point. He contends there are twenty basic stories. Any of these can be used in genre.

    1. Quest (Christopher Booker calls this "The Quest", Blake Snyder calls it "Golden Fleece")
    2. Adventure
    3. Pursuit
    4. Rescue
    5. Escape
    6. The Riddle
    7. Rivalry
    8. Underdog (Blake Snyder calls this "The Fool Triumphant")
    9. Temptation
    10. Metamorphosis
    11. Transformation
    12. Maturation
    13. Love
    14. Forbidden Love
    15. Sacrifice
    16. Discovery
    17. Wretched Excess
    18. Vengeance
    19. Ascension
    20. Descension

    from: Tobias, Ronald B. 20 Master Plots. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1993. (ISBN 0-89879-595-8)

    Compare Booker's The Seven Basic Plots and Ten Movie Plots in Snyder's Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need, each of which not only enumerate the plots but also summarize them.

    This article is issued from All The Tropes. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.