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Thursday 12 April 2012

Cooking the Books


The writer and journalist Christopher Booker published a book called The Seven Basic Plots. The hypothesis is that all stories have already been told. The seven plots are:
1.       Tragedy – hero to zero usually ending with a death

2.       Comedy – happy ending
3.       Overcoming the monster – Godzilla or Hitler, horror, psychological thriller

4.       Voyage and return – a story of leaving and returning home, as in Alice in Wonderland and Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

5.       Quest – probably the most successful format of our time.
6.       Rags to Riches – zero to hero made popular by writers from Dickens to Archer
7.       Rebirth – The central character finds a new reason for living as in It's a Wonderful Life and Crime and Punishment.

Even these seven premises can be grouped into just two genres of writing: Comedy and Tragedy as William Shakespeare will bear testimony to.

I have given this some thought and to my mind, I cannot argue that there are anymore plots. I have applied Booker's theory to my own writing. But the way I see it is Booker's plots are merely empty cooking vessels, the ingredients, flavour, temperature, texture, depth breadth and aftertaste is down to the writer.

And what about the writer? Fast food or Michelin Star? There is a market for either and anything in between and so there should be. One man's meat is another man's poison, is very true, but there success will have come about from the originality of their recipe not from one of the seven plots.

To achieve originality requires a great deal of thinking outside the box.
Did anyone see 'Heroes of Comedy Spike Milligan' on Channel 4? Milligan brought surrealism to comedy. Had there been no Milligan, there would no doubt have been no Monty Python, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry. Imagine a world where comedy no longer offered satire, parody, clever word play, farce, irony and a dark side. I for one would have abandoned comedy with the onset of puberty. It was around that time I would listen to 'I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again' with John Cleese, Tim Brook-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden.

Milligan turned comedy into an art form. For me it's the hardest genre of writing, thinking beyond the outer limits of the box. It sent Spike mad because he could not switch off his quest for the lighter side of life.

Putting your protagonist in a situation way outside his comfort zone has to be one of the first principles of comedy, as I have done with Henley, Fairfax, Neville (in Ushabti) and Norman (Midnight at the Alhambra).

If I was a BBC Commissioner I'd call up Dawn French to be the next Dr Who, wouldn't that make a great show even greater.

To the agent who said there is no market for comedy fiction books, I'm going to send you a signed copy when I do get published. You know who you are.



6 comments:

  1. Dawn French as Dr Who? Why Not?! Book Blog follower through GFC....Welcome...please follow me at http://bethartfromtheheart.blogspot.com/

    Thanks John and good luck with your blog and publishing!

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    1. Welcome Beth. I hope you will enjoy my blog. I'm off to take a looksee at yours. See you there :-)

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  2. This book was a key part of on of my writing modules at Uni, and for what it's worth, I have found it helpful. But you're right though, because a story goes far beyond the structure and 'plot points' that make up these skeletons of stories.
    I like the analysis Booker offers into each type of story, I learned quite a lot.
    Good luck to you writing comedy - I agree, it is one of the hardest thing to do, and I'd rather you than me. Let u all know how it goes :)
    Nari X

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  3. Its great to see you back in BlogLand Nari :-) Comedy is my comfort zone for writing. I wouldn't know how to start doing what you do Nari. I've said it before creating a whole fantasy world with its own unique culture in an environment that may have a totally different eco system has to be the hardest challenge a writer can take on.

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  4. Hi John, odd, I used the same expression "one man's meat is another man's poison" in my post this week. I see yours appeared first. Fast food or Michelin Star - good analogy! (I wont mention the Michelin Star restaurant I ate in at the weekend on IOW, where I ordered carrot soup and was stunned when it came out ice cold- no I wont mention it!) As for Dawn French as Doctor Who - could we start a petition? has she not written a spoof of it yet? I like your thinking!!!! :-)

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    1. Hi Deborah, hope the ice cold carrot soup didn't spoil your weekend. IOW is a lovely place, although I haven't been since childhood. Dawn's world is a bit topsy-turvy with all the life changes she's undergone recently. She needs to go off in a new direction, Dr Who would be great for her.

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