Hangout – Seven Basic Plots – Reflections

We covered the different plots.

There are only seven plots – so that makes it easy to work out what kind of story it is going to be. Maybe that is what Stephen King means: that he writes a story and if it fits a certain plot then fine, but he does not go out of his way to make it fit a plot. The plot comes after the story.

We studied Part one of Eternal Love which seems like an interesting story. We talked about how he wrote and why he wrote that way. Because the author gave us a tickle of what the story was about and that an event was pending, I found it difficult to read the preceding story prior to the event. If I was to read the whole story, I would have to read that chapter again to really get the information he was giving us. It was tantalising, intriguing, and frustrating. But I think that added to the grit of the story. I would not necessarily change it because it was frustrating. It added anger/frustration to the character of the narrator/protagonist.

I found it easy to understand the different plots and what type of plot fit with the stories I have written.

We were asked to write a story and I stalled. It was hard to write a story under pressure like that. We had 20 minutes and I wrote about my grandad travelling over the English Channel to France at the beginning of the Great War. I was unsure about what I had written. I had to share the first paragraph with the group. It went okay. I will develop that story further.