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Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

bbc.com

51–60 of 105 posts

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#51

This feels pretty reductive. They chose one variable to measure stories on, fortune, and then of course all of these stories follow a short list of possible patterns. This counts as research?

They don't choose fortune, they do sentiment analysis on the words in the text. That this might be mapped or interpreted as being the same as fortune is an interpretation. For example positive words don't necessarily mean fortune in the plot, but often a plot showing fortune will have positive words.

This is an important distinction when looking at whether it's good or bad research.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#52

This feels pretty reductive. They chose one variable to measure stories on, fortune, and then of course all of these stories follow a short list of possible patterns. This counts as research?

I'm curious if they count television as storytelling here. If so, then the whole premise is demonstrably false; your standard soap opera will go beyond the stated one or two fortune-inflections in a single episode, let alone a season, let alone a series run.

There are no television scripts in the article.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#54
post #46
post #43

Plot structures are tools. All else being equal it's a good idea to pick a plot that's as simple as possible and hang the interesting stuff off that. The classic mistake of beginning writers is to go for complexity in plot and then spend their entire time serving that plot to the detriment of their characters. That said, of course not every story fits into some basic set of plot outlines without some serious mental a…

Can you give reference(s) for that beginner’s mistake? I’ve never heard it before and it’s definitely something I do. Would love to learn more about this!

In journalism/media school, we're taught "show, don't tell" in both our news and creative writing courses. You want to use detail to set the atmosphere/tone without flat out saying it.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#55
This abuses the word "plot".

These aren't plots, they're highest-level structures. They're also merely all six alternations of up/down across two and three combinations.

"From bad to good fortune" or "From good to bad to good" isn't a plot.

"A young man leaves his town in search of adventure, his talent is quickly recognized by the military and he leads a platoon in battle which wins the war and he finds the meaning in his life he'd been missing" is a plot, albeit a very basic one.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#56

This abuses the word "plot". These aren't plots, they're highest-level structures . They're also merely all six alternations of up/down across two and three combinations. "From bad to good fortune" or "From good to bad to good" isn't a plot. "A young man leaves his town in search of adventure, his talent is quickly recognized by the military and he leads a platoon in battle which wins the war and he finds the meaning…

Ok, we replaced the title with the plotless subtitle.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short, medium and long. Researchers could not find other lengths although they hypothesized that if someone wanted they could create a “mega” category. “It’s possible,” they concluded.

Particularly in some genres: short, long and trilogy.

epic fantasy is just getting started at the third volume.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#58
There are dozens of writing mentors/gurus, and every one of them has discovered the story structure, or the 3/7/10/50 basic plots. All of them are different. From vague and meaningless "beginning-middle-end but not always in the same order" to Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet or Dan Harmon's story circle(Campbell's hero's journey).

They all are kinda true, for the same reason you can find the proof of UFO in the Bible, or determine that there are "two kinds of people", or discover 4 personality types. Anything can be shoehorned into any kind of pattern if your definition is vague enough and you're willing to stretch the meaning of things hard enough.

Different writers are familiar with different structures and use ones they prefer, bending and modifying them as they wish. Some writers break the rules on purpose. Some writers get high out of their minds and write stream of consciousness novels in a weekend. Any of that can result in a great/famous/successful story. Finding the pattern that fits all of that is only possible if it's so vague that it can fit literally anything, at which point it becomes meaningless.

Plots and story structures can be picked up and used when it's convenient, it's easier to write when you have a paint-by-numbers structure to hang your story upon, but there isn't the one story structure or the six story types, that's silly.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#59
post #21

Counterexample: A poor man finds a magic lamp. He summons the genie, and wishes for great fortune. (Rags to riches.) He makes another wish, and it horribly backfires. (Icarus.) No longer trusting genies, he wishes he'd never found the lamp. The genie rewinds time. A poor man finds a magic lamp.... (Infinite loop plot not included in the classification.) EDIT: Downvoter, how would you classify this story?

"goto start" doesn't make it a new story, it's just a repeat, or re-telling of the story (possibly with variations, a la groundhog day)

I also disagree with the contention that all "stories" have to fit the patterns, unless you narrow the definition of story to fit the patterns.

Re: Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types

#60
post #21

Counterexample: A poor man finds a magic lamp. He summons the genie, and wishes for great fortune. (Rags to riches.) He makes another wish, and it horribly backfires. (Icarus.) No longer trusting genies, he wishes he'd never found the lamp. The genie rewinds time. A poor man finds a magic lamp.... (Infinite loop plot not included in the classification.) EDIT: Downvoter, how would you classify this story?

The timeline may be an infinite loop but your story still ended, with the revelation that the man is doomed to repeat his Icarus story for everytime. An author could play that as a sad or happy ending, as they like.
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