On July 1, Kasie was joined by Dr. Anna Courie, a good friend and author who agreed to try out the 7 Basic Plots conversation. So what are the 7 basic plots? Here are the show notes:

July 1, 2023

Theme for the day

Dr. Anna Courie and the 7 Basic Plots

Agenda

• Who is Dr. Courie?
• What are the 7 basic plots?
• Examples
• How to write one of these

Link to the podcast.

Segment 1

Joining me in the studio today is Dr. Anna Courie, an Army wife, nurse, corporate social responsibility officer, and author of six titles. Anna’s 20+ years in the healthcare field include experience in public and private sector health promotion. Anna is a graduate of Clemson University, the University of Wyoming, and Ohio State University. In her spare time, she consults in public health, facilitates retreats, writes books, and blogs for Living Compass Ministries, Christ Walk, 50 Days of Fabulous, Earth and Altar, and Lent Madness. Anna loves her family, Clemson football, traveling, reading and hiking. Home is wherever the Army (and God) sends her.

Let’s talk about what Anna’s been up to recently. Whether there are any new book ideas on the horizon. How the changes happening in her personal and professional life are sending her to the page to write or keeping her from that creative space. We’ll just riff a bit with Anna cuz she’s my bud and I think a really cool person to hang out with.

Segment 2

We’ve done the 7 Basic Plots before (March 2022) so we’re just going to quick review it and then deep dive on the ones Anna’s most interested in.

So this comes from the book by Christopher Booker which was basically his opus. It was the culmination of his career studying literature, and, honestly, is a pretty comprehensive list. So a couple of caveats:

• It’s a list of basics which means they’re not all encompassing and there are certainly exceptions.
• It’s an attempt to generalize which means they’re open for interpretation.

Here are the 7 Basic Plots:

1. Overcoming the Monster
2. Rags to Riches
3. The Quest
4. Voyage and Return
5. Comedy
6. Tragedy
7. Rebirth

Too general to be useful? Helpful in terms of a general outline for setting (and meeting) expectations?

Segment 3

1. Overcoming the Monster – sometimes it’s the big bad, it’s corporate, or expectations; Ready Player One, Newsies, Jaws
2. Man vs. nature – weather, natural disaster, Twister
3. Man vs. society – Robots, the rules, the oppressive “other”; anti-conformity
4. Man vs. himself – mental illness, ego, etc.
5. Rags to Riches – downtrodden makes good by earning their place via talent, skills, or magic; Anastasia, Aladdin, Annie, Cinderella, Skill and hard work; Magic, talent, or beauty
6. The Quest – the hero’s journey, the heroine’s journey; identify a goal and work to achieve it; Tangled, Goonies, Lord of the Rings, Moana
7. Voyage and Return – go away from home in search of fortune, discover on return that home has changed; The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, Back to the Future, Castaway, Big, Cars, Doc Hollywood
8. Comedy – a light and humorous character who finds a happily ever after, or a dramatic work with the theme being triumph over circumstances; in either case, HEA applies; Shrek, Much Ado About Nothing, The Big Lebowski
9. Tragedy – protagonist with major character flaw that ends up being his undoing; not an HEA (obvy); Hamilton, Gatsby, Moby Dick, Anna Karenina
10. Rebirth – an event forces the main character to change their ways and become a better individual; Pride and Prejudice, Princess & the Frog, Beauty and the Beast

Segment 4

So how do you write one of these? Usually by accident. You’ll be trucking along in a story and say to yourself, what kind of story is this? And realize you’re following a comfortable pattern, i.e. the 7 basic plots, or see the potential to fit this into one of those and thus, find the conclusion that’s been eluding you.

Here’s the Jericho Writers’ take on the 7 Basic Plots:

• Gather your story material. Review characters, the things you want to happen, and pick a plot for your novel.
• Map your key plot events. Adapt them to whichever plot you chose. If it’s a quest, map out testing moments where your protagonist can or should turn back – or, if it’s tragic, map out moments your tragic protagonist could have avoided what they’re heading for, and so on.
• Link these moments together and create your resolution to the action.