“Everybody knows there are only five basic plots.”

September 20, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

“There is nothing new under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes

“It’s been done.” – Hollywood

This being Hollywood, I often find myself in conversations with people who work in The Industry or are “wannabees.” One subject that comes up periodically in talking with my writer friends is the old line that “there are only five basic plots.”

Probably the first time I heard this was after semi-seriously developing a story line for a screen play more than 10 years ago, and then taking a friend to lunch to discuss how a rookie goes about writing a screen play. She was very kind, and interested in my story line, but while munching on the lunch I was buying her, said, like a mathematician who has memorized all prime numbers, “I hate to tell you this, but there are only five basic plots,” etc.

Slowly I learned not to pay for other people’s lunches to present my ideas. (It’s cheaper to start a web site or a blog and make a gift to the universe of these wonderful and worthless ideas!) Anyway, now it’s just occasional phone calls or, more likely, e-mails in which people tell reply: “Don’t make me use upper case, Dan.  EVERYBODY KNOWS THERE ARE ONLY FIVE BASIC PLOTS.”

And if I nag hard enough for them to actually name the five basic plots which they are sure all films, books, etc. contain, they will deflect the question and with weary disdain for newcomers summarize the eight word mantra in three words: “It’s been done.”

So I decided to research this with Google, and on-and-off spent a couple of hours tracking down many of the 260 hits (an extremely minuscule number for Google) on the phrase “five basic plots.” When I changed my search to just “basic plots” the Google hits jumps to 47,700. Hmmm. And the first one of the larger pool of results is called “The 36 basic plots. View them here. 

My digest or capture file is now 31 pages long.  (If you want to see it, post a comment and I will put it on this blog site.)  Anyway, I’ve made some interesting discoveries:

1. The view that there are only five basic plots is repeated over and over.  This view is a stock item in writing classes, writers workshops, blogs, etc., repeated by many people simply because “everybody knows.” 
2. Those who attempt to actually name the five basic plots come up with lists which completely differ from one another.
3. Thoughtful commentators say it doesn’t make any difference, since the art and craft of story-telling is what makes a story interesting, not the novelty of a plot line.  There’s a lesson for life, because:
4. There is basically only one basic plot: you are born, you do interesting stuff, you die.   Make your stuff as interesting as you can.
5. Reductionism (like saying “there are only five basic plots”) is often rooted in the commentator’s ego or cynicism, so that s/he can appear to be astute, on top of her/his craft, sophisticated, or tired of it all.

One more observation based on my research:  If you are an aspiring writer for Hollywood, do not be deterred when someone tells you “It’s been done.” Keep going!  But beware:  When you finally triumph, and get your novel/script/story/idea into final/polished/published/paid-for form, a reviewer will likely come along and cut you down anyway: “It’s been done badly.”

Don’t give up!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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