All of us writers have a well we visit when we do our thing. Scribes like Raymond Carver, Jim Carroll and even Bukowski infused much of their own experiences into what they created.
Most mainstream authors, though, are plot-driven and may be compelled (even subconsciously) to perhaps "borrow" elements from different material. If you really wanna see how few plots there really are, check out The Writers Digest book "20 Master Plots and How to Use Them." Great book...
This brings me to something quite humorous I found online. James Cameron’s billion-dollar grossing "Avatar" just may be Disney’s "Pocahontas" in disguise.
For years, many screenwriters have been constructing their scripts to Joseph Campbell’s Heroes Journey, the mythic structure that has been utilized in many many Hollywood films. To illustrate, the underlying structure of Campbell’s teachings, check out the two staggering examples of what I mean after the jump.
Ha! As I suspected... there are no new stories ;^)
ReplyDeleteI guess the challenge is in telling old stories in a fresh way; hence, yes, every story SHOULD be character-driven :^0
I always thought Yoda and Dumbledore kinda seemed the same.
Peace, Linda
OMG, I'm a fraud. Pour me a drink, would ya? ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's so obvious yet i wouldn't really have thought so just by thinking about the films. as for Avatar...i can't watch any movie that takes a hot piece like Zoe Saldana and covers her in blue. but i'm superficial in that way.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the previews for Avatar- I thought of Pocahontas! This is so funny. I havent seen the movie and I won't (I'm so sick of politcally correctedness). Still giggling about Linda's Dumbledore/ Yoda comment. ;)
ReplyDeleteBut Cinderella and The Godfather are still their own plotted entities, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd Butch and Sundance - they're unique right? (Yeah, I'm laughing at Linda's insight on Yoda and Dumbledore too)
Good feature and analysis Ant. Can I get that book on my NOOK?
TAKE ME OUT TO THE MOVIES,
~ Absolutely*Kate
I'd say that the Hero's Journey, and other such frameworks, are not ideas, more large-scale, tried and tested narrative structures we can hang our own ideas onto.
ReplyDeleteSuch things should be useful, not limiting. An antedote to reading things like this is to go read Chekhov, a writer who breaks all the rules and gets away with it gloriously:
http://bookwormtrails.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-undiscovered-chekhov-by
Oops, I meant "antidote". Antedote has interesting possible meanings though ;)
ReplyDeleteEvery story is the Oddyssey, or part of it. I'm sticking to that. ;)
ReplyDeleteNo wonder I have such trouble coming up with an original plot. There are none!
ReplyDelete