Tried and true
Top ten plots of all time:
1) Boy meets girl (boy; a goat like no other; all of the above)
2) Boy meets money, boy loses money, etc.
3) Boy meets windmill
4) Boy meets whale
5) Boy meets gun (multiples thereof; may involve aliens)
6) Boy meets The System
7) Boy meets ancestors
8) Boy meets foreigners
9) Boy meets inner whiny self
10) Girl makes casual acquaintance with inner self, realizes she prefers to shop
· · • · ·
Comment
- Don’t forget the classic:
Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl turns out to be a boy. Boy falls for boy anyway.
Too bad Hank Kingsley missed the boat on that one.
— Gord Fynes Jun 29, 9:53pm # - My teacher would say – uhhhn, there is one plot. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy recovers girl. The end. The hero glimpses his prize… entertains and stimulates the reader with the chase… and as the last page is turned, wraps it up with a reward as the prize is earned. I s’pose it could be a prince or a ring or whaddever, but I’ll stick to ‘the girl’.
Joseph Campbell made it a thousand plots with ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ but it pretty much came down to just the one.
Funny – isn’t it – how an anti-hero doesn’t work as a plot motif?
— lenox Jun 29, 10:13pm # - Now where is Lara Croft AND May West in this, me aks?
— Crachà t Jun 29, 11:51pm # - Boy gets born, looks down, discovers prize, follows prize toward girl, conflates prize with girl, surrenders prize to girl in order to get conflated prize/girl ideal signifier, spends rest of story in dynamic negotiation with girl for return of prize – epiphany in fourth act when boy realizes prize belonged to girl from the start, coda:: repeat of initial pursuit with experience-matured boy and girl, music swells, pan back to reveal bower and glade, bird song emerging/subsiding from/into violin chorus, children laugh dogs bark joyfully wise elder couple nod with approval; roll credits.
— Juke Moran Jun 30, 12:48am # - 11) Boy meets God, goes forth to do God’s bidding. (Hilarity or widespread devastation ensues, depending on author.)
— language hat Jun 30, 6:07pm # - So much for Alain Robbe-Grillet: plot and character are outmoded concepts. Bring on “le nouveau roman”.
— roger Jun 30, 8:22pm # - Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, but they can’t be together. Boy makes huge life changes to be with Girl. Girl leaves boy for sailor from Sweden named Olof. Girl claims to still love boy, but wants to “find self”. Boy dies inside.
If only life didn’t imitate art.
— August Jun 30, 11:06pm # - boy meets girl,boy and girl fall in love.boy helps girl move away from poisoned parents relationship,girl screws boys best friend (a fact that girl omits 25 years later in online journal) boy and girl breakup and get back together several times. boy and girl hitchhike to west coast, girl collects welfare for plane ticket home,boy becomes stagehand, boy and girl get married girl runs away to far away land where people smoke too much boy and girl go through new rellationships have kids and divorce. boy and girl find happiness with new partners and they all live happy ever after
— hugo Jul 1, 2:05am # - Boy meets J.D. Salinger (accidentally, of course); boy’s mom contacts Oprah for scoop; boy and Salinger blow off the interview, go banana fishing and never come back; Oprah promotes Nine Stories anyway, because she is mostly pretty cool; boy and Salinger trade stories, while they hold their fishing poles and the rowboat floats…
— peggy Jul 1, 4:45am # - Then, of course, there’s the World According to Shakespeare and Italian Opera: life gets complicated, everybody dies.
— Nick S. Jul 1, 6:34am # - “Plots”? “Plots”? We don’ need no stinkin’ PLOTS!
— Jerry Jul 1, 2:11pm # - Jerry’s right. Why read when you could see the movie version, and why have a plot when we could just watch special effects? Gimme an explosion, coupla weapons and a car chase and you can keep your ol’ plot.
— wizmo Jul 4, 4:59pm # - Boy meets girl. Boil oozes, girl. Boy meats, girl.
— eeksypeeksy Jul 4, 6:16pm # - eek, eeksy. I mean, jeez.
— peggy Jul 6, 6:35am #
commenting closed for this article