Four Chords and Seven Basic Plots

I remember being surprised when I learn about Christopher Booker’s theory that every story fits into one of seven basic plots.  It seemed to me that there was such a variety of stories out there.  How could they all be reduced to seven basic plots?  And as an aspiring writer who is constantly bombarded by the idea that agents and publishers are looking for something original, the idea that every story ever written fits into one of these seven patterns is a bit disheartening.  How many original stories can come from seven basic plots?

Maybe a lot more than you would think.

My husband showed me this YouTube video a few weeks ago by a group called The Axis of Awesome, a comedy band.  In the video, they showed how all the greatest hits in the past forty years are based on the same four chords, and by repeating those four chords, you can sing almost any pop song ever written.  I found the whole thing fascinating because a lot of the songs that I knew were really so different from each other even though they all used the same basic four chords.

So below are two of the Axis of Awesome’s four chords YouTube videos.  In the first one, they discuss what a four chord song is and list all the titles of the songs they used while playing them.  The second one is their music video which is just funny.  I will give a warning that there is some strong language (very little actually), but don’t let that keep you from watching it.  It is pretty funny and also amazing to see how all these songs use the same four chords.

I don’t know anything about composing music, so link here to someone more knowledgeable to explain why those four chords are so magical if you’re curious.  The above link talks about how the four chords is just one aspect of a song, the harmony, but music contains so many other elements like “melody, rhythm, tempo, meter, dynamics, articulation, and timbre.”  Maybe I’m over-estimating a bit, but I think by tweaking other variables there may be an infinite number of songs that can be composed based on these four chords.

I’m sure you can see where I’m going here.  Stories also have a lot more aspects to them then plot.  There is characters, setting, tone, style, theme, conflict, etc.  I think you could take one of these seven basic plots and by changing the other story variables come up with an infinite number of stories. 

I’m not really sure if every story can be boiled down to one of Booker’s seven basic plots, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they could.  I believe all stories have familiar patterns in them and part of becoming a good story teller is getting a feel either consciously or subconsciously for those patterns.  For some reason, maybe it is because they are somewhat familiar, we are drawn to those patterns.

Maybe that is the same with the four chord songs, that there is a familiar pattern there that we find so appealing.  Maybe what we want from stories and songs and art in general is something familiar and surprising at the same time.

Happy writing and Happy New Year’s.

~MaryAnn

2012 Fall Reviews, 2013 Winter Book List and a Link

I recently read a blog post I wanted to discuss today. But I really wanted to do my seasonal book list too.  In an act of supreme indecisiveness, I'm doing both!

Here's the link to the blog post:

Janette Rallison: The Question I Haven't Been Asked and the Question That Still Makes Me Think

Are you careful about things like this as you write? I have one scene--where two of my characters meet. And dangit, that's the way they meet! I can't change it, just because I disapprove. But that doesn't mean I can put it in the book. I try to write books I wouldn't be embarassed to let my children read. I'm still not sure how I'm going to handle that in revisions. Feel free to discuss...

2012 Fall Book Reviews

Wow. I've read a lot in the past 4 months. Here are the highlights. To keep things simple, if I liked it, I wrote: "I liked it." If I loved it, I wrote, "I loved it." J If I didn't like it, I'll mention why.

1. The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

Unfinished. It wasn't my cup of tea. No likable characters and terrible language is a bad combo for me. 

2. The Grand Tour: Or the Purloined Coronation Regalia 

by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer 

(The sequel to Sorcery and Cecelia) I liked it. It's the story of Kate, Thomas, Cecy and James's shared honeymoon, where they thwart a plot to take over Europe.

3. Legend by Marie Lu

Imagine Hunger Games as a mystery, with a (slightly) faster blooming romance. Yep. It was that good. I loved it.

4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

I liked it better than Divergent, and I'll keep reading the series.

5. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Sarah finally convinced me to read this one, even though I don't like sad stories. Which is silly, because this isn't really a sad story, although you won't believe me until you've read it yourself.  Loved it.

6. Red Glove by Holly Black 

(sequel to White Cat)--I liked this one. In fact, Black Heart is the next book in my stack.

7. Kill Switch by Chris Lynch

I was extremely disappointed by this book. The characters were amoral and unlikable. I kept reading it because it had such an awesome premise, but it never came through.

 

8. The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson 

(sequel to Girl of Fire and Thorns!!!)--If you haven't read Girl of Fire and Thorns, drop everything and read it. If you've read it, you've got to read The Crown of Embers. I'm in love with these books!

9. The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus book 3) 

by Rick Riordan

I really liked this book. I'm not as crazy about The Heroes of Olympus as I was about the Percy Jackson series, but it's still a lot of fun.

10. Reached by Ally Condie

The final book in the Matched trilogy. It was my favorite book of the series. I liked it.

11. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Being a connoisseur of all things Horatio Hornblower, when I heard about this book, I had to give it a try.  It was pretty brilliant, but nonetheless I'm not in a huge hurry to read the next one. Someday.

12. Scarlet! By A.C. Gaugen

I couldn't stand the way she used the word "were" whenever she meant "was" but other than that, I enjoyed this book--it's a Robin Hood story told as though Will Scarlett was actually a girl, and only Little John and Robin Hood know.

***13. The Hero's Guide To Saving Your Kingdom*** 

by Christopher Healy 

This might be my favorite book this year.  It's middle grade heaven. I loved it!

14. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart 

This was a reread. I liked it. If I had liked the ending more, I would have loved it. As it is, I'm saving my opinion until I know if there's a sequel or not.

15. Screwing Up Time by C.M. Keller. 

This is one of my favorite books I've found for my kindle so far. Right now, it's only 99 cents. AND the sequel (Screwing Up Bablylon) just came out. 

16. Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards 

I read this book, and then my daughter read it, and she pointed out something I had missed--this story is set in the world of Logan and Samantha from All's Fair in Love, War and High School! Logan is one of my favorite characters EVER, and even though he doesn't show up in this book, Samantha does--I just didn't recognize her when seen from another character's eyes. As I've mentioned before, I LOVE Janette Rallison.  I liked this one.

17. Masquerade--

Sometimes LOVING books by Janette Rallison can be embarrassing when you're in your forties.  Hurray for Masquerade! It's all that trademark silly romance that I love so much, but the characters in Masquerade are all grown up.  I liked this one too.

My Winter 2013 Reading List

1. Black Heart by Holly Black (Book 3 in the Curse Workers series)  

2. Persuaded by Jenni James

3. Palace of Stone (Princess Academy2) by Shannon Hale

4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

5. Ruins by Orson Scott Card (Book 2 of Lost Gate series)

6. The Outcasts by John Flanagan (this has been on my list for a while.)

7. Screwing Up Babylon by. C.M. Keller (sequel to Screwing Up Time)

8. Prodigy by Marie Lu (sequel to Legend)

9. Princess of Glass  by Jessica Day George (sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball)

10. An Abundance of Katherines  by John Green

11. Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

Would you like to add a book? Please do.

And don't forget to tell me your thoughts on Janette Rallison's post.

Games, Games, Games

My daughter got an Operation game for Christmas. It made me smile remembering the hours I spent as a kid trying so hard to pick out that funny bone and not touch those metal edges. Growing up, one of the things I was blessed with was a family who loved to play games. I've written before about the epic Scrabble battles we used to have. It seemed like there was always some board game spread out somewhere.

I've been blessed a second time with a husband who has the same love of play. So, with Christmas behind us, and the New Year and many months of winter still ahead, I thought I'd share some of our family's favorite games with you. I hope you'll reciprocate with some of your own in the comments - we're always looking for something new to play.

For the Young Set

Chutes and Ladders and Candyland are always perennial favorites. Here are a few more that might tickle your little one's fancy.

 Zingo!

Okay, I lie. This game isn't only for the young. It's addictive. With a simple pictoral bingo board and plastic picture chips delivered by an ingeneous dispenser, this is a fast paced game the youngest kids can play and the oldest kids can still enjoy. I can't say enough about how fun this game is.

 Sequence for Kids

This board game, filled with colorful animals, challenges kids to use their cards to get four animals in a row. The luck of the draw is important, but so is strategy to block and outmaneuver opponents. We had a lot of fun when the kids were young playing this one. 

Older, But Not Necessarily Wiser

(Or More Mature) 

 

 Munchkin

Ah, where would our family be without Munchkin? This hilarious tongue-in-cheek card game is based on D&D  with a choice of cleric, thief, mage or warrior. But with monsters to fight such as the Ether Bunny and the Bi-Polar Bear, curses to face (including Chicken on Your Head) and rewards (Bribe the GM - Go Up A Level!), this game will have you chuckling, snorting and guffawing the whole time. There are tons of add on packs, too, to keep the fun going.

 The Farming Game

Yay! The Whole Valley Is Green!
This game was literally created on the seat of a tractor. A farmer from the valleys of Eastern Washington (where my own grandpa was a farmer!) came up with the idea for the Farming Game when he wanted to show us city-slickers what it was like to really work. This is probably the most board-gamey of my suggestions. Players roll dice and move around the board planting and harvesting hay, wheat, cows and fruit (Fruitage! - sorry, we used to have all night tournies in college and they got a little - uh, yeah). Just when you think you're in the clear, Wham! the fruit borer beetle decimates your harvest, or the IRS swoops in and garnishes your wages for the year. But when things go right just that once and you get that $80k payout - wow, what a feeling. Ha ha. Great memories with this game.

 Curses

This is an all time favorite. On a player's turn they draw a challenge card, which is an action they must perform ('You are a grade school bully. Try to take another player's lunch money.' 'You are in a TV soap opera. Tell another player why you can never marry them.') That's funny enough, but things really get wild when the player then draws a curse card which they can hand out to any other player ('You are a Vulcan. Whenever you laugh, say, "That is not funny." with a straight face.' 'Whenever you speak, use your arms to do some dance moves.'). The curse is in force for the duration of the game and must be performed at all times. Curses can also be compounded with other curses, so people often end up with a combination like this: 'Speak only in a high-pitched falsetto voice,' AND 'You are Mr. T. Whenever you speak, say "I pity the fool," AND 'Whenever you speak, a swarm of invisible mosquitoes surrounds your head. Swat them away.' AND 'Whenever someone makes an animal noise, shout the name of a lunch meat (in a high falsetto voice, first saying, 'I pity the fool,' and swatting yourself).'
Try this one. Seriously.

 Ugg - Tect

My husband just gave this one to us this Christmas, and I think it's shaping up to be another winner. You are part of a team of cavemen. Your task is to listen to your team's Ugg-Tect to create a structure using colorful building blocks before your rivals finish theirs (Only the Ugg-Tect can see the structure plan card). Communication is only allowed with a few gestures, guteral grunts, and a blow-up 'wooden' club (complete with spikes!) Yep, that's our kind of game, all right!

So, now that you've gotten to know my family's tastes probably a little too much, what games do you and yours enjoy?

~Susan

Boekweg Family Christmas Story Tradition

Merry Christmas, Prosers Everywhere! I hope you are all bundled up with the people you love, drinking eggnog, and ignoring the fat content...just like I am.

Every year, my kids and I have a tradition. We sit around the computer and make up a story. It's all my kids,  I just gently prod them with questions, and type.

In case you are wondering how to start your own story telling tradition. I'll share the first starter questions and their responses. Hope it inspires you to start your own tradition, because this is my favorite.

Me: If you could tell a Christmas story about anyone who would it be.

Boy Child: The Grinch!
Girl Child: No Santa.

Fighting commences.

Me: Okay stop fighting, how about we tell a story about how the Grinch met Santa.

Children: Yay!

Me: Okay, so where did they meet?

Girl Child: The North Pole.

Me: Great! So how did the Grinch get to the North Pole?

Boy Child: I know, The Grinch lives in California, and he...

Commence Typing.

Granted my children are brilliant and creative. Most kids are.  Why not see how brilliant and creative your children are, they might surprise you.

When the story stalls, I ask questions like, "What does the North Pole look like? What clothes is Santa wearing? What does he say?" When that all fails to spur on the story, I ask my favorite question, "And then what happened?"

All dialog, description, plot twists, and store names are brought to you by my children.

And here, in it's fresh and festive glory, is the Boekweg Family Christmas Story 2012. Enjoy!

The Grinch and Santa

By The Boekweg Kids

The Grinch lives in California, and wanted to go visit his mother in Ohio. So he bought a plane ticket, but there was a mix up. The pilot  accidentally put the wrong destination into the plane, which sent him to the North Pole.

So the Grinch, wearing a blue sweater and pink earmuffs, got off the plane.

“This doesn’t look like Ohio,” said the Grinch.

The North Pole is icy, and close to Greenland, (not Iceland. Weird, right?). The plane left the Grinch with only a few people from Greenland who were waiting for their Christmas trees to be delivered, because there are no trees in Greenland. (again, weird)

The Grinch was feeling very sad. He missed his mom so bad. He went to a store to get some hot chocolate, and there behind the counter at the hot chocolate store was Santa, the big guy himself. Santa was wearing red and white clothes, and black boots. He had a white beard, and there were elves helping Santa add the marshmallows to the hot chocolate, and blow on the hot chocolate, so it wasn’t too hot.

The Grinch took a drink of hot chocolate, “Santa,” he asked between sips, “am I on the naughty list?”

“Yes,” said Santa.

The Grinch frowned. “No, you’re on the naughty list.”

“No,” said Santa, “you’re on the naughty list.”

“No,” said the Grinch, “You’re on the naughty list.”

“Let me have your hot chocolate back,” said Santa

“No,” said the Grinch. “I need it, I’m so sad.”

“Why are you sad,” asked Santa.

“Because I miss my mom. I’m on the table”, said the Grinch, laying on the table.

“Blah,” said Santa

“I slapped myself.” said the Grinch, as he slapped himself and spilled all of his hot chocolate onto his earmuffs.

“Okay?” asked Santa.

“Poop,” said the Grinch as he wrung out the hot chocolate from his earmuffs into a cup, and then dumped the cup on Santa’s hat.

“Mom!” said Santa.

“Toot,” said the Grinch

“I just want to be done,” said Santa, and he walked away and started playing games on abcmouse.com.

So the Grinch walked away from Santa and the hot chocolate store, and went to a different hot chocolate store, called Home Depot.

So the Grinch was at Home Depot, and bought some more hot chocolate. I have to find my way to Ohio, thought the Grinch.

One of the workers said, “Hey, I have twenty plane tickets you can have. Grab one of these tickets and go back to the airport and go to Ohio.”

That was oddly specific, thought the Grinch as he took a ticket, said nothing, and walked away.

So then he went to the airport at the North Pole, but there were no planes, and the plane ticket wasn’t a 

plane ticket it was a trap. There was a scanner near the airport, and it had this thing on it, and it scanned the fake plane ticket and a cage fell on him. He was trapped.

Luckily, the Grinch was so thin, he escaped through the bars of the cage and said. “I’m out!”

But nobody heard him, because he was all alone.

"I know how I’ll get home," said the Grinch, to no one, because he was all alone.

It was Christmas Eve, so the Grinch walked to Santa’s workshop and sneaked into the bag of presents. So when Santa flew to Ohio, the Grinch stole a few presents, jumped off of the sleigh, and walked to his mom’s house.

“I missed you so much,” said the Grinch’s mom.

“Poop,” said the Grinch as he handed her the present. It was a one thousand dollar gift card for hot chocolate.

“I don’t know what this is,” said the Grinch’s mom.

“Say thank you,” said the Grinch

“No. You say thank you,” said the Grinch’s mom.

“Ank you! Ank you! Ank you!”

“Whatever.”

The End.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I know I was going to post about romance writing this week, but the fact is, I've been wrapped up in Christmas so entirely that I can't seem to think outside the (gift) box.  So this week I'm talking about one of my favorite Christmas activities: watching movies.

Here's a list of the top five movies I watch every year, and why I love them.

5. Holiday Inn

There is something about Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire fighting over Marjorie Reynolds throughout various holiday parties that makes this movie one of my all-time favorites, never mind that it's in black and white.  Of course, this is also the first movie (out of three!) to feature Bing singing White Christmas, which bumps it up considerably on my list.  Now if only I could whistle like he does...

 



4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

 

How can anyone resist the underdog that ends up saving Christmas?  This one was my favorite when I was little, and now that I have little ones of my own, it's climbed back up to the top five.  Although the sheer number of times my kids have watched this movie in the past week should have cured me of my nostalgic affection, I can't help myself.  It keeps my kids quiet for almost an hour, and any movie that can do that is okay in my book.

3. The Muppet Christmas Carol

When I was a teenager, my parents used to take us to the community theater every year to see one of Charles Dickens most enduring tales on stage, and although I wouldn't trade that time with my family for anything, I have to say, The Muppets' production of A Christmas Carol will always be my favorite.  It may have something to do with the fact that, again, it keeps my children glued to their seats, but I suspect that's only half the reason.  Michael Caine is, in my opinion, the most lovable Scrooge to grace the silver screen.  (No offence to my mom and her favorite Scrooge, Reginald Owen!)

 

2. The Sound of Music

This may not be the first movie that comes to mind when you hear the words "Christmas movie" but it is one of my "can't miss" movies every year.  What else can I say, Julie Andrews is a rock star.  The songs are really what MAKE this movie, but without the fantastic actors, and the writers (can't forget about them) to flesh it out, it would just be a fun soundtrack.

 

1. White Christmas

 

I laugh like a kid when Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye hike up their pants and perform "Sisters."  And I cringe every time Emma, played by Mary Wickes, opens her big mouth to Rosemary Clooney's character, gossiping about things she only half heard and DIDN'T understand over the phone.  Still, it all works out in the end.  Best of all, it makes my dad tear up every time the general inspects his troops.  Gotta love a family tear-jerker.

 

There is one more movie that didn't make the list, not because I don't love it, but because it got attached to the wrong December celebration.  A Christmas Story probably belongs in the number one spot, but it misses because it has become a birthday tradition in my family.  (This isn't a shameless plug, I swear.)  My birthday happens to be Christmas Eve, and until I hit seventh grade, I couldn't image having a more awful birthday (except maybe Christmas.) 

 

Then I met what soon became my best friend, who shared the same birthday.  She understood about the "two in one" presents and the "Oh, sorry honey, I didn't have birthday wrapping paper" conundrum.  Not to mention the lack of parties.  So we decided to turn our birthday into a movie marathon.  I'm not sure which one of us picked A Christmas Story--I think it just sort of worked out that way.  There's not a lot to choose from come December 24, so we caved to the holiday pressure and embraced a Christmas Eve birthday.  Thus, A Christmas Story birthday marathon was born, and endures to this very day. (Or rather, tomorrow.)

 

 

 

What are your favorite holiday movies, and why do you love them?



Creating Languages

I’m a big podcast listener. One of my favorites, PRI’s TheWorld, is an international news program. One of the subjects they focus on from time to time is the state of languages around the world. Last week, they featured a story about languages created by fantasy authors.

Here's the whole story, if you're interested, and here is a link to the transcript. But you don't need to listen to it to follow the rest of my post.

Their main focus was Tolkien, of course. But they also presented interviews with Ursula LeGuin and China Miéville.

Here is my favorite quote from the interview, where the reporter is talking to China Miéville about a language he created for his novel Embassytown.

It’s a language that mimics language of the garden of Eden, where the word is the thing. In other words, there’s no difference between an apple, and the word for an apple.The Ariekei can’t lie.

“If they want to use figurative speech at all they have to construct a situation which they can then refer to,” says Miéville.“If you wanted say ‘oh I feel like an angry lion today’ you would have to get a lion and make it angry. Otherwise you couldn’t say it because it didn’t exist.”

Now THAT would make for some interesting arguments!

Though I’m fascinated and awed by the idea of creating my own languages, I can’t say the idea holds much appeal to me. It sounds to me like way too much work. I mean, I haven’t even grasped the nuances of pacing and character yet! I've so far failed at even coming up with good curse words or sayings unique to my fantasy worlds.

I’ve actually been thinking a lot lately about stages of writing. When I was a very beginning writer, the idea of research made me nervous. Research, to me, seemed like a hindrance to the process and the flow of the writing I was doing, something to get in the way with the task I love.

The fact that I was in graduate school at the time may have had something to do with that particular view on research.

But since then, I’ve come to think of research differently. It stopped being a hindrance and turned into a joy, a learning opportunity. I stopped regarding it as something I had to do to impress editors, and instead became something I wanted to do in order to delve deeper into these worlds boiling in the back of my mind. Now I have a long list of things I can’t wait to look up and learn about.

It gives me hope. Sometimes I chide myself for not doing everything perfectly the first time. But as I keep arguing, writing is a process, a skill. Perfection doesn’t come right away. It's a cumulative effort: the more I know, the more I want to learn.

So I’ll keep a hold of those links, just in case.

What worldbuilding or other intricate writing skill do you hope to someday achieve?

Tragedy

This is the last time I’m going to blog before Christmas, and I planned to write a post on Christmas music and how it perfectly captures that essence of Christmas.  But in light of the tragic events on Friday, I don’t really feel the Christmas spirit right now.

I had a hard time dropping my second grader off to school these last two mornings.  I bet a lot of parents did.  That place that has always felt so safe has lost that innocence.  In all of these tragic shootings that have happened over the years, I naively believed that no one would be evil enough to specifically seek out and target young children.  And now that hope that these monsters would have some semblance of humanity is gone.

 Pure evil exists.  There is no doubt about that.

But pure love exists too, and in reading about what transpired, I am in awe of the courage and strength of the teachers and workers at the school.  Who shielded children from the gunman, risked their lives to pull children to safety, and made sure every door was locked, who had the presence of mind to tell the students how much they loved them fearing that might be the last words they ever heard.  My heart goes out to the brave the first responders who rushed to the scene and the emergency room workers who prepared for victims that never came. 

So many people in that community proved that they would do anything to protect and save and shield those sweet innocent children from the horror, and I wish that love was enough to save them all, but I know those courageous adults did everything they could.

They were heroes, every one of them. 

And to the families that lost loved ones, I know my grief isn’t as deep as yours because I cannot fathom how deep your pain must be, but I want you to know that I am grieving with you.  I think the whole nation is.  And in a way, your children are our children, and your loss is our loss.

 My thoughts and prayers and love go out to all of you that has suffered from this heinous crime.  May you find peace.

~MaryAnn