I’m going to go non fiction next, with The Seven Basic Plots: why we tell stories, by Christopher Booker. I had just begun the Open University’s creative writing course. My first assignment had been a short story which remains one of my wife’s favourites. However my tutor gave it 67%. He enjoyed the writing but didn’t know what the point of the story was. A day or so later we were watching University Challenge and a question was “who wrote The Seven Basic Plots or why we tell stories?” I thought, I don’t know, but I need to read it. I did. My next assignment scored 98%. I entered it in a short story competition run by Bridgehouse Publishing and was shortlisted. It’s the final story in Something Hidden.
The Seven Basic Plots is a big book, but every aspiring writer should read it. Want to know what the seven plots are? Overcoming the monster, e.g. every James Bond book. Tragedy, how the monster becomes the monster, e.g. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Macbeth. Rags to riches, e.g. Jane Eyre, David Copperfield. Quest, e.g. Voyage and return, e.g. The Wizard of Oz, Brideshead Revisited. Comedy, e.g. Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace. Rebirth, e.g. A Christmas Carol, Snow White. This book has really helped me with my creative writing, I comment it.