The 9 Master Plots for Bestsellers & Blockbusters

By Meg North

"Twilight" is a Hero-and-the-Monster plot with a Happy Love ending. "The Hunger Games" is Utopia/Dystopia, and "Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest" is a Nautical Adventure. Millions of viewers tune in to the popular "CSI" television series, and all three variations use the Cat-and-Mouse plot. "The Lord of the Rings" is Fantasy Adventure, and "Romeo and Juliet" is the quintessential Doomed Love plot.

How would you like to write bestsellers like "Pride and Prejudice" (Happy Love) or blockbusters like "Braveheart" (Epic War)? Make it easier by using the 9 Master Plots!

Each of these classic story structure plots contains key elements to help you tell timeless, yet fresh stories again and again. The 9 Master Plots can be used again and again in each novel or screenplay you finish. They work for any story, too. Once you start using them to structure your storytelling, you'll wonder how you got from page 1 to page 300 without them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meg North
• Release date: Apr 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311587688

Meg North

New England author and historian Meg North is a seven-year active member of the Maine Historical Society and Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Her specialty is New England history in the mid-1800s Civil War era. For four years, she appeared as a Civil War re-enactor and newsletter publisher with the 3rd Maine Union Regiment. She also attended the National Honors Society conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 2004, delivering a highly acclaimed paper on the Civil War. While living in Gettysburg, she completed her first Civil War novel, “Daniel’s Garden.” As a ten-year Portland, Maine resident, North has given historical tours to thousands of visitors and features local historical buildings in her work. Meg also contributes to other New England historical sites, including Walden Pond and the Thoreau Society, Alcott’s Orchard House, Ralph Waldo Emerson's house, the Old Manse, the House of the Seven Gables, Melville’s Arrowhead Museum, the Poe Society, and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society. She also generously contributes to numerous historical and literary organizations, including Deerfield Village, Old Sturbridge Village, the Charles Dickens Fellowship, the Bronte Society, the Jane Austen Society of North America, the Victorian Society in America, and Historic New England. She passionately supports the societies and museums dedicated to the brilliant writers and thinkers of the 19th century.

Book preview

1

Your Literary Recipe

Being a great writer is a lot like being a great chef. Sure, you’ve got to have some passion for cooking, but a lot of it comes from practice, hard work, and great tools – like sharpened knives, well-made cookware, and a tested recipe that works.

As a writer, some of your necessary tools are a word processor, a thesaurus, and a basic understanding of how a story is constructed. You wouldn’t serve a dinner party without a few excellent recipes to help you – likewise, to draft 300 pages for a story, you’ve got to have an excellent writing recipe to follow.

That’s where the amazing 9 Plots come in. They are a story’s basic how-to manual, like a recipe for a dish. The 9 Plots each contain a list of ingredients like a Hero, a Villain, and other characters. They also have step-by-step instructions to follow, which is the Three-Act structure. Act One is the beginning of your story, Act Two is the middle, and Act Three is the end.

Just like a chef, you can flavor and season your story’s plot however you like. Customize it with a new genre twist, a unique Hero, or an unexpected Villain. Work within the 9 Plots to make them your own. You’ll have a lot of fun creating new stories and revitalizing old ones. You can use the 9 Plots in any type of creative writing, from a short story to a novel to a play to a screenplay.

I use the 9 Plots with all of my own stories. I have drastically cut down on the amount of brainstorming time and it makes the difficult process of structuring novels a lot easier. Once I have chosen the Main Plot I want to use from the 9 Plots, then it’s time to custom-tailor the plot to the story I want to tell. When I’m writing about the Civil War, naturally I’ll use Epic War! A love story can be Happy Love or Doomed Love. Utopia/Dystopia fascinates me with its epic themes of survival and self-reliance. When I go to the movies, though, I’m usually in the mood for Fantasy Adventure!

Once you’ve met the 9 Plots, you’ll be amazed at how common they are. What you’ll discover – and this is so cool – is that every story you’ve ever read and film you’ve ever seen features at least one of the 9 Plots! They are based on the human experience, historical occurrences, ancient myths, and centuries of storytelling. They are timeless and they work.

Why do they work?

It’s because they’re based on universal Hero wants. A Hero wants something – and they’ll overcome amazing obstacles, nasty characters, forces of nature, and twists of fate to get it. Character drives plot, not the other way around. Figure out what your Hero wants, and you’ll figure out which of the 9 Plots you’re using.

The 9 Plots are useful no matter what genre you write: comedy, action-adventure, horror, romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, or historical/Western. I’ve included plenty of book and film examples to help you personalize your plot to your genre.

In the following chapters, you’ll meet each of the 9 Plots. I’m sure you’ll recognize at least one in your own work. Try a different one on for size, or become a master at just one. Read the book examples and watch the recommended films. See what other writers are doing with the 9 Plots. What twists have they added? How was the Hero? Was the Villain ‘bad’ enough? What about the pacing? You can easily apply these questions to your own work – and become a better writer in the process.

The more deeply you understand your Hero’s want behind the 9 Plots, the better a writer you’ll become. Your bestsellers and blockbusters will provide new examples for future writers to learn from. Writing is a craft, like cooking, to be practiced often as an emotionally satisfying creative process. Once you’ve got a great tool, you’re ready to make something amazing.

So, let’s take a peek at the amazing recipes behind the 9 Plots. What will you practice crafting today?

2

The Utopia/Dystopia Story

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!

– Dante’s Inferno

The Utopia/Dystopia story is as old as humanity and as contemporary as post-modern fiction. Adam and Eve were cast out of the Utopia Garden of Eden and into the Dystopia of reality. The famous pair could never return to their idyllic home. Later in the Bible, the Book of Revelation features horrifying prophetic visions and a detailed description of the apocalypse. These two Biblical stories form the core themes of Utopia/Dystopia.

The Utopia/Dystopia story is about the downfall of the Hero, either caused by a Villain (usually a devil-esque or overlord-type character), an act of cataclysmic proportions (like in apocalypse stories), or his/her own character flaws (which turns the Hero into an Anti-Hero).

Utopias and Dystopias have flourished side by side for centuries. The Roman Empire was both a Utopia for the senators and emperors in power and a Dystopia for persecuted and martyred Christians. After the fall of the Roman Empire, a Dystopic story in and of itself, an intellectual and creative darkness reigned during the Medieval era. Constant barbarian skirmishing ravaged the villages, thousands left home to fight in the Crusades, and plagues and famine devastated huge swaths of the European population. Meanwhile in Turkey, Emperor Constantine established the Utopian Byzantine Empire with its stunning religious art and gorgeous architecture.

Then the Renaissance blossomed and Utopia was restored throughout the rest of Europe. Science, art, invention, and architecture flourished. Surrealist artist Hieronymus Bosch depicted both Eden and Hell in his Garden of Earthly Delights paintings.

Thanks to the newly invented printing press, classics from this time provide excellent examples of the story. Dante’s Divine Comedy included both Utopic ideals