Mary Brotherton

Archive for July, 2009

1. Overcoming the monster — defeating some force, which threatens such as in Star Wars or James Bond. 2. The Quest — typically a group sets off in search of something and usually finds it as in Watership Down, Pilgrim’s Progress, Lord of the Rings. 3. Journey and Return — the hero journeys away from [...]

Condensing George Polti’s list of 36: 1 – [wo]man vs. nature 2 – [wo]man vs. man 3 – [wo]man vs. the environment 4 – [wo]man vs. machines/technology 5 – [wo]man vs. the supernatural 6 – [wo]man vs. self 7 – [wo]man vs. god/religion

Georges Polti developed a list to help writers and wrote a book with the same title that has explanations, examples, and variations. Most believe all situations in any story are supposed to fall into one of these categories. There may be more than one situation in the plot of a long story. Many of the [...]