How Many Stories Can We Write?

Introduction

I have a fear of repeating myself unnecessarily on Vocal, but sometimes feel that my writing is directed down narrow paths which is at odds with the way that my mind works, which is more tangentially.

In many books and articles I read I see it posited that there are only a limited number of scenarios for stories.

I always want to write something positive, but every story needs some element of jeopardy to make it interesting.

I found this article related to an author I respect as a person as well as loving his books (Stephen King and Terry Pratchett I like as people but don't like much of their writing, though I am in a tiny minority with that)

This is a paragraph taken from it:

Researchers found there are “six core trajectories which form the building blocks of complex narratives”. These are: “rags to riches” (a story that follows a rise in happiness), “tragedy”, or “riches to rags” (one that follows a fall in happiness), “man in a hole” (fall–rise), “Icarus” (rise–fall), “Cinderella” (rise–fall–rise), and “Oedipus” (fall–rise–fall). The most successful – here defined as the most downloaded – types of story, they find, are Cinderella, Oedipus, two sequential man in a hole arcs, and Cinderella with a tragic ending.

So How Many Different Stories Can We Write?

Somebody once said that Bruce Springsteen wrote a novel in the first two lines of his song "Hungry Heart" from "The River"

"Got A Wife And Kids In Baltimore Jack,

I Went Out For A Ride And I Never Came Back"

I am not sure how I can categorise this using the scenarios above. Is leaving his family a Fall-Rise scenario or a Rise-Fall scenario? From those lines, you can extrapolate so much. Was is abusive to his family? Were they abusive to him? Or was it a perfect family but he has met someone else and then leaves his family devastated?

I like the simple idea of the story shape by Vonnegut although the more you look at it , the more complex it becomes.

I would love to have a Rise-Rise scenario though I know many would prefer a Fall-Fall scenario.

Poetry and Children's stories do allow the Rise-Rise in certain instances but when writing for adults it does become more difficult.

A lot of my stories are end-of-days, end-of-things, and complete dystopia scenarios often leaving no hope for those involved. Personally, that is not me, but I find them far easier to write than the Rise scenarios.

Almost all my recent fictions are Rise-Fall or Fall-Fall which shows me to be either lazy or not very original. To paraphrase Vonnegut maybe I am full of it.

I will keep trying to create original and different stories but often I will coincide with other creators.

I tend to write very quickly as planning stories and complete novels seem beyond me. My Sandman and Seagirl series caused me problems because as it develops I have to go back to earlier stories and amend them to ensure that everything flows together.

Overall that is a Fall-Rise followed by Rise-Rise, or that is how I see it, and you can check it out here:

Conclusion

I see a future with a lot of Falls in my stories, but that is because readers do want jeopardy to give them some excitement. Every so often they will want something uplifting, so Fall-Rise and positive poetry are great reads for that.

I would love to be able to write an adult Rise-Rise story that was good enough for my audience and friends and possibly a Vocal Top Story, but that is a Holy Grail that I must keep searching for.

Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope it gives you food for thought.