Recycling: Plots, Tropes, Stories
Theorists have been going on about how there are only X number of plots or dramatic situations or whatever that drive all fiction. A friend of a friend here on lj linked to an interesting little post about it on a mystery/thriller blog called Kill Zone: Tired of the Same old Formulas by John Ramsey Miller. The poster mentioned the 36 dramatic situations idea. I've also read things about 12 essential plots or even all the way down to the man versus. . . lists. We all get that there's nothing new under the sun and it's our job to recycle, and recycle well. When we recycle badly, we get a story that looks like that sweater that Aunt Mildred knitted out of those plastic rings that hold soda cans together. The really sad ones aren't the soda ring stories, but the stories that look like they're going to be really fresh, but then you discover it's thin lacquer over the same old thing. Yeah, I'm on a demented craft-project metaphor binge. :P
Recently we watched a movie, "Mail Order Bride" (2008) that looked like it might be fun. It was not fun, it was lacquered tissue boxes. The mail order bride category of Westerns is fairly narrow. This was a Western with some Romance, not a Romance stuffed into a Western setting, big difference. Yes, really. You know the story is going to go a couple of ways and there's not a lot of wiggle room. This one chose the "bride is not exactly who she should be" version, with what could have been the nicely added twist of "and neither is the groom!" Even with innovations that should have made the story more sympathetic and accessible for modern sensibilities, the whole thing came off terribly flat and cliched. And of course sensible people ask, well, what were you expecting out of a story labeled "Mail Order Bride?".
Listen, people. It's not that it's been done to death. It's that it's been done to death in the same way too many times. The sad thing for me is that I could see what this story could have been, if the writer would have taken a few risks and pushed a little more. There's a moral tale for my own writing in there. I'm not sure I should try any mail order bride stories though. Mail order bride. . .In space!! :P
Recently we watched a movie, "Mail Order Bride" (2008) that looked like it might be fun. It was not fun, it was lacquered tissue boxes. The mail order bride category of Westerns is fairly narrow. This was a Western with some Romance, not a Romance stuffed into a Western setting, big difference. Yes, really. You know the story is going to go a couple of ways and there's not a lot of wiggle room. This one chose the "bride is not exactly who she should be" version, with what could have been the nicely added twist of "and neither is the groom!" Even with innovations that should have made the story more sympathetic and accessible for modern sensibilities, the whole thing came off terribly flat and cliched. And of course sensible people ask, well, what were you expecting out of a story labeled "Mail Order Bride?".
Listen, people. It's not that it's been done to death. It's that it's been done to death in the same way too many times. The sad thing for me is that I could see what this story could have been, if the writer would have taken a few risks and pushed a little more. There's a moral tale for my own writing in there. I'm not sure I should try any mail order bride stories though. Mail order bride. . .In space!! :P