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The seven ways to tell a story

In the Observer’s Book of Books they outline Christopher Booker’s Seven basic plots found in storytelling. Interesting way of thinking about the theme to a creative brief, the story behind your presentation or even the brand narrative if you believe in such things.

Deer_stories_booklet

In a world where being interesting is just as essential as being salient, I think think this is good way to frame stimulating thinking.

They are:

Overcome a monster

Rags to Riches

A quest

Voyage and return 

Comedy – usually a nightmarish comedy of errors

Tragedy

Rebirth

Honda is very much about quest to me, so is the famous Tesco work with Dudley Moore. I guess much of the VW Golf work has a tragedy worked in, espescially the Great Pretender. Much of challenger brand thinking is about overcoming a big bullying enemy this is one of my favourite Irn Bru ads that neatly destabilised Coke and co etc, etc.

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3 responses to “The seven ways to tell a story”

  1. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    Thanks for reminding me about the 7 classic storylines – and maybe it’s just me [which lets be honest is more than likely] but it seems more and more Hollywood movies are trying to feature all these story themes into each flick rather than focus on one.
    Obviously I’m not saying every movie features a monster like ‘King Kong’ [just think a ‘bad guy] – but in their quest to have a hit, it does seem they’re trying to follow a ‘mass story line’ process rather than writing one great movie around one great theme.
    Process over content? Sounds like adland!

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  2. John Avatar
    John

    Sod Booker. Jospeh Campbell’s the man for this. Read “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.”
    Campbell’s work is about “monomyth” – the ubiquity and commonality of narratives; how narrative (or myth) has always always played a powerful role in our lives.
    The seven basic plots are just seven ways of telling the same story: the story/myth of the hero’s journey, which – Campbell argues – is the most powerful, important narrative/archetype of all.
    There’s a hero’s journey at the centre of all 7 of those plots.
    Why is the hero important? Because the hero re-invigorates his/her society and is the seed of change.
    Basically, the hero’s the coolest guy around.
    So. Does every ad need/have a hero?
    Agree/disagree/discuss

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  3. Will Avatar
    Will

    I’d say that every ad has either a hero or an anti-hero.
    Whether that person is a person, or a personification (ie, the sea/age in Guinness ‘Surfer’), I think is open.

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