I am addressing a lecture that we had quite a few weeks ago but has just to mind due to a friend of mine and myself have been writing a script, a melange of a few genres, though towards the end more sci-fi, although our script doesn’t follow all the usual tropes or the standard archetypal hero monomyth however we do still cover a few of these elements.
The Hero Monomyth – Joseph Campbell.
This sequence of events can be used with most adventure stories or films, which in turn usually from novels, the big three that are usually referred to, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter or before then, Indiana Jones, take the story and character arc and you have pretty much what is above, yet we all love a ripping yarn, we know what’s going to happen, mostly subconsciously, that the above will be played out, albeit in various ways.
The analogy used in our lecture, though in substance far from Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter, was The Gingerbread Man, yet again this structure held true.
Roland Barthes refers to five codes, one of which was drawn to our attention was the Hermeneutic Code, the snares and snags that puts the protagonist off the scent or disrupts the outcome of a section of the story, maybe inducing another enigma to solve. One other element under this banner is the cliff hanger, usually at the end or a chapter or even at the end of the story either to signify the possibility of a sequel or handing control over to the viewer or reader to come to their own decision.
Another writer on the subject of storytelling is Robert McKee and his three act play paradigm, firstly the setting up of the story and therein the disturbance, secondly the struggle and finally the third element the resolution, although this can be associated to various stories I feel that it is a little too simple for a more involved piece.
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