# Only 12 stories or plots... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179 "2009-12-31T11:21:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/1 "2009-12-31T11:21:23Z")
When reading about movies or books, I’ve often heard people remark about how there are only 12 stories to be told, and every plot can be traced back to one of these 12 themes. Is this true, and if so what are the 12 plots? And what are the best movie examples of these stories? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/2 "2009-12-31T11:42:55Z")
There are many claims that there are only n basic plots, where n can vary widely. Here’s what Cecil says about this claim: > **[What are the seven basic literary plots?](https://www.straightdope.com/21343503/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots)** ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/3 "2009-12-31T11:46:17Z")
My favorite version of this meme is: There are two stories in the world - “One day, our hero went on a journey” and “One day, a stranger came to town”… It’s fun to see how whatever story I am reading/seeing, etc., fits into that… ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/4 "2009-12-31T18:47:12Z")
Any universe can be divided into N subsets. It’s all a matter of granularity. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/5 "2010-01-01T03:19:40Z")
If you Google “there are only 12 stories” you’ll find the line repeated endlessly, but never really attributed to anyone (well, one person attributed it to his writing professor.) The version I first heard was, “there are only 12 plots, and Shakespeare wrote all of them.” I once asked a writer about it, and the best he could do was: Man vs. self Man vs. man Man vs. society Man vs. nature Man vs. destiny/fate/god/etc. Which can be subcategorized into: Protagonist triumphs Protagonist fails Nothing gets resolved ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/6 "2010-01-02T06:54:18Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Man vs. self > > Man vs. man > > Man vs. society > > Man vs. nature > > Man vs. destiny/fate/god/etc. > > Which can be subcategorized into: > > Protagonist triumphs > > Protagonist fails > > Nothing gets resolved thats funny…u just described my book/screenplay layout…:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/7 "2010-01-02T13:26:02Z")
The most substantial discussion of this I’ve read so far was the (very weighty) “[The seven basic plots](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Basic-Plots-Tell-Stories/dp/0826480373/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262438510&sr=8-1)” by Christopher Booker. The plots are… _Gets book from shelf_ Overcoming the monster Rags to riches The quest Voyage and return Comedy Tragedy Rebirth That’s not to say that every story features only one of these plots, some can contain many. The book was extremely good and went far beyond the plots element into the history of literature and also the psychology of it too. The discussion of the developments in story telling in the 20th century (particularly from books to films) were very interesting too. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/8 "2010-01-02T17:25:42Z")
CG Jung wrote pretty extensively about the raw psychology of stories and mythology…anima, animus, archetypes,etc… It’s been a long time since I read the work, and I can’t remember its name, but it would seem pertinent to your OP? It would seem with his theories and terminology it would be possible to devlop some type of base quantitative data to classify any story into a very basic subset of “arching type”. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/9 "2010-01-02T17:45:13Z")
devilsknew, are you joking, or do you really not know that what Jung was talking about was “archetypes,” not “arching types”? ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/10 "2010-01-02T19:04:29Z")
I thought there was only one plot; “a bunch of stuff happens”. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-12-stories-or-plots/523179/11 "2010-01-02T19:07:32Z")
Any basketball fan can tell you that there are only two plays: Romeo and Juliet and Put the ball through the hoop