Writers Take #007 Weird is F*cking Great!!!

The 7 types of stories starting from unique and building upwards

If I were you, I’d have thought that this week would have been a Barbiehiemer or San Diego Comic-Con take, but fear not, I never cease to disappoint. Those will come, in spades I might add, but today, I wanted to bring us back to some writing tips. Have you ever had an idea that you felt was so unique, and different, only to have a friend, loved one, or complete stranger tell you they weren’t a fan of it? 

Well, if not, then you’re not taking enough shots on goal, go out there and pitch your ideas more, but if you're like me, this is a fairly normal occurrence. Today, I want to spend some time discussing what it means to make something unique, untethered to the zeitgeist and strange. 

First and foremost, and I’m just going to come out the gate and say this, if you think you have something super fresh and new, and it doesn’t make the people you are telling it to uncomfortable, then I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your idea ain’t that unique. It is a standard human emotion to feel strange, uneasy and unnerved by something different. And different is the name of the creative game. 

Different is what pushes boundaries, different is what makes us stand out. One of the biggest lies growing up is that being different is not ok. Being different is everything.

The 7 Types of Stories

Speaking of being different, let's get into our core topic today. The 7 types of stories and how to differentiate yourself from the pack. There is an old adage that there are only 7 stories in the world:

Overcoming the Monster: The protagonist must defeat an antagonist (usually an individual, force, or entity) that threatens them and the wider world.Ala Batman Vs. Joker… But don’t you see… We are the same, two sides of the same coin. 

Rags to Riches: Ala Pretty Women… Baby, I'm Gonna Treat You So Nice, You're Never Gonna Wanna Let Me Go.”

The Quest: Ala Lord OF The Rings… One Ring To Rule Them All. 

Voyage and Return: Ala Star Trek… The Final Frontier.

Comedy: Ala Anchorman, My name is… 

Tragedy: Ala McBeth… More is thy due than more than all can pay."

Rebirth: Ala The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button… For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to”

And from these 7 types of stories there are nearly unlimited adjustments, permutations and “flips” that can be done to achieve “unique” tales. From switching the character archetypes to smashing two of these ideas together. For example, if you took “Voyage and Return” and smashed it with “Comedy” you The Orville. If you take “Tragedy” and smash it with “The Quest” you get “Avengers Infinity War” and so on and so forth. 

So when you're plotting your next idea, it is important to be cognizant of these archetypes and how you will subvert the expectation of what is to come. Oh, and for heaven's sake, please make your characters interesting, if you have stale, lame, predictable characters there is no amount of unique story-telling you can do to save yourself. 

So for the love of Mary & Joseph (I honestly don’t even know what that means, but it sounded like the right place to put it. Don’t worry I am Jewish, I promise I paid attention in Hebrew school ;))- please have great characters- and we will talk about those in the coming weeks. But for now, let's smash up some narratives and see what we get! 

When I am ideating on a story to tell I like to choose my construct first. Is it Space, Post Apocalyptic, Futurism, etc. Once I have that, and oh, before we go any further, I will answer one question, my method is very much Mad Libs inspired! Once you choose your construct then we get to the most important question at hand. What type of story are you going to tell? Personally, I like to take a step back at this point and really develop out my character and message. What am I trying to say with this work of art. Like with the funnel-down method from The Writer’s Take, Take One, it is important to narrow your ideas down to a specific idea. Let’s use my Best Selling Post Apocalyptic book, Above The Ground as an example for the format. 

Above The Ground follows David Anders, a Quantum Biologist. Before I even put pen to paper on this book, I wanted to tell a story about… Ok, I have to pause here, because the next little bit is a major spoiler for the series. If you have read it, then you probably know where I am going with this, if you have not, then take this as your warning…

Ok, you’ve been warned. Above The Ground is a story about the Mayan civilization. Now, you might ask, how is it a story about the Mayan civilization if our main character is a white man from Nebraska, and is a scientist? Well, this is where we get to the fun stuff. I wanted to make the Caldera at Yellowstone National Park ground zero for the Mayan civilization that had vanished 2000 years ago. So What did I do? I mashed a Quest, a Tragedy, and a Rebirth story construct(s) with a post Apocalyptic earth, and what came out of the blender was Above The Ground. Let’s dissect.

I always find it most interesting when you look at the ways in which a story can be told, and then finding ways to layer unexpected “truths” within it. Oh yea, there are massive spoilers here. So at its baseline I wanted to tell a story of survival, of putting a scientist in an uncanny position to logic his way out. I am a science nerd at heart. So from those points, I created the character David Anders. Smart, groundbreaking, and a botanist. Why a botanist?

Well, when the world goes to “Shit” and you have a botanist that can rehydrate plants with quantum mechanics, well, now you have a reason to run, not just find safety. Layered onto that is David’s love of his wife, Betty- so what do we have here? A science-heavy “Book of Eli” construct, or “The Road” The quest here, is getting to a safe haven with his research intact. The tragedy, that’s simple, the apocalypse- enough said. 

Now for the Re-birth… this is a doozy, so stay with me here. I have always been enamored by ancient cultures, none more than the Mayan civilization. Where did they go? Why did they vanish off the face of the earth? And how did they seemingly have such intentional knowledge of the stars. Pair that with my love of what Jack Kirby and Stan Lee did with Wakanada and an idea sparked. What if the Mayans didn't vanish, but reimagined life, what if they moved to a place not burdened with the trivial natures of various cultures, but to a place that allowed their culture to thrive. What if they were reborn. Smash that together with some fun science about how Yellowstone’s super volcano has been on the verge of exploding for 500,000 years, and you got a place, a power source of a society. Welcome to Kasper. The Mayan Kingdom Below the Ground of the Yellowstone Caldera. 

So when David and Betty are on the run, from the splintered government that wants his technology to control this desolate earth, and he runs into a Mayan empire as he barely escapes with his and Betty’s lives, that's how you take layers of story types and blend them together to create something unexpected. Which is the name of the game. Seven story types each with their own value sets, each can provide an aspect to a new idea, a new type of story. I want to end this week's Take with a message about the ongoing concerns in hollywood. These sort of inspired ways of thinking can not be replicated by machines, can not be replicated by AI (at least not yet in with any realistic value) and to minimize writers and actors who have spent their lives dedicated to finding new ways to tell these seven stories is not only discouraging to us all, but down right illogical. We all want to laugh, we all want to cry, and most importantly of all, we all want to feel. And until an AI can convince me it can feel both pain and joy, then I can’t see a way for it to provide those feelings to me. Because as Nicole Kidman wisely reminds us each time we sit in an AMC it starts and stops with the emotional heart strings.  

WE COME TO THIS PLACE FOR MAGIC. 

WE COME TO AMC THEATERS TO LAUGH, TO CRY, TO CARE. BECAUSE WE NEED THAT, ALL OF US. 

THAT INDESCRIBABLE FEELING WE GET WHEN THE LIGHTS BEGIN TO DIM AND WE GO SOMEWHERE WE’VE NEVER BEEN BEFORE. 

NOT JUST ENTERTAINED, BUT SOMEHOW REBORN TOGETHER. DAZZLING IMAGES ON A HUGE SILVER SCREEN. SOUND THAT I CAN FEEL. 

SOMEHOW, HEARTBREAK FEELS GOOD IN A PLACE LIKE THIS.  

OUR HEROES FEEL LIKE THE BEST PARTS OF US, AND STORIES FEEL PERFECT AND POWERFUL…

BECAUSE HERE… THEY ARE.

Stay Curious, and Keep Writing. 

Next Week on the Writers Take we dive for the first time into one of my TAKES. I will be sharing my treatment for how I would have written, The Rise Of Skywalker. (Ominous drums fading to black…) 

Herø Projects, Gungnir, and other musings…

I wanted to take a moment during our intermission here to shamelessly and directly promote my two companies. Gungnir Entertainment, a genre-focused publishing company with best-selling titles from yours truly hitting shelves nationwide this Fall.  With books focused on classic sci-fi ideas like “What does it mean to be human” and “is the bible right?” “Adventures throughout the stars” are just a few of the prompts for the books you can dive into with Gungnir. Gungnir’s website will launch this summer, and you can stay up to date on the forthcoming titles on my Instagram, @matthewmedney, or at my author page on Simon & Schuster. 

And then there is Herø Projects. The Perennial leader in custom comics and animated services, Herø is a state-of-the-art creative studio that has worked with talents such as Floyd Mayweather, Shaggy, Nghtmre, and brands such as Remi Martin, Live Nation, and Rolling Loud. If Branding through storytelling isn’t your thing you can check out our original titles, the Onyx line with books such as Stable, Remnant, and Best Selling Comic The Red.  To learn more about Herø Projects visit us at heroprojects.io

Hope you enjoyed this Inaugural writer’s take, keep a look out as we will have more spread-out writing tips coming up in between the big movie or tv show breakdowns!