Recently I went looking for the ultimate origin of the idea that there are only seven basic plots; that every story-teller since the Greeks has just been dressing one or more of the stories up in fancy new robes. They’re like platonic solids – try as you might, you’ll never find a new one.

One version has it that the seven basic plots are:

1. [wo]man vs. nature
2. [wo]man vs. [wo]man
3. [wo]man vs. the environment
4. [wo]man vs. machines/technology
5. [wo]man vs. the supernatural
6. [wo]man vs. self
7. [wo]man vs. god/religion

But that reference is somebody’s memory of second grade. Incidentally, I’d like to know which second grade syllabus includes discussion of the plot form “woman vs. self”.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good reference. The Straight Dope has a nice overview of the meme; it lists variations which claim there are “n Basic Plots” for n = 1, 2, 3, 7, 20, 36 and 69.

The thirty-six dramatic situations is my favourite of those. Each situation is named and given a list of elements, for example situation 23, “Necessity of sacrificing loved ones”, calls for “a Hero; a Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice”.

I have attached a spreadsheet for you to download and complete. It’s more-or-less a short-form diary. Each day, you complete one row of the sheet, putting a tick under any of the thirty-six dramatic situations in which you were a participant that day.

Short-form diary.xlsx (11.12 kb)