Update 1 - The Seven Basic Plots

Full disclosure, I’m not being paid to write about this. I just really enjoyed the book.

The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker was one of the books I decided to read while working on my main writing project, True North. I wanted to better understand interpretations of genre in a very broad sense. Booker gets considerably more specific than I’d have thought, and the bulk of his ideas are oriented around a light/dark, masculine/feminine kind of duality. It makes sense in the way he contextualizes the stories he uses as examples, from Mythology to Moby Dick to Justine to Terminator 2. The range of stories he pulls from is enormous. It made me throw several books onto my already lengthy reading list. The overall view Booker presents on why we, as humans, tell stories is a balanced one. He stresses the need for balance while pointing out the cyclical nature of the family structure. I was looking to learn about how plots differ from one another better but at the end my head was spinning with the beauty of the tradition of storytelling and its contrast to how we act in real life.

I’m going to start doing updates like this once a week. I’ll share certain details and due dates and thus give myself a little bit more accountability. Currently, I’m looking to start sharing some of my short stories from the world of True North on vocal.media but I’ve yet to set myself a schedule. On top of that I’ve been writing a script for a Youtube video essay on Bloodborne. I’ve got about half the footage I need, but recording the game is enjoyable. Finally, the work on True North is going at a better pace than it was, but I still need to set myself deadlines for when to have certain aspects of the greater narrative finished.

Does anyone reading this have any advice on setting goals for yourself? How do you personally juggle multiple projects?

Whoever’s reading this, I hope you’re well. Happy March everybody.