Christopher Booker wrote The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (2004) where he explains that “there are indeed a small number of plots which are so fundamental to the way we tell stories that it is virtually impossible for any storyteller ever to break away from them”.

Today’s episode is part 1 of a two part series which will be continued to next week and Episode 20. Over the next two episodes we’re going to unpack these 7 Basic Plots that Booker wrote about, and importantly I’ll be tying each plot back to examples of how these stories can, and have been used in brand marketing and advertising.

Christopher Booker’s 7 Basic Plot points don’t contradict The Hero’s Journey which we went through in Episode 11, but rather become another layer of story structure on top of that idea. And it’s these 7 Basic Plots that I’m going to start to explore with you in today’s episode.

In this episode

• The first 3 of the Booker's 7 plots
  • Overcoming the Monster
  • Rags to Riches
  • The Quest
• Understanding that each plot point also runs with an underlying ‘Meta-Plot’ or basic story structure
• The parallels with Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey

Links in this Episode

The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories