20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them by Ronald Tobias
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Book Reviews of 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them
Book Review: Organization and Inspiration
Summary: 4 Stars
#1 - This book will help you to come up with ideas to turn into screenplays.
#2 - It will also help develop those ideas into a sensible and interesting story.
It's worth the money.
Book Review: Unique idea, a great guide to own, but falls a bit short
Summary: 3 Stars
'20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them' is a well thought out idea that falls a little short in it's delivery, but in the end saves itself through originality.
The first chapter, titled 'Invisible Fiction', sets the mood for what's to come. The author expresses his opinions on plots and the many forms, how they all originate from a top three to be broken down into a 'top 20' for easier following. Chapter two, ' The Lowest Common Plot Denominators', discusses building tension through opposition, the three sections of a story (beginning, middle, and end), and other crucial things a plot requires to stay alive. Chapter 3, 'The Strong Force', is short in length, basically informing the reader what a 'character driven plot is' versus a 'plot driven' one.
Chapter four, 'Deep Structure', focuses on themes and moral arguments, while chapter five, 'Triangles', is an interesting, unique way to see characters and how they interact with each other.
After this, we finally begin the '20 plots', each divided by chapter. Each goes through all three 'acts' of the plot (again: beginning, middle, end), ending with a checklist to recap all that has been learned.
The wrap up chapter, 'Parting Shots', reminds you that the book is not a guide etched in stone and that rules are made to be broken. It's also stated that many times a plot is a mixture of two or more basic '20 Master Plots'.
At 232 pages, this book covers quite a bit. I was enthused as the sections, and recognized many of the 'patterns', but was left wanting in other areas. The information was useful, but if you read it straight through, many of the plot types repeat the same thing and it becomes redundant and dull. Also, some held examples of other novels and stories to illustrate what the author meant. I loved this; it enabled me to get a firmer grasp on things. Unfortunitely many of the plots don't have as many examples, or none at all, and I missed it when they did.
Wrapping up, this is a great resource guide for writers. If you have trouble with plotting, pick this up for a reasonable price. Heck, even if you don't, still pick it up for there are things out there you may not know about yet. On the downside it wasn't the most interesting thing to read, was a bit redundant, other times not being consistent enough.
Book Review: Falls a little short
Summary: 3 Stars
The idea behind this book is very good, yet I feel that it falls a little on its execution, mainly because the 20 master plots, well, don't really feel like 20, they feel more like 15 since some of them are soo similar or related that they might as well have been thrown together in a category and then the author could've come up with more.
For example:
Metamorphosis/Transformation/Maturation
or
love/forbidden love
or
rescue/escape
As a companion to this book, I'd recommend 'Story Structure Architect', by Victoria Lynn. That book has a much more varied compilation of dramatic situations that might be adapted to be the main plot of a story.
Book Review: Not as good as Save the Cat Goes to the Movies
Summary: 3 Stars
How can a book on Plot Structures be compared to a book on writing movie scripts? Well, the late Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! books had a particularly unusual - but incredibly insightful and useful - way of classifying movies. Blake uses 10 categories instead of 20, but Blakes ability to deconstruct these categories is light years ahead of Tobias's analysis of his 20 plots. 20 Master Plots is still a worthwhile book, but I'd recommend you buy Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told first. You won't be disappointed.Book Review: Somewhat Helpful
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book, and it's a good one to refer to for a look at different plots. But I still need more.