3 Kinds of Story that You Can Tell: Rockstar, Maverick, Sherlock
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I'm fascinated by story master plots and the way that the same patterns and motifs show up in all kinds of stories. Somewhere through the presentation above you'll learn about three kinds of story that you can use in presentations (or books, if you want). They are:
- The Rockstar: the classic hero story. The hero receives a challenge that will require hard work and sacrifice. At first they resist -- it's too hard -- but eventually they embrace the challenge and save the world. This is the classic action story -- the hero's journey or quest. The challenge is to overcome the odds and achieve your goal through cunning, wit, strength. Indiana Jones.
- The Maverick: here somebody with strong, outspoken views struggles to be vindicated and find a place in society. It's about an outcast that gradually emerges as a leader. I suppose Topgun fits this -- Maverick refuses to compromise and play by the rules, and Goose is the one person who believes in him -- but he dies! Eventually Maverick is vindicated -- it becomes clear that he was right all along, when he does so well in the fight at the end. (I'm ashamed that I remember the plot at all.) This story is all about changing society to the hero's will, and becoming recognized as a hero in the end.
- The Sherlock: this is a problem solving story. The "case" is all set out at the beginning, and the hero tries to piece it together and solve the problem.
I guess that the typical tutorial has an overall "rockstar" structure -- the reader is trying to achieve a final goal, and faces challenges and obstacles along the way. Each individual chapter might present a more intellectual problem that the reader has to solve, in the Sherlock style.
Anyway, it's worth clicking through the slide show and seeing what you think of it.
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