Renowned author David Orme  shares a day in the life of a school bound author….

“Off to Stoke Park Juniors to talk to year 6 about how to plan and write fiction – and not just because SATs are looming!

They were all well taught, and knew about the key elements of fiction: Who? (Characters) when and where? (Setting) and What? (Plot). At this point I asked them which of the three was the most difficult to do, knowing the answer I would get because it’s always the same – the plot!

My job is then to convince them that the plot is really the easy bit – because every story ever written has the same plot. Of course, at this point they look at me as if I’m mad!
Someone somewhere worked out that there are actually seven different plots for stories, but I boil it down to one.

It goes something like this:

1. There is a problem.

2. A character or characters try and solve the problem.

3. They solve it (happy ending) or make it worse (sad ending) or, better, they think they’ve solved it, but something unexpected happens. (The twist ending.)

And that’s it. The problem can be anything from alien invasion to forgetting your maths homework. The main part of the story is going to be part two – solving the problem.

I illustrated this with the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. King Minos and the Minotaur is the problem, Theseus does his best to solve the problem (with a little help from Ariadne) thinks he’s solved it – but there’s a twist; he forgets to change the colour of his sails which brings about his father’s death.

This story also illustrates the idea that most stories are really new versions of old stories. The Plot of Theseus and Minotaur became the basis for Star Wars, with Luke as Theseus, Darth Vader as Minos, and Leia as Ariadne. And at the end, Luke brings about his father’s death without knowing it – just like Theseus.

It’s a great theme, and to read another version try my Badger Title ‘Monster Planet’.

Plots? Easy! Just pinch someone else’s!”