The Oversaturation of Narrative
Penguin July 3rd, 2009
The Guardian has an article by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) on the Exhaustion of Narrative.
Writers have always known there are a limited number of storylines. Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots popularised the number seven, but others have argued for three, 20 and 36 basic plots – Rudyard Kipling said 69… That’s not what I mean by the “exhaustion of narrative”. What is new is the omnipresence and ubiquity of plot created by media proliferation. We are inundated by narrative. We are swimming in storylines.
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What does it mean? For a storyteller, it means that’s it is increasingly difficult to get out in front of a viewer’s expectations. Almost every possible subject has not only been covered but covered exhaustively. How many hours of serial killer plot has the average viewer seen? Fifty? A hundred? He’s seen the basic plots, the permutations of those plotlines, the imitations of the permutations of those plotlines and the permutations of the imitations. How does a writer capture the imagination of a viewer seeped in serial killer plot? Make it even gorier? Done that. More perverse? Seen that. Serial killer with humour? Been there. As parody? Yawn.
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The bar of originality has been raised. The media marketplace puts a premium on anything “new” or “fresh” and, at the same time, inundates its viewers with continual and competing narratives.
I’ve been wrestling with this issue of originality as I work on The Intern Project but I try not to get too caught up with it. Because it’s easy to make excuses that become barriers to the actual writing process.
You look at the latest blockbusters, Star Trek, Transformers 2. One is a great film, the other is trash. But neither of them are particularly original. But you can still make something entertaining.
This is also why it’s so important to watch a lot of films. See what’s been done already and see what’s entered the cultural narrative. Especially in the same genre that you’re writing in.
-Penguin
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