A: Craft of Storytelling
What is a Story?
A story is the relentless pursuit of human desire. A desire makes someone really want something. Then they go after it, overcome challenges and make big life decisions. Their desire keeps the story moving and gives the audience a reason to believe in them. All of us are driven by 16 fundamental human desires*:
- Acceptance: Need for approval by others
- Accumulation: Need to collect & own
- Curiosity: Need to explore & discover
- Expedition: Need to find an elusive object
- Family: Need to nurture & protect
- Honour: Need to be loyal & obey moral codes
- Idealism: Need for fairness and justice
- Independence: Need for self-reliance & autonomy
- Order: Need for organization to maintain stability
- Power: Need to dominate others
- Preservation: Need to survive a threat
- Romance: Need for sex and courtship
- Social Contact: Need for companionship
- Status: Need for social standing & respect
- Tranquillity: Need to be in secure environment
- Vengeance: Need to get even or confront offenders
What is a Quest?
A quest is the pursuit of one big human desire. It is a pattern of connected events where each event is about a problem, the response to solve it and an outcome.
What are Universal Quests?
A Universal Quest is the richest expression of the pursuit of a human desire. They represent human behaviours that are deeply embedded in our shared memories. These are found in mythological tales that have recurred across cultures and over time periods. These timeless tales consistently resonate with audiences. All mythological tales are either a fulfilled or an unfulfilled quest of a unique human desire.
Is every mythological tale a universal quest?
Every mythological tale isn’t a universal quest. For a mythological tale to be a universal quest it should have unity (focussed on a singular desire), be universal (found across cultures), be complete (birth of desire, progress/regress and fulfilment/unfulfillment), have magnitude (multiple arcs with point of no return) and a definite structure (sequence of causal events). We have identified 32 mythological tales that have the most robust quest for each of the 32 outcomes arising from 16 basic desires.
Can the pursuit of a Desire have more than one quest?
Characters connect best with audiences when they follow universal quests hidden in mythological tales. The finest storytellers tap into mythological tales to leverage the human behaviours deeply embedded in them. They infuse these behaviours with their own imagination of the world, social & cultural context and personality to shape unique characters.
For example, the quest of Idealism is portrayed by Prometheus, a Titan in Greek mythology, and by Dunbar, a lieutenant in the historical movie Dances with Wolves, and also Jake, a paraplegic marine in the sci-fi movie Avatar. The difference lies in the change of time, place, and person. The recurrence of mythological tales often goes unnoticed because character, world, and setting hide the underlying human behaviour.
Why do Epics interweave multiple tales?
Epics, Classics and Blockbusters combine multiple tales to create novelty and familiarity at the same time. For example, the story of E.T. interweaves 5 distinct character quests of Acceptance, Expedition, Tranquillity, Honour & Family. These quests are borrowed from the mythological tales of Theseus, Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Hanuman & Demeter. Since each of these tales represent human behaviours that are part of our shared memories, we are familiar with them. The novelty comes from combining diverse tales in the same world.
How does interweaving mythological tales lead to infinite story plots?
Imagine a storyteller wants to craft a story involving three main characters. Each character is assigned a quest derived from different mythological tales. Here’s how the combination process works:
- Character 1: The storyteller can choose from any of the 32 mythological tales
- Character 2: After selecting a tale for the first character, 31 tales remain available for the second character’s quest.
- Character 3: With two tales already chosen, 30 tales remain for the third character’s quest.
The total number of unique plot structures is calculated by multiplying the available options: 32×31×30, which equals 29,760. So, with three character quests 29,760 distinct plot structures are available.
Adding a 4th character increases the options to 863,040 (32x31x30x29).
Including a 5th character boosts the possibilities to 24,165,120 (32x31x30x29x28), a 6th character to 650 million and then to 16 billion…..
Why existing story frameworks fail to enable storytelling?
Each of the 32 mythological tale is a universal quest and is a complete story in itself. One can even use just parts of it to write a short story. However, complex stories are different. They entwine two tales. Then, there are super complex stories such as Epics, Classics and Blockbusters that combine multiple tales.
- The existing story frameworks focus on a single quest that is ideal for writing simple, short stories.
- Some frameworks are versions of the Hero’s Journey. Since, the structure is based on Odysseus’ tale it provides one developed quest and multiple under developed quests. Blockbuster stories consistently defy the Hero’s Journey by developing the 31 other quests that are vastly different from Odysseus’ quest.
- Lastly, there are frameworks that champion full creative freedom with minimal guidance. These assist in writing a story, but rarely an appealing one because the quests in them aren’t universal quests.
Which Mythological Tales are Universal Quests for each desire?
Acceptance
Unfulfilled: Karn – Hindu civilization
Accumulation
Unfulfilled: Valmiki* – Hindu civilization
Curiosity
Unfulfilled: Eve – Abrahamic civilization
Expedition
Unfulfilled: Gilgamesh – Sumerian civilization
Family
Unfulfilled: Oedipus – Greek civilization
Honour
Unfulfilled: Amba – HIndu civilization
Order
Unfulfilled: Bhishm – Hindu civilization
Independence
Unfulfilled: Daedalus – Greek civilization
Idealism
Unfulfilled: Prometheus – Greek civilization
Power
Unfulfilled: Ravan – Hindu civilization
Preservation
Unfulfilled: Kans – Hindu civilization
Romance
Unfulfilled: Leander – Greek civilization
Social Contact
Unfulfilled: Hippolytus* – Greek civilization
Status
Unfulfilled: Kaikeyi– Hindu civilization
Tranquillity
Unfulfilled: Sita – Hindu civilization
Vengeance
Unfulfilled: Duryodhan – Hindu civilization
B: Secret of creating Blockbusters
Aren't Mythological Tales Also Found in Non-Blockbuster Stories?
Every story, even flops incorporate mythological tales. Unlike, blockbuster stories where these tales are used methodically, flops use them haphazardly. Flops don’t adhere to any of the principles of Mythosis Code:
- Blockbusters use at least 3 mythological tales but Flops depend on a single quest that limits their appeal. At any time, we are driven by at least one of the 16 basic human desires. But, at a global or country level one sees the presence of all 16 desires. Assuming each desire is equally spread, then 6.67% of the population is motivated by each desire. When a story includes 3 mythological tales, it appeals to at least 20% of the population.
- In Blockbusters each mythological tale is deeply mirrored by only ONE character. Since each mythological tale represents a human desire, characters mirroring them are consistent. In Flops, a single character mirrors multiple tales & appears confusing. Flops, attempt to differentiate a quest by borrowing events from other tales. Furthermore, when characters deeply mirror a tale, they become layered and complex. Since flops depend on a single quest other characters remain shallow and superficial.
- Blockbuster stories interweave multiple tales whereas Flops, establish relationships but don’t interweave quests. Stories become cohesive when characters are interlinked through their quests and then through relationships. This is how interweaving works: A story is a series of events. These events are borrowed from multiple mythological tales. Interweaving occurs when events from 2 tales occur simultaneously within a story.
What is a script score?
A script score is the measure of a story’s adherence to each principle of the Mythosis Code. It is used to estimate the size of population that will like the story. The appeal is then turned into box-office revenues at the prevailing ticket prices. Today, to achieve a domestic box-office revenue of USD750MM a movie needs to appeal to 20% of the population. This is possible for a story with a script score of 0.64. For a story to get a script score of 0.64, it needs three universal quests with an average depth of 35% and an interweaving threshold of 0.50.
How is Mythosis Code used to estimate revenues?
The principles of Mythosis Code reveal key factors of a good story such as audience relevance, cohesiveness, pace, plot gaps, character consistency & complexity, originality of the story.
The number of tales in a story roughly indicates the number of people who will like it. When the story has 3 tales, it appeals to 20% of the population but if it has 2 then the appeal drops to 13.5%. The potency of other key factors determines whether the appeal goes further up or down. Once we have the audience appeal, it is multiplied by the prevailing ticket prices to ascertain the revenue.
Story Cohesiveness: Stories often connect characters through their relationships. But when characters are linked through their quests the story becomes cohesive. The Code indicates the extent to which the characters are interconnected. Whether they are all linked, only a few, or none at all.
Pace of the Story: A story is a sequence of events. In a 120 min movie, the pacing is determined by the number of events. If the number of events falls below the threshold, some events are stretched and/or repeated. The Code gauges the pace by identifying the presence of such events.
Gaps in the story: Each mythological tale has a sequence of connected events. Skipping OR replacing these events creates abrupt jumps in the story. Thereby making a story disjointed. The Code identifies these skipped or forced events as gaps in the story.
Character consistency: The Code identifies a character’s quest from the tale s/he borrows events from. Audiences don’t root for characters who pursue more than one desire.
Character robustness: Most stories feature about 3-4 characters with significant screen-time. However, their role and not their screen-time determines whether they are layered. The Code identifies the role of each character across the events in a story to determine their character development.
Originality: The combination of 32 mythological tales can create a billion stories. The Code identifies the mythological tales used in the story to determine its uniqueness.
Aren't box-office revenues influenced by several factors beyond just the story plot?
Yes, a movie’s success hinges on multiple factors such as the director, actors, writers, production, editing, marketing, distribution, and release timing.
- Movies with weaker plot structures have significant revenue uplift due to these factors. Weak plot structures generate domestic revenues below $100 million. A $25 million uplift from other factors is significant for these movies. Movies with star casts, high marketing spends and spectacle but poor plot structures such as John Carter, Valerian, Battleship and more recently Joker 2 exceeded Mythosis predictions by 20%+!
- However, a similar uplift isn’t seen in movies with strong plot structures that achieve revenues of over $400 million+. Since fewer than 5% of Hollywood movies exceed $400 million in domestic revenues, factors besides the plot structure have gained undue importance.
- An interesting find has been that movies with high concepts and strong plot structures resonate exceptionally well across various audience segments. Movies such as Jurassic Park, Toy Story, Avatar, Inception and others surpassed our estimates by 15%. However, movies with high concepts but poor plot structures such as Frighteners or Cloud Atlas were within our estimates.
- We also have exceptions such as Barbie, Aquaman 2, Moana 2 that have far exceeded our predictions.
The best of directors, actors, technical teams, editors, marketers can’t compensate for a weak story plot. Successful filmmakers prioritize getting the foundational plot right from the start, because salvaging a poorly developed story during shooting and editing is challenging, if not impossible! While the contributions of these other factors are essential, the plot structure remains the most critical element.
C. Unlocking the potential of stories
What are Mythosis plot structures?
A Mythosis plot structure is a unique sequence of events that emerges on interweaving multiple mythological tales. Each mythological tale is a sequence of events. Interweaving two of them results in the emergence of a sequence of events which is very different from both the original tales.
How Is Mythosis Plot Structure Different From A Story?
Mythosis plot structure is NOT a story, it is a skeletal framework. It is an arrangement of events that has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. It provides a nuanced portrayal of each character’s quest within the broader context of others. The plot structure requires, storytellers to transform it from a skeleton into a fully-fledged story.
Only storytellers can shape plot structures by bringing their unique vision, creativity, and voice. Because they craft compelling characters, develop unique worlds, weave together themes, create spectacular scenes, and write impactful dialogues.
How Does Mythosis Plot Structure help Storytellers?
Mythosis plot structures strengthen the foundation of a story. Plot structure identifies the gaps in the story by matching each character quest to the relevant mythological tales. This reveals whether the quests are inconsistent, shallow or disconnected. Mythosis leverages the same mythological tales to incorporate the missing events. Thereby amending inconsistent quests, developing shallow ones, and improving the interweaving of quests.
Can an existing Plot Structure be used to create a fresh Story?
Yes, Avatar was made using the plot structure of Dances with Wolves. We learnt two things from this adaptation. First, one can create a new story by changing the setting and world of a blockbuster plot. Second, adding more unique quests can make the plot stronger. Though, a common mistake while adapting is copying scenes instead of the plot structure. Like how Free Willy couldn’t capture the magic of E.T. because it focused on adapting scenes, not the plot structure.
How long does it take to make the plot structure?
It takes 7 days to extract a story’s plot structure and estimate the box-office revenue. To re-create a story’s plot structure, it takes 21 days. These timeframes are for a screenplay that’s 120-180 page long.