Following Patterns that Work

Defining Patterns:

Over the last several months, I've been featuring ways to making any work of writing more literary.  A few weeks ago, I talked about allusion.  This is where you refer to some great work of literature as part of your essay, poem, short story, etc.  The use of allusion draws on the meaning, feeling, and cultural connections of the original piece.  Many authors go beyond allusion and, in fact, use such pieces as a model for their own works.

The most basic use of the literary patterns has become almost nearly universal among adventure stories: the hero's journey. Several decades ago, Joseph Campbell wrote several books explaining the concept of the hero a journey makes from normal world into the underworld and back, one from which he emerges master of both worlds.  Almost every adventure yarn you've read or seen recently from Pixar to Star Wars [Lucas actually had Campbell on the original set to make sure he got it right] to Harry Potter to any given Avengers story to Greek mythology follow the pattern of the hero's journey.  One of Campbell's most famous books was Hero with a Thousand Faces, based on the concept that this template is so universal that it can be placed on almost every traditional saga throughout human history.  Many of the least successful stories fall flat because they don't follow this pattern.  To learn more about this pattern, feel free to follow the link above or use Google.  You will find no shortage of explanations.  Most modern adventure stories that stand the test of time follow this format.  If you watch some of the older Disney and other movies, those that were written before Campbell's theory became so ingrained in the culture, you'll see they often meander without clear purpose.  They lack a definite model to follow and narratively fall apart.

Discovering Patterns: 

If this model is too vague for you or does not fit your genre, you can look around at classical literature and pick something that will not get you sued for copyright infringement.  Many authors turn to fairy tales since so many are familiar.  Successful authors sidestep Disney (since so much of the original tales is glossed over) and look to the older variations of tales to come up with a story that is fresh, new, and vibrant.  Say you love "Cinderella" but have something new to say about it.  You can dissect the tale, pick out the essential beats of what makes the tale work like Campbell did with mythology, and then rewrite it as a western with Cinderella as a poor farm girl coming to the big city and meeting a rancher at a hoedown.  Or you can set Cinderella in a fantasy, where the mages of the world are rich, and everyone else is poor.  She finds a way to borrow magic in order to show up at a mages' ball to woo the emperor of the land.  Or you could set her in steampunk, in post-apocalyptic America, in outer space, in the land of the mermaids, or anywhere else because you know the reader, unlike her evil stepsisters, will instinctively recognize Cinderella in whatever guise.  The magical and universal appeal of the poor, abused girl attracting the rich man at a party will carry its familiar power no matter the setting.  "Cinderella" and other tales like it have stood the test of time, through the centuries.  It will continue to stand and be recreated long after modern writers have laid down their pens.

Applying Patterns:

If fairy tales don't work for you, look to Shakespeare or Jane Austen or any other major author whose work has proven sticking power and see what makes their tale tick.  Take it apart.  Figure out what events have to happen for the reader to recognize the tale.  What characters do you need for the reader to understand what you're doing and for you to draw on the power of the original tale?  If you don't want to base your entire story on their model, pick a section of their story.  Your story may start out as Romeo and Juliet and end up as Pride and Prejudice or something entirely new.  This may sound like the formula for fanfiction for some people.  But fanfiction mostly uses someone else's tale, someone else's characters, and simply poses the question, "What if?" It is largely derivative.  Using a model transforms the basic pattern of the narrative into something familiar but new, something traditional but also uniquely your own.

If you have already started to write a tale, look carefully at what you have written.  Is there a section of your narrative that you can transform and make more powerful through use of a model like this?  If you haven't started a tale, look at your favorite classical works of literature.  What can you reshape and revitalize in your own voice?  Have fun with it.