: Re: The seven story archetypes. Are they truly all of them? The seven archetypes are as follows: Overcoming the Monster. Rags to Riches. The Quest. Voyage and Return. Comedy. Tragedy. Rebirth. But surely,

@Annie587

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Do you want the most stories, or the least stories?

The ad infinitum of plot lists is probably the book Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots by William Wallace Cook. It's a manic collection of (often bizarre) story vignettes, with an algebraic formula for how to string them together. It claims to offer over 2000 plot conflicts, based on his organizing structure "Purpose opposed by Obstacle yields Conflict".

Plotto is essentially a list of (spin wheel) character goals that are thwarted by (spin wheel) stuff that happens, connected by an index of stock characters and supporting roles, sort of in the vein of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but much shorter. The resulting "plot" is a few sentences long, often involving a confusing list of characters and sub-characters, and the author is still expected to provide the creativity and logic to turn it into an actual story.

The most reductive plot list is probably resolving every possible story to 3 Act Structure, a formula with a beginning, middle, and end spaced more or less evenly.

What is the goal?

Is the goal to find a system that inspires creativity? Or is the goal to use a system that helps "normalize" every story into the simplest familiar pattern?

7 is an arbitrary number, and as stated in other answers and comments, the OP's list is apples and oranges (and a couple of onions). What, exactly is being compared (or differentiated) in these supposed "archetypes"?

Is it the progress of the protagonists status? (Rags to Riches)
Is it a Theme or feeling the reader is left with? (Tragedy)
Is it events that happen in the story? (Voyage and Return)
Is it the central conflict? (Overcoming a Monster)
Is it the author's style and voice? (Comedy)

Any system might be helpful, I guess, if the system is based on consistent principles, or at least if the goal is clear.

No, this is not all the story archetypes

A century later, Plotto's extensive list is extremely dated, more a comical curiosity of the past, and one man's attempt to organize a "story mill" so he could churn out an amazing quantity of stories. However, most of his stories published in periodicals under dozens of pen names that fit whatever genre he was targetting, are now lost or forgotten. The few that were converted into novels are not well reviewed. Apparently being a master of formulaic archetypes doesn't make you a good author, just a prolific one.

Formulas are great when you get paid by word-count and you need to churn out generic filler, page after page. For memorable stories that stand the test of time, the author still has to do all the work.

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