Whole Lotta Fiction

I finished reading all the Sookie Stackhouse books. I feel triumphant and a little sad. It's lonely now not being constantly surrounded by the residents of Bon Temps and owners/proprietors of Fangtasia. *Sigh* I'll be alright.

In the meantime, I'm trying to work more on that piece of fiction I told you about in the last couple of posts. I haven't really done more research. I'm trying to plan more of the prospective plot before I delve too far into researching. I've kind of hit a speed bump though. I'm not really sure where to go with it. I kind of came up with the idea of having it sort of be a grungier The Five People You Meet in Heaven. But I don't want my protagonist to be dead. What I really need is a struggle, or a goal. I need an inner goal and an outer goal. What I mean is, I need her to want to achieve something, and in achieving that, she achieves something else. It's a basic formula, but it works. I'll think on it some more.

Speaking of basic formulas, I was thinking about movies, and how a lot of them follow similar plots. That led me to remember the whole "every story/movie is based on a Shakespeare play" thing. I'm not sure how true that is, but it does make good sense. Tried and true plot formulas, you know? I know there are a million movies that are all: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl's heart again, or some other version of that. But I was thinking, there's an even more specific version of that that I've seen at least 3 times. Can you think of any more?

Boy needs to create something or suffer the consequences. Fair Maiden assists. They fall in love.
1. Music & Lyrics
2. Alex & Emma
(These two are almost identical, but Music & Lyrics was way cuter. I think it has a lot to do with Hugh Grant. But really: boy needs to do something or will lose big paying job/will be beaten up. Boy meets girl who is there to help. Boy and girl mostly annoy each other. Girl has something in her that inspires boy. Something about boy almost breaks them up. Boy and girl realize they love each other. Boy and girl live happily ever after. Right?)
3. Shakespeare in Love
(This one is a little different, but still mostly the same. Boy needs to do something or will be stolen from and essentially tortured. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl annoy each other a bit before boy discovers truth about girl. Girl has something in her that inspires boy. Something about boy almost breaks them up. Boy and girl realize they love each other. Boy and girl... end up not so happily ever after, but her inspiration serves as his muse to write one of boy/Shakespeare's plays, a pretty good romcom called "Twelfth Night").

I suppose #1 and #2 would be like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" minus the fairies and the actors, sort of, and #3 would be "Romeo and Juliet" seeing as they couldn't be together. But then that just makes me wonder... did Shakespeare rip himself off? I mean, a lot of writers end up writing the same kind of stories with the same kind of characters, just with little nuances. We find plotlines we like, and we stick to them. It's called genre, haha.

So, then... big revelation here... maybe Shakespeare was no better a writer than any of us. He just did it first. Yes, he had other plotlines, but even "Twelfth Night" had elements of boy meets girl (in disguise), lots of plot lots of plot lots of plot, boy and girl fall in love and live happily ever after (that stupid Amanda Bynes movie was a modern update of this. The one where she disguised herself as her brother so she could play soccer... wtf was that called? who cares?). Wait... wasn't "As You Like It" about this too, a girl in disguise in love with a boy who doesn't know the truth until the end? Never Been Kissed anyone? (i love that movie). Ever After too, for that matter. Gosh, they're all coming to me now!

So what say you? Was Shakespeare a brilliant writer, a man with hackneyed albeit proven plotlines, or both because of the latter and the fact that he did it 400 years ago? I'd go with both. Any thoughts?