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The Universal Story
Almost all stories follow a 3 part structure that was defined by Aristotle around 2,300 years ago.
Aristotle called this structure PLOT. This was not only the sequence of events but the emotions that connected the audience with the characters.
The first part was to establish pity with the hero. This made the audience want to follow the story.
The second part was the hero's suffering or challange that the hero had to meet.
The third part was closure of the story for good or bad.
In the 20th century Professor Joseph Campbell established a more structured format for our story. He called it the monomyth - the universal story. Professor Campbell's theory has many parts but we can sum them up into:
1. Introduce the hero...( Having a normal day )
2. The hero has a flaw... ( Hero is not perfect )
3. Unexpected event... ( Something happens to ordinary day )
4. Call to adventure... ( Even if the hero doesn't want to )
5. The Quest... (Hero leaves comfort zone )
6. The Return.. ( Hero returns expecting rewards )
7. The Crisis... ( Hero at lowest point )
8. The Showdown... ( Hero must make one final challange )
9. The Resolution... ( Happy ending - audience cheering )