AskWhy! Polti Plot Generator

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Contents Updated: Saturday, 9 August 2008

Abstract
The Polti Plot Outline

Abstract

Gozzi, the author of Turandot, according to Goethe, had found 36 tragic, by which he meant dramatic, situations, but he never published them. In 1921, George Polti, a French academic in his fifties, claimed to have rediscovered these 36 plots. He maintained they correspond to the no more than 36 emotions, which he believed humans can experience. To obtain the 36 varieties, the ties of friendship or kinship between the central characters was determined, then their degree of consciousness or free will, and knowledge of the end towards which they were moving. To alter the degree of discernment between the two adversaries, another character has to enter (introduced by Sophocles), having a subtle role, who makes one of the adversaries his instrument. As the perception of the used adversary diminishes so that of the extra character increases.

The Polti Plot Outline

If a computer could write you a story, then you as a storyteller are redundant. You know what you want to write. The outlines are to stimulate your thinking, and help you overcome writer’s block. The plot outliner simply juxtaposes, not in any logical way, some Polti categories to give you ideas for plots. Often a broad situation is given first, then a few plot outlines to use as a main and subplots—you decide which, or how you blend them with the story you already have. The logic of your own story is your’s.

The objective is to be attained by force in the face of an adversary, who is opposing the aim, while the human hero uses his skills as a solicitor in a dialectic contest of forceful passion, as in a courtroom drama. A conspirator acting alone conspire to rebel against a tyrant.
Vary the plot by modifying the severity of the central act. A “murder” is a metaphor for a harm done, so the “murder” of a character could be the murder or violation of someone dear to them. It may be multiple and aggravated in some way. A murder in a Greek drama can become simply a destruction of a cherised object in a story about a boy and a dog. To challenge a god, any higher power, requires elaborate conspiracies, or plain stupidity. Kinfolk are divided over the issue. Some hate the protagonist for fear of the consequences of his folly which will leave the protagonist rendered insane, massacring everyone he loves in a blind delerium. So they seek to stop him and sacrifice him to his fate while others sympathise with him, and act in supplication of him. Appeals to the god receive a favourable response.
A friend, who may be under the protection of a guardian, is kidnapped by trickery. The motive of the abduction, particularly of a woman might be love, but generally the motives would be something else—revenge, ransom, etc. Abduction, particularly of a woman has many dramatic possibilities such as eroticism, the drama of concealment of the body, overexcitation, and so on. The captive is saved and the abductor captured. Mental illness of various types offers powerful dramas which can still be used to illuminate any aspect of human relationships.
In fairy tales, the movement from an initial equilibrium to a final resolution is precipitated by a supernatural event. In science fiction, the imagined future and its amazing technology is also effectively supernatural, and often merges with fantasy. The story makes it seem natural.