讲故事与叙事2018bbc.com编辑精选
研究者分析 1700 部小说，归纳出六种故事类型
Researchers analysed 1700 novels to reveal six story types
导读
BBC 报道了一项研究：把 1700 部小说按情感走向归类，归纳出六种基本情节类型。这篇值得写作者读，是因为 HN 上的高赞评论没有停留在“你是哪种类型”的标签游戏上，而是追问了一个更实用的问题：情节结构到底该怎么用。结论大致是，它是脚手架而非真理；真正让读者读下去的，是人物和对话里那些没有说出来的东西。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
选尽可能简单的情节骨架，把有趣的东西都挂在上面，别为了伺候复杂情节而牺牲人物。
- 02
初学者写对话时，常写成“人们在认真听并逐句回应”；让人物答非所问、各说各话，读者会自己补全空白，参与感就来了。
- 03
把各种故事结构理论当成方便时取用的模板，而不是必须遵守的真理；导师们的体系彼此矛盾，说明它们都只是部分有效。
- 04
看到“所有故事只有 N 种类型”的标题要保持警惕：分类定义越含糊，越能套住一切，也越没有信息量。
HN 评论精选
情节只是工具：用简单骨架撑住故事，靠人物真实的反应和对话留白制造参与感，而不是让情节压垮人物。
情节结构是工具。条件相同时，最好选尽可能简单的情节，把有趣的东西挂在上面。初学者的典型错误是追求复杂情节，然后所有时间都在为情节服务，牺牲了人物。当然，并非每个故事都能不做大量脑力体操就塞进几种基本情节；情节甚至不是必需的，必需的是钻进人物脑子里。经典情节是达成这一点的好办法，但如果你足够厉害，散漫无结构的文字也能做到，只是很少有人真能做到。对话是个好例子：初学者的错误是写得像人们在认真听对方说话并作出回应——“嘿乔，怎么样？”“正做早饭呢。”对比一下——“嘿乔，怎么样？”“天哪，你看起来糟透了。要吃点早饭吗？”第二个例子里，读者会自己填补空白，这就产生了参与感。全书到处这样写，就很少有人抱怨你没情节了。说起来容易做起来难。情节是好的，用它们，但它们不是故事的全部。
weeksie查看英文原文
Plot structures are tools. All else being equal it's a good idea to pick a plot that's as simple as possible and hang the interesting stuff off that. The classic mistake of beginning writers is to go for complexity in plot and then spend their entire time serving that plot to the detriment of their characters. That said, of course not every story fits into some basic set of plot outlines without some serious mental acrobatics. Plot isn't even necessary, what's necessary is getting inside people's heads. The classic plots (however they're formulated) are all good ways to do that but you can also do that with meandering unstructured prose, if you're good enough, though few people are and the further you get from universal tricks the more likely you are to run into serious disagreements over who writes really good nonconformist stories. Maybe a good example is dialog. The beginner's mistake is to write as if people are listening and responding to what the other has said. e.g. "Hey Joe, what's up?" "Just whippin' up some breakfast." versus "Hey Joe, what's up?" "Jesus, you look like shit. Want some breakfast?" In the second example the reader fills in the blanks mentally. It creates engagement. Do that in the small throughout your book and few people will complain that you lack a plot. Easier said than done. Plots are good. Use them. But they're not the whole, uh, story.
所有“N 种故事结构”理论都靠含糊定义自圆其说，可以当脚手架用，但不能当真理。
写作导师有几十个，每个人都“发现”了故事结构，或者 3、7、10、50 种基本情节，彼此完全不同——从含糊无意义的“开头—中间—结尾，但顺序不一定”，到布莱克·斯奈德的节拍表、丹·哈蒙的故事圈（坎贝尔的英雄之旅）。它们都“有点道理”，理由和你能在《圣经》里找到 UFO 的证据、能论证“人有两种”、能分出四种人格类型一样：只要定义足够含糊、愿意使劲拉伸含义，任何东西都能塞进任何模式。不同作家熟悉不同结构，用自己偏爱的，随意改造；有人故意破规矩；有人嗑嗨了一个周末写出意识流小说——这些都可能产生伟大作品。想找一个能套住所有这些的模式，只能含糊到能套住任何东西，那时它就没有意义了。情节和结构可以在方便时拿来用，有现成模板确实好写，但不存在唯一的故事结构或六种故事类型，那很可笑。
rayalez查看英文原文
There are dozens of writing mentors/gurus, and every one of them has discovered the story structure, or the 3/7/10/50 basic plots. All of them are different. From vague and meaningless "beginning-middle-end but not always in the same order" to Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet or Dan Harmon's story circle(Campbell's hero's journey). They all are kinda true, for the same reason you can find the proof of UFO in the Bible, or determine that there are "two kinds of people", or discover 4 personality types. Anything can be shoehorned into any kind of pattern if your definition is vague enough and you're willing to stretch the meaning of things hard enough. Different writers are familiar with different structures and use ones they prefer, bending and modifying them as they wish. Some writers break the rules on purpose. Some writers get high out of their minds and write stream of consciousness novels in a weekend. Any of that can result in a great/famous/successful story. Finding the pattern that fits all of that is only possible if it's so vague that it can fit literally anything, at which point it becomes meaningless. Plots and story structures can be picked up and used when it's convenient, it's easier to write when you have a paint-by-numbers structure to hang your story upon, but there isn't the one story structure or the six story types, that's silly.
“六种故事类型”的结论在统计方法上早有争议，别把媒体标题当成研究定论。
这篇文章所依据的 2014 年博文（matthewjockers.net/2014/06/05/a-novel-method-for-detecting-plot/）首次公开时就被广泛批评，很多在统计方法上更有经验、更专业的学者指出了方法论上的诸多问题。学术本该如此运作，但这从来阻止不了媒体抓住一个吸睛标题大做文章。
falien查看英文原文
The blog post this was based on (http://www.matthewjockers.net/2014/06/05/a-novel-method-for-detecting-plot/) which is from 2014 was widely panned when it was first publicized, and some of the many problems with the methodology pointed out by scholars with more experience and competence with the statistical methods involved. That's how scholarship is supposed to work. However, it will never stop media from seizing on a great click-baity headline.
冯内古特用《哈姆雷特》的“水平直线”说明：拒绝明确的好坏判断、保持暧昧，本身就是一种艺术选择。
90 年代初我听冯内古特做过一场演讲，讲他的故事曲线想法。不过文章链接的视频似乎在最有意思的部分之前就结束了。以《哈姆雷特》为例：始终说不清发生的事该算在纵轴的好的一侧还是坏的一侧，得到的是一条水平直线。这就是艺术：从不明确地好或坏，而是深刻的暧昧。另外，对系统化（图形化）地理解故事感兴趣的人可以看看 StoryGrid。
apo查看英文原文
In the early-90's I saw Vonnegut give a presentation in which he talked about his story graph idea. However, the video linked to in the article appears to end before the most interesting part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-84vuR1f90 Hamlet. It's never clear whether what's happening belongs more toward the good or bad side of the vertical axis. The curve you get is a flat horizontal line. That's art. Never clearly good or bad but profound ambiguity. Also, for those interested in the systematic (graphical) formulation of stories, check out StoryGrid: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25455700-the-story-grid
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