All stories have already been told… Really?

You’ll sometimes hear that there are only 3, 6, 20, or 36 possible plots. In other words, that all stories are just variations on the same themes. Well… yes and no.

Because while that idea isn’t entirely wrong, it’s far too simplistic.

Cinderella and Pretty Woman share certain similarities, but their emotional journeys, choices, and dilemmas are very different, and that is because context changes everything.

Human emotions may be timeless, yet the era, society, morality, and laws shape each story differently. A tale of love or betrayal set in the Middle Ages can not be told in the same way as one set in the 21st century. The characters values, constraints, and aspirations simply aren’t comparable. The stakes are different.

Emotions are universal, context is ever-changing. And that’s what gives each story its own truth, one defined by its time, its characters, and its view of the world. The point of view can never be the same; it is constantly renewed and reshaped.

Context doesn’t merely dress a story, it moulds it, feeds it, makes it unique. To tell a story, one must build a world with its own physical and moral laws. It’s like the map and the territory : one cannot exist without the other in storytelling.

And it’s at the intersection of a fresh perspective and the universality of human emotion that the writer must stand to tell their unique story to their audience.

All Stories Have Already Been Told… Really?