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Comment by pmichaud | Hacker News Reader

To add to this point, Avatar is actually more than an old story: it's a boilerplate movie plot. Anyone who is educated about script writing knew exactly what it was by minute 20 because it followed the formula to a T.

The reason the formula exists is that it's versatile. Anyone can plant themselves inside and understand it from their worldview. That's why it's so similar to other movies, and that's why people can see the Vietnam war and Chinese real estate developers in it.

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"Anyone who is educated about script writing knew exactly what it was by minute 20"

So true...

My wife says that's my "useless superpower": to be able to predict the next 5 minutes of a movie I never saw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

I've pissed off my girlfriend several times by reading a book she recommends, and instantly predicting exactly what the "twist" at the end is. Comes from being a lonely nerd with nothing much to do but read tons and tons of science fiction.

"Anyone who is educated about script writing ..."

I am to the extent that I've seen enough movies to recognize the patterns... but are you suggesting those formulas are taught somewhere as a formalized script-writing practice?

Not only is monomyth the first thing you learn when you learn about script writing formulas, there are actually applications out there that can assist you in developing dramatic arcs. Sort of like a sketchbook for writing.

Yes. I took a class in formula script-writing this last semester.

Echoing my sibling: yes, absolutely. Think of it like a design pattern for writing. I think you can push the analogy pretty far actually: they are codified formulae designed to "implement" concepts in a story in a familiar and largely effective way, in the general case. They can be tinkered with around the edges, and implementation details can change, but at the core a factory is a factory.

Not every formula can be applied to every "story problem", and they can often be mixed and matched to achieve the desired outcome.

I've taken a screenwriting class that taught a few formulas as well.

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