Working with Story Structure Patterns, Part 2

Continuing our discussion of Story Patterns! In Part 1 I asked you “What classic story pattern is at the center of both The Godfather and Succession?”

Of course there’s more than one answer to this, but they are both very notable examples of the “King Has Three Children…” story pattern, immortalized in myths and fairy tales from all over the world. The Godfather is the story of an old king with three sons, and the story question is “Which son will inherit the kingdom?”

In perhaps the most famous example of this archetypal story, King Lear, the old king has three daughters. In Succession, the king has three children. Oops, I mean four, but Con doesn’t really count, does he? Or… does he? In each, the question of succession provides the action and suspense. And the story pattern is such an ancient one that it brings the weight of millennia with it—and usually the weight of tragedy (This deserves a whole post of its own, doesn’t it? Noted!)