Steal A Structure

I’ve loved the Coen Brothers ever since Blood Simple knocked my socks off in 1984. Hard to believe that was 41 years ago. Some of my best friends weren’t even born..

Recently, I revived an old script I'm particularly fond of, Heavenly Manna. it's a dark comedy with hints of neo-noir, set in Scotland. Think Get Shorty meets Local Hero, with drams of whisky and a lot of moral murk. As I rewrote it, I found myself leaning into the noir. Then in my weekly Screenwriting As A Pro (a Master Class in which a group of veterans critique each other's work, much like a Writers' Room) we were discussing great monologues. Think Blade Runner, Inglorious Bastards, Silence of the Lambs.

That sparked an idea and a new script: Buried in the Light. Full-throttle neo-noir melodrama set in San Miguel de Allende. Same genre, different soul. I didn’t steal dialogue or plot points. I borrowed the bones. The structure. The mood.

This isn’t plagiarism. It’s what writers have always done: borrowed the shape of something familiar to make something entirely new.

Here’s the truth: there are only a handful of stories in the world. Depending on who you ask, there are seven, or five, or thirty-six. But let’s go with the classic seven:

1. Overcoming the Monster

2. Rags to Riches

3. The Quest

4. Voyage and Return

5. Comedy

6. Tragedy

7. Rebirth

   
   

Everything we write is a variation on these. Whether you’re facing the darkness outside (Overcoming the Monster) or the one inside (Rebirth), the scaffolding is already there. You don’t have to invent it from scratch. In fact, trying to do that often leads to spinning your wheels.

Laying your own story over an existing structure doesn’t make it less original. It helps shape your idea. It gives you something solid to push against. Like the colonial homes here in San Miguel—built on centuries-old bones but alive with new life.

Borrowing structure gives you room to find your own voice. The shape may be familiar. The story will still be yours. That’s not cheating. That’s writing.

©Buried In Light written by Lorraine Flett