Jim Thompson was a prolific writer of crime drama. The quote below is attributed to him. There is only one plot—things are not what they seem. Does this observation apply to all fiction? Is it good writing advice? How important is it to a story that things are not what they seem?
Well, a statement like that is in the same category as "Life is a cabaret." It's at the broadest, lowest possible resolution and it says almost nothing. Sure, most stories probably can be put under that category, but is it helpful in any way? In the same vein you can say "A story is a bunch of words on paper or in digital form, or sometimes spoken," or "Every story has characters doing things."
I get your point, but I think the quote is calling for something a little more defined than that. All stories have words, yes, but not all stories have twists and turns.
I want to harp on the fact that the statement isn't actually a plot. A plot requires a lot more detailed info than that, and characters with motivations, etc. But obviously he wasn't trying to define what a plot is, just saying they all involve deception. Sure, it's probably true of all stories in some way. Especially crime drama.
It might be a good rule to keep in mind if one were writing crime drama. You don't want it to be too predictable. As far as plots, I thought I read somewhere that there were maybe 18 or so accepted story structures, i.e. probably the rising and falling action, resolution, etc. Similar to the visual lecture Kurt Vonnegut gave but more complex. Now I don't particularly agree there are only 18 or so of these structures/plots, I just thought I read it somewhere.
That refers to plots like for instance Revenge, Rags to Riches, Local Yokel Makes Good, etc. I don't know if all those are real (especially the last one). But it's those kinds of plots. And there are many different lists showing various numbers of plots.
That makes no sense at all. What's it supposed to mean? Every plot can be distilled to "things aren't what they seem?"
I guess it means don't give too much away. Save some surprises for the readers. I take it as just one guideline to follow when constructing a plot. As a character learns or comes to understand what is really going on.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/497317-there-are-thirty-two-ways-to-write-a-story-and-i-ve —Jim Thompson What thirty-two ways is he referring to? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations This, maybe? Anyway, he was an interesting guy. Unfortunately alcoholic. Here are a few bits from his Wikipedia page:
