Plot similarities in canon

[mightymads]

The difficulty of the Holmes work was that every story really needed as clear-cut and original a plot as a longish book would do. One cannot without effort spin plots at such a rate. They are apt to become thin or to break.

—Arthur Conan Doyle, Memories and Adventures 

Some time ago, while I was reading The Whole Art of Detection by Lyndsay Faye (which is a series of short story pastiches), I noticed that at least two stories had very similar premises. Before writing another fic, I glance over those which I have already wrote to avoid being repetitive. Perhaps you have encountered a similar problem too. ACD himself mentioned how difficult it was to come up with an original plot. Just for fun I tried to trace similarities between various canon stories.

- Holmes watches his quarry to find out where the hidden thing is to avoid a painstaking search of the room in SCAN (Irene Adler and the photo) and in NAVA (Joseph Harrison and the treaty);

- A person is sent on a wild goose chase to get them out of the way in REDH (Jabez Wilson and the League), STOCK (Hall Pycroft and a job vacancy), 3GAR (Nathan Garrideb and the inheritance), and RETI (Josiah Amberley and the faked telegram);

- If big money is payed for a nonsensical reason, there’s usually a catch: REDH (bank robbery), COPP (impersonation), ENGR (forgery);

- A man who is considered to be dead is hiding himself both in NORW and in VALL while the presence of a secret room is figured out by the dimensions of the house in SIGN (where the treasures used to be kept) and NORW (Oldacre’s lair);

- A locked room murder mystery both in SIGN (Bartholomew Sholto) and EMPT (Ronald Adair);

- Important documents stolen in SECO and BRUC and it's basically too late to do something to prevent their being used by the enemy but Holmes takes on the cases anyway;

I'm sure there are more but at this point I stopped looking. Despite some rehashing, the stories are not less enjoyable. What do you think? 

Comments

[mightymads]

Finding a fresh perspective can be a challenging task indeed. And I like what you’ve pointed out: it’s a possibility to explore different ways in which the plot can develop at a certain point. That makes being repetitive less scary. Also, yes, the same old thing can be comforting, yay for favourite tropes :)

[smallhobbit]

I thought there were two accepted standards: If you are offered an overlarge payment for a job, don't accept it; and never go on a sea voyage as you are unlikely to arrive ;)
Oh, and if you want to be a heroine, call yourself Violet.

[mightymads]

Doyle himself didn’t have qualms about taking overlarge payments for writing Holmes stories, though ;)

[rachelindeed]

Hee hee, well, given that I spend my free time reading about the same two characters falling in love hundreds or thousands of times, I'd say "originality of plot" is low on my list of priorities! It's the execution that makes or breaks a story for me :)

But mystery plots are a different type of challenge. I think Doyle was right that, when your goal as a writer is to surprise your readers with a solution that isn't obvious from the start, you do have to work hard to come up with a series of circumstances and clues they won't immediately recognize from some other story (or just figure out in a few moments of logical thought because the solution is too obvious or the misdirection is too thin). I don't think it's a coincidence that relatively few fanfics bother to construct a mystery -- that's a type of plotting that does require a particular kind of effort to build, and if one's main interest is the characters' relationship, it's not always necessary.

That's not to imply that romance doesn't require its own skillful craft as well -- with romances, I'm not looking to be surprised so much as to be convinced (yes, this is how they would be) and transported (this captured my emotions!) Character work is often as intricate as plot work, and I am more drawn to that type of storytelling.

[mightymads]

Well said about writing romance! It’s a different animal from mystery. In fics I noticed that if a romance/character study line is neglected then the mystery line alone usually doesn’t capture me as a reader. Fics give possibilities for exploring themes which were only sketched in the canon. I don’t know if fic readers usually come for mystery at all. Maybe they are there for romance?

While it takes skill and effort for writing romance, creating an original mystery plot is quite a hassle. Fics are tremendously enjoyable without any mystery at all, so why bother XD

[rachelindeed]

Yes, I know this isn't a particularly original insight, but I do believe the key is usually just for the writer to tell the type of story they themselves truly love -- then I think their enthusiasm shines through and they can find readers with similar tastes to appreciate what they're doing. There are some out there who do genuinely enjoy laying out clues and structuring dramatic reveals, and when I see that type of writing done well it can be a wonderful treat! Some writers excel at BOTH character and plot development, and it's delightful! But I think the thing to be avoided is just to feel like you *have* to plot a mystery just because it's Sherlock Holmes; or even that you *have* to write a romance just because that's what most fic readers appear to want. Gravitating to the type of story you honestly want to tell, whether or not it fits whatever formula might be out there, is the thing that makes the most sense to me.

I honestly wonder if a part of Doyle's own distaste for the Holmes stories was simply that he didn't like plotting all that much. He'd rather spend his time writing fantastical or historical romances, the type of thing he found easier and more fun, but Holmes got so popular he had to keep writing him. And, feeling it impossible to change the genre of Holmes away from 'casefic,' he had to keep scrabbling for new mystery plots, which he probably found tiresome and put progressively less effort into over the years.

[mightymads]

I’d read a romantic Holmes novel with zero mystery in it if characterisations and drama were good. On the other hand, I think ACD’s plotting efforts paid off as most Holmes stories are neatly and powerfully written. I tried to read the Brigadier Gerard series, and it just didn’t work for me. Rodney Stone could use some good plotting too, etc. I may be biased but Holmes stories really stand out among other things ACD wrote.

And I wholeheartedly agree: writing a story should be a joy in itself. But still, authors wish for recognition otherwise they wouldn’t have published their writing :)

[firecat]

These are indeed delightfully fun facts.

[mightymads]

Thank you! :)