Gary Panter blog

A list mingling story types, character types, human activities, formal story elements or attributes and the sensibilities to which they appeal

1 journey / moving / going / returning / never returning
2 quest with goal / accomplish / fail
3 romance / mutual / one-sided / arranged / accidental / fateful / tragic / happy
4 frustrated romance / win / lose
5 being lost / being found
6 autobiographical
7 reportage
8 historical / biographical
9 joke
10 tall tail
11 wish
12 consequence of wish
13 dream
14 daydream
15 utopian vision
16 distopic vision
17 place derived
18 time and place derived
19 the individual vs society
20 empathetic vs unempathetic behavior
21 systems of control
22 breaking out of systems of control
23 obeying
24 disobeying
25 risk taking
26 individual conflict
27 nations in conflict
28 man vs nature
29 complex situations
30 simple situations
31 the negotiator or arbiter
32 cult behavior
33 crime and punishment
34 the supernatural
35 everyday reality
36 the impossible
37 future potentials
38 adjusting to pressure / change
39 inevitable death
40 childhood
41 teenage
42 maturing
43 aging
44 friendship
45 antagonism
46 betrayal
47 frustration
48 insanity
49 mood swings
50 ecstasy
51 lying
52 murder
53 sexual predation
54 revenge
55 criminal behavior
56 delusion
57 wisdom
58 ignorance
59 avarice
60 poverty
61 riches
62 neurosis
63 sloth
64 prankster
65 genius
66 average joe
67 perigrination
68 conviction
69 faith
70 promise
71 rash promise
72 natural calamity
73 rightful punishment
74 wrongful punishment
75 imprisionment / prisoner / trapped
76 work place
77 competition
78 famine
79 disease
80 dire circumstances
81 salvation
82 failure
83 absurdity
84 juxtposition
85 contrasting circumstance
86 man and animal
87 feeding
88 cleanliness
89 sleep
90 riding
91 conveyance
92 mutation
93 the illogical
94 the intuitive
95 the counterintuitive
96 the beautiful
97 the ugly
98 the plain
99 the irritating
100 the loud and noisy
101 fights and riot
102 fear and dread
103 suspicion
104 the deformed
105 the retarded
106 the sick
108 folk wisdom / folk tale / myth
109 folk stupidity
110 the good ruler
111 the bad ruler
112 satisfying expectations
113 frustrating expectations
114 pigheadedness
115 luck/ fate
116 sobriety
117 drunkenness
118 prudishness
119 lechery
120 provocation
121 cessation of desire
123 greedy
124 obliviousness
125 obvious
126 oblique
127 opacity
128 melodic
129 percussive
130 timbre
131 tonality
132 narrator
133 multiple narrators
134 undependable narrators
135 self destruction
136 parasite / mooch
137 the savior / hero / antihero / the healer
140 religious story / myth
141 the recontextualized
142 collage
143 the topical
144 gossip
145 parody
146 satire
147 gross hyperbole
148 the lazy
149 the stooge
150 the victim
151 the bully
152 the bystander
153 the sister / brother
154 mother / father
155 kin
156 the others
157 the unclean
158 the primitive
159 the alien / other worldly
160 supernatural beings / angels / mutants / superpeople
161 paranoia
162 the blithe and uncaring / the careless
163 trustworthy
164 the frugal
165 the stingy
166 the destroyer
167 the monster / the insatiable
168 the unhuman / robot / puppet
169 the anthropomorphicized
170 the polluted/ poisoned / drunken / drugged
171 gross unfairness
172 mismanagement
173 timing / good / bad
174 being caught doing something wrong
175 defining right and wrong
176 losing control / freaking out
177 manipulating others
178 betraying a trust
179 relative intelligences
180 the mask / assuming an identity
181 being pursued
182 being naked in public
183 getting the run around
184 funny hair / social normatives
185 friendship between man and animal
186 paternal and maternal behavior / situation
187 physically caring for another / self sacrifice
188 the spiritual path
189 the religious path
190 the fascist path
191 the materialist path
192 the sensualist path
193 the narcicist's path
194 the observer / the vicarious participant
195 the juggler
196 the control freak
197 the passive / aggressive
198 the sex freak
199 the exhibitionist
200 the sociopath / sadist / empty / bedeviled
201 the possessed / psychopath
202 the enthusiast
203 the prig
204 leader / guru / messiah
205 follower
206 the sucker / the dupe / the patsy / the fall guy
207 hiding
208 falling
209 swimming above water/below water
210 fire
211 rain
212 emotionally unhinged / depressed
213 blind / deaf / crippled
214 bedridden
215 bedwetter
216 manlady
217 ethnically singled out / the stranger by color
218 economic contrast
219 working at cross purposes
220 the rustic / bumpkin
221 the city wolf / playboy
222 the gladhander
223 the punk
224 the prostitute
225 the pimp
226 the wise guy
227 the side kick / accomplice
228 the prophet / shaman / high priest / prognosticator
229 the king / dictator / autocrat / tyrant
230 the judge
231 the flim flam man, snake oil salesman, preacher, salesman
232 policeman/ soldier / fighter
234 pilot / skipper
235 slave / servile
236 shipwrecked
237 isolated
238 the diplomat
239 cooperation
240 riot / chaos
241 withdrawn
242 cloistered
243 the student
244 the graduate
245 the pedant
246 the autodidact
247 the mystery
248 fop/mod/fashion victim
249 clothes horse
250 waif
251 the fuck up