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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nothing to see here" data-source="post: 2596232" data-attributes="member: 16432">Stephen King?  Don't get me wrong, he has his flaws, but formulaic doesn't appear to be one of them.  Outside of his general habit of making every third or fourth book he writes centre around cataclysmic events originating in a small New England town, the number of different genres he attempts are more diverse than any other mainstream mass-market writer i've encountered.If you look hard enough most mainstream genre fiction get's forumlaic.  While I never bought into all that..."man vs man", "man vs nature" literary plot dichotomy crap...there are only so many fundamental ways to create the necessary conflict/tension necessary to move a plot forward.An American Film-school academic named Ronald Tobias, wrote a book about a decade ago listing the '20 master plots'...it's a good list (I've attached a copy of the list I found online) -- albeit a debatable one.  It reminds us that, while creativity is infinite -- narrative structure is much more limited.  Anyhow -- I've attached his list here (which coincidentally is not a bad source when you're looking to theme your next adventure)Quest Adventure Pursuit Rescue Escape Revenge The Riddle Rivalry Underdog Temptation Metamorphosis Transformation Maturation Love Forbidden Love Sacrifice Discovery Wretched Excess Ascension Descension</blockquote>