Made to Stick

the Soul, but it could be. The Chicken Soup series has become a pub-
lishing phenomenon, with more than 4.3 million books sold and
thirty-seven Chicken Soup titles in print, including Chicken Soup for
the Father’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, and Chicken
Soup for the NASCAR Soul.
The Chicken Soup books traffic in inspirational stories—stories
that uplift, motivate, energize. In that sense, these stories are the 
opposite of urban legends, which tend to reinforce a cynical, pes-
simistic, or paranoid view of the world. (Strangers will steal your kid-
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neys! Snapple supports the KKK! McDonald’s puts worms in its
burgers!)
What’s amazing about these stories is that the authors didn’t write
them—they merely spotted and collected them. We wanted to un-
derstand what made these inspirational stories tick. We pored over in-
spirational stories—hundreds of stories, both from Chicken Soup and
elsewhere—looking for underlying similarities.
Aristotle believed there were four primary dramatic plots: Simple
Tragic, Simple Fortunate, Complex Tragic, and Complex Fortunate.
Robert McKee, the screenwriting guru, lists twenty-five types of stories
in his book: the modern epic, the disillusionment plot, and so on. When
we finished sorting through a big pile of inspirational stories—a much
narrower domain—we came to the conclusion that there are three basic
plots: the Challenge plot, the Connection plot, and the Creativity plot.
These three basic plots can be used to classify more than 80 per-
cent of the stories that appear in the original Chicken Soup collec-
tion. Perhaps more surprisingly, they can also be used to classify more
than 60 percent of the stories published by People magazine about
people who aren’t celebrities. If an average person makes it into Peo-
ple, it’s usually because he or she has an inspiring story for the rest of
us. If our goal is to energize and inspire others, these three plots are
the right place to start. (By the way, if you’re a more jaded type of per-
son who finds the Chicken Soup series treacly rather than inspira-
tional, you’ll still find value in the three plot templates. You can
always turn down the volume on the plots a bit.)
T H E   C H A L L E N G E   P LOT
The story of David and Goliath is the classic Challenge plot. A pro-
tagonist overcomes a formidable challenge and succeeds. David fells
a giant with his homemade slingshot. There are variations of the
Challenge plot that we all recognize: the underdog story, the rags-to-
riches story, the triumph of sheer willpower over adversity.
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The key element of a Challenge plot is that the obstacles seem
daunting to the protagonist. Jared slimming down to 180 pounds is a
Challenge plot. Jared’s 210-pound neighbor shaving an inch off his
waistline is not. We’ve all got a huge mental inventory of Challenge
plot stories. The American hockey team beating the heavily favored
Russians in the 1980 Olympics. The Alamo. Horatio Alger tales. The
American Revolution. Seabiscuit. The Star Wars movies. Lance Arm-
strong. Rosa Parks.
Challenge plots are inspiring even when they’re much less dra-
matic and historical than these examples. The Rose Blumkin story
doesn’t involve a famous character. Challenge plots are inspiring in a
defined way. They inspire us by appealing to our perseverance and
courage. They make us want to work harder, take on new challenges,
overcome obstacles. Somehow, after you’ve heard about Rose Blum-
kin postponing her one-hundredth birthday party until an evening
when her store was closed, it’s easier to clean out your garage. Chal-
lenge plots inspire us to act.
T H E   C O N N E C T I O N   P LOT
Today the phrase “good Samaritan” refers to someone who voluntar-
ily helps others in times of distress. The original story of the Good
Samaritan from the Bible is certainly consistent with this definition,
but it’s even more profound.
The story begins with a lawyer who approached Jesus with a ques-
tion about how to get to heaven. The lawyer was more interested in
testing Jesus than in learning from him. When Jesus asked the lawyer
what he thought the answer was, the lawyer gave a reply that included
the notion “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus accepted
the lawyer’s answer. Then the lawyer (perhaps wanting to limit the
number of people he’s on the hook to love) says, “And who is my
neighbor?”
In response, Jesus told a story:
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“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell
into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat
him and went away, leaving him half dead.
“A priest happened to be going down the same road, and
when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a
Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the
other side.
“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;
and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and
bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the
man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.
The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the
innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will re-
imburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man
who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The lawyer replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
What’s missing from this tale, for modern-day readers, is a bit of
context. The Samaritan in the story was not simply a nice guy. He was
a nice guy crossing a huge social gulf in helping the wounded man.
At the time, there was tremendous hostility between Samaritans and
Jews (all the other main characters in the story). A modern-day anal-
ogy to the outcast status of the Samaritan might be an “atheist biker
gang member.” The lesson of the story is clear: Good neighbors show
mercy and compassion, and not just to people in their own group.
This is what a Connection plot is all about. It’s a story about peo-
ple who develop a relationship that bridges a gap—racial, class, eth-
nic, religious, demographic, or otherwise. The Connection plot
doesn’t have to deal with life-and-death stakes, as does the Good
Samaritan. The connection can be as trivial as a bottle of a Coke, as
in the famous Mean Joe Greene commercial. A scrawny young white
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fan encounters a towering famous black athlete. A bottle of Coke
links them. It ain’t the Good Samaritan, but it’s clearly a Connection
plot.
Connection plots are also fabulous for romance stories—think of