Story Shapes

[Bramblethorn]

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. gave a talk about the emotional shape of a story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

There's been some work on computer analysis of this: http://www.matthewjockers.net/2015/02/02/syuzhet/ I'm not entirely sold on that side of things, but I've found the "story shapes" idea is useful sometimes as a focus when writing a story.

Vonnegut talks about emotion, but you can apply it more broadly, to things like relationship dynamics. One of mine has an X-shaped plot: at the start J is the glamorous well-connected princess, and R is her mousy sidekick with a painful crush on her. R sets out to impress J, and overshoots; by the end of the story R is the one holding the mystery, and J is hopelessly pursuing her. The heart of the story is the moment where their arcs meet, and they get a single night together - but by that point both arcs have enough momentum to pull them apart again. Tragedy ensues.

I don't know if the readers noticed it, but I found it helpful to stay on track when I was writing the story. Anybody else use devices like this?

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I've been known to post chapter 1 with no idea where chapter 2 will go. As long as they characters make sense to me, plot takes care of itself.

One thing I've done in longer works (not here) is to get my cast of characters and then imagine lines I'm going to want them to say at various points, usually semi-dramatic reveals or statements that drip with irony, except I don't know why they are ironic yet. Then the exercise is to create the plot that connects those points. It's worked out ok but I haven't tried it in an erotic story.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. gave a talk about the emotional shape of a story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

There's been some work on computer analysis of this: http://www.matthewjockers.net/2015/02/02/syuzhet/ I'm not entirely sold on that side of things, but I've found the "story shapes" idea is useful sometimes as a focus when writing a story.

Vonnegut talks about emotion, but you can apply it more broadly, to things like relationship dynamics. One of mine has an X-shaped plot: at the start J is the glamorous well-connected princess, and R is her mousy sidekick with a painful crush on her. R sets out to impress J, and overshoots; by the end of the story R is the one holding the mystery, and J is hopelessly pursuing her. The heart of the story is the moment where their arcs meet, and they get a single night together - but by that point both arcs have enough momentum to pull them apart again. Tragedy ensues.

I don't know if the readers noticed it, but I found it helpful to stay on track when I was writing the story. Anybody else use devices like this?

Thanks for sharing that video, that was fantastic.

All of mine look like check-marks. Things get real bad, real fast, and usually it's a slow uphill with a few tremors at the end for excitement.