Bramblethorn
Sleep-deprived
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Posts
- 18,342
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?
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?