I was reminded this week of a somewhat famous lecture by author Kurt Vonnegut on the shapes of stories. He creates graphs showing how stories can be plotted into diagrams, and that despite a diversity of tales out there, most stories follow some very simple story arcs.
Since giving his lecture, others have done similar analysis and studies of well-known and popular stories and their data basically backs up Vonnegut’s propositions. About six story arcs account for the majority of stories told.
Can you tell a tale using one of the common patterns? What happens if you break the pattern?
A side note to anyone wanting to become famous: adopting an off-the-shelf tale will work wonders for your career. Know any “stars” that became famous because: hard work pays off in the end? They were in the right place at the right time? They overcame adversity? They failed, then rebounded?
Plots
My mom, a fiction writer (who died 53 years ago) told me there were only X number of plots in the world. Interestingly, the number “6” is in my recall, but I never remembered if it was 6, 36, 16 or some such with a 6 in it. So maybe this idea has been around longer than the modern data-crunched version, with, possibly, a similar result. Maybe it’s like the number of plots, itself!