Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Explains The Structure Of Stories
Writers, here’s a little fun Thursday lunchtime activity for you. Think about the story you’re currently working on/avoiding. What shape does it take? Get a pen and some paper and trace it out. On the axis of good fortune versus ill fortune, where do your characters tend to fall?
Kurt Vonnegut was born 99 years ago today, so it’s high time we revisit one of his best craft lectures. In it, he breaks down his taxonomy of storytelling. But none of this “beginning → rising action → climax → falling action → resolution” crap that we learn in middle school. He begins: “Stories have very simple shapes, ones that computers can understand.” And then he goes on to do a little literary stand-up comedy, tracing the story arc of Hamlet, The Metamorphosis, and even Cinderella. Not by plot, but by the feelings of the characters we follow. For Kurt Vonnegut, the true movement of a story lays in a character’s happiness.
If you have 17 minutes to spare today, I recommend you give it a watch and maybe plot your own happiness, too. In fact, tag yourself. (We’re Kafka’s cockroach.)
Then And Now
Social Media In The Flesh
Here’s Why You Should Convert Your Music To 432 Hz – Educate Inspire Change
Some interesting thoughts for musicians!
http://educateinspirechange.org/science-technology/heres-convert-music-432-hz/
You Have A Military Industrial Complex
But of course it does not stop there. We need to add in the media, the drug, biotech and agricultural companies and treasonous politicians.
CDC Say They Destroyed Documents That Prove Vaccines Cause Autism
Chris Powell: Gold market manipulation: Why, how, and how long?
So this is who pulls the strings and why…
http://www.gata.org/node/14839
Chart that tells a story — Gold
This is a typical example of shallow journalism that does not fully inform you of the whole story – not by a country mile. As a matter of fact it is a bit like the Matrix. Read the next article to pull back the curtain.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/62b4f1a2-2fbb-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff.html#axzz3hZ9c7vpt
Deja Moo
