There’s nothing like Story Empire for great posts on the craft of writing, and today’s post from Staci is a perfect example. She’s sharing a series of posts on Vonnegut’s “plot graphs” that make the process of laying out a basic plot easy to understand. Hope you’ll do yourself a favor and check out today’s “Boy Meets Girl” lesson. It’s well worth your time, believe me! And of course, don’t forget to pass it along so others can take a look, too. Thanks! And thanks to Staci for another excellent post in the series. 🙂
Ciao, SEers. Last time I was here, I talked about the first of Vonnegut’s five basic plots, Man in Hole, which you can find by clicking the link. Today, I’m going to talk about the second, Boy Meets Girl.
As I mentioned last time, Vonnegut plotted all stories on a grid. The vertical axis was the GI-Axis, and it ran from good fortune to ill fortune. The horizontal axis was the BE-Axis, and it ran from the beginning to the end of the story.
Also like last time, the Boy Meets Girl story is one we’re all familiar with. It’s probably the second most common story type, and I say “probably” only because it could be tied with “Man in Hole” in popularity. Like its predecessor, it starts above the midpoint of the GI-Axis, because readers like happy heroes. But unlike last time, the graph trends up initially…
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The Write Stuff 
Looking forward to the next in the series!
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They are really worth checking out, aren’t they, Trish? Fascinating to study the graphs and I’m planning to get better about putting them to use, instead of always just winging it. Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for stopping by! 🙂
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Thanks. I’m glad you’re enjoying them.
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Thank you for reblogging, Marcia. It’s a fascinating post. Big hugs!
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You beat me to it, Gwen. 🙂
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Geez, Marcia. That was a fantastic intro. I hope the content lives up to it. I really appreciate it.
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Hey, I “calls ’em as I sees ’em,” Staci! 😀 SE is known for great posts, and this one is no exception. I’m thoroughly enjoying the series so far, and looking forward to more! 🙂 Super subject, super job. 🙂
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