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The Six Basic Plots and the Dramatic Curve
Kurt Vonnegut’s Research Mapped onto Life’s Dramatic Curve
This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products.What did Kurt Vonnegut and Aristotle have in common when it comes to writing fiction?
Aristotle’s foundational logic and Vonnegut’s modern research both tell us that stories are simply imitations — retellings — of events that happen in real life. There is a natural way stories occur and there is a natural way we tell them.
It’s not a chicken and egg mystery. Life came before writing. Writing is meant to capture and relay life. If we keep that in mind, as writers of fiction, we can view plotting in a different light.
The first question that we have to ask is: What are stories?
Stories are dramatic
Stories — writing, literature, and storytelling in general — fall under the umbrella of drama.
To dramatize something is to blow it out of proportion; to exaggerate it. We humans dramatize everything. David Mamet gives the example that we dramatize the weather every chance we get.
“Can you believe how bad it rained last night? My house almost floated away!”
“Yeah, Steve. We’ve all seen a Rainstorm before. They aren’t that crazy. Shut up.”
“Easy, Phill. You’re being a jerk.”
Stories are just a dramatized — exaggerated — imitation of real life.
Dramatic events
Every story surrounds some dramatic event. These dramatic events are either tragic or comedic.
Not comedic as in funny. Think of comedic as the opposite of tragic. Fortunate might be a better word. Something lucky that happens where we say, “Life’s funny that way, isn’t it?”
Remember, whether the event is comedic or tragic, they should be dramatic. Drama is exaggeration. The stories we write are about something abnormal. They break the routine of everyday life.
