analysis of a story

There's no such thing as an 'average' story so I don't think applying it to a graph would work.

This strikes me as another way of attempting to find a formula to writing. This comes up often here and is phrased in different ways. There are no tricks to writing, no magic formulas, no ways around it. You write or you don't. That's all there is to it and all the formulas and graphs in the world won't help.

You may see the occasional graph in a critique (I've seen it used for films) but the graph is there to show what action peaks and troughs have occurred along the time line.

As a means of planning what is to happen in a novel it seems like overkill or procastination to me and doing an average graph -if there were such a thing - for all average novels seems to me to be a wasted exercise.

Reading - as opposed to skimming through - novels of the type one wished to write would be far more productive.

There are a bunch of graphs that show what the basic structure of a story should be. In general these graphs start off slowly and slowly build up to the peak/climax, but there are all sorts of ways to play with plot structure. Usually starts with a relatively flat line (across) then peaks/downs near the middle and end.
For me, I tend to follow the start off with establishing the characters/setting/story technique. However, I plant little mysteries within the beginning for later. Then I start twisting and turning the story in all kinds of ways, which leads to the climax. So for me it's a bumpy across line then peaks/downs. Did this answer your question? I'm no expert. I'm just answering the best I can to what I understand.

catian said:

This is exactly the kind of thing I am researching.Thank you CBright.
I think figuring out what an average readable story looks like in a graph would more or less give me an idea on how to progress through a story.
For example would an OK story start a graph with a short brief peaking line
/ which represents an opening with a series of accute events that would grip the reader.then
then would have a lapse of a line going across like this
___________which indicates a series of events unfolding but steadily
then
peak again/ for a a short time
then
the line would decline like this
\ and that would be a type of denouement only to peak again/
then across __________to indicate denouement again..
and so on.
So I am not familiar with graph making but I wish to represent the shape of good story as oppose to a not so good story.
To visualize the shape of the story helsp me build up my events and create the story.
I would compare to an architect who would first draw the bare bones/foundations to look at before creating it.
Obviouslty the line in the graphs is representative of pace images and development.
Does that make sense?

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Yes, that makes sense and it is very interesting. I don't think much about what my story would look like in a graph. In fact, I never thought about it until this thread.
You got my post before I edited it and deleted my failed attempt at a graph.

http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm

Haven't read it yet but maybe you mean something like this?

catian said:

In a nutshell what would you say an average readable story would like in graph?

Click to expand...

Graphs? Try Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

> You get the idea.

No I don't. What is it that you're plotting exactly? Tension as a function of time? Conflict? Action intensity? Number of characters? Money spend on lattes? A Gantt chart per character?


> In a nutshell what would you say an average
> readable story would like in graph?

What seun said. There is no such as an 'average' story.

There are templates, though. Many.


The Hero's Journey is popular. Many writing software imposes this template in one way or another.

http://www.movieoutline.com/article...ic-structure-of-joseph-campbell-monomyth.html



John Truby's 7 (actually 22) steps are also in vogue to a large degree.

http://www.truby.com/learn_book.html


And you have the ultimate template of them all: Dramatica. It's powerful if you know what you are doing and have learned all the terminology. It's a cross between astrology, numerology, transcorporal meditation, and divination. Good luck with that one.

http://www.dramatica.com/theory/theory_book/dtb.html



If you still have this urge to plot something against something, I suggest you check out yWriter ( http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html ). It's a free authoring software that works with chapters and scene, and there is a feature where you can set values to up to four attributes of your own choosing (ex: tension, prose quality, time spent writing that @#$@# scene, etc) and plot them in a graph. There are also other attributes based on Dwight Swain's scene/sequel model (http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php).

Hope this helps.

-cb

Also, check out The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson.

I found this site very helpful for a visual representation of how my work was going. How to Plot

It's nice to try to graph out other stories but I think for the most part, they're all going to look essentially the same, at least in part as a shape on a graph. Starts low, rises with tension to the climax, falls off at the denouement*. Really not helpful in terms of your own writing unless you take your work and graph it to make sure you have the same sort of curve.

*YMMV as not all stories will fit this.

catian said:

Graphs would help analyse when one should shift from one voice to the next if you like.
It would help knowing how many denouements/climax/anticlimax there are.
When do they start and when do they end etc.
How many different types of start there are and which are the best ones.
I think this is an ideal graphs which would simply visualise the backbone of a story.
How would a story cut short or develop and which again are the most popular and so on..

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I don't think you're going to find any sort of graph for these details. All of those, it seems to me, are individual to the author and to the story.

The backbone of a story, like I said, pretty much looks the same. Beginning, middle, end.

Determining when they start and end is up to the author and what kind of pace they wish to set, what information they're looking to get down for the plot, etc.

Shifting from one voice to the next, ditto. Up to the author and what the plot/scene calls for.

You may consider studying screenwriting as far as story structure is concerned. But that only gives you structure in a basic sense and how movies usually breakdown within that structure. It still won't cover the many things that always come down to an author's choice.

There are books out there that discuss dramatic theory and story structure but, again, they are mostly very high level discussions with some stories and books broken down as illustrations and talking points but even those end up being highly individualistic to the author and to the story.

Good stories do adhere to a basic--and classic--formula. Do an Internet search and study story structure/story architecture--this will answer all your questions.

The 3-act is solid, and sells, but you don't want to ignore little baby conflicts throughout. Ideally each chapter has lovely peaks and valleys though, hell- every paragraph, even.

I'm a statistician.

The last thing I want to do when I write is plot things.

Err. Wait.

That came out wrong.