Three Act Structure: Act I

Hi, Gang. Craig with you again today. It occurred to me that I’ve mentioned Three Act Structure several times on this site, but never posted anything about it before. That ends today. This is a great way of plotting your stories, but it’s so much more than that. It will keep you on point with …

Case Study: Army of the Dead

Hi gang. Craig with you today. I needed something to post here, and this came to me after watching a specific movie. You all know how I like to study films, then break them down to see if I can learn something. This is a new movie on Netflix, it’s called “Army of the Dead.” …

Basic Plots: Vonnegut’s Good News Bad News

Ciao, SEers. I’ve been talking about Vonnegut’s five basic plots. So far, I’ve discussed Man in Hole, Boy Meets Girl, Cinderella, and From Bad to Worse, which you can find by clicking the links. Today, I’m going to talk about the fifth and final plot type, Good News/Bad News. As I’ve described in all the …

I learned a new word

Hi Gang. Craig with you again, and I learned a new word. (Not that I’m likely to remember it at my age, but writing it down helps.) I’m sharing it here, because it’s also an obscure kind of story structure. I can see that it has merit under some circumstances. The word is picaresque. It …

Basic Plots: Vonnegut’s From Bad to Worse

Ciao, SEers. I’ve been talking about Vonnegut’s five basic plots. So far, I’ve discussed Man in Hole, Boy Meets Girl, and Cinderella, which you can find by clicking the links. Today, I’m going to talk about the fourth plot type, From Bad to Worse. As I’ve described before, Vonnegut plotted all stories on a grid. …