2.2M views · Jul 14, 2018 · 17:37 · 6 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2019–2024
Kurt Vonnegut's 2004 Case College lecture, with Spanish subtitles, in which he sketches the shapes of stories on a blackboard. He plots story arcs as good and bad fortune against time.
Why Hacker News points people here: Frequently recommended as a delightful, influential way to think about story structure.
“Vonnegut is really special. I always like coming back to his Shape of Stories talks”HN comment, 2020
“Vonnegut is really special. I always like coming back to his Shape of Stories talks”
Longer Shape of Stories talk showing Vonnegut late in life
Vonnegut is really special. I always like coming back to his Shape of Stories talks: link Here's a longer one: this video It's interesting to see the difference in him with age. He seems to giggle more as an older man.
“a piece of Kurt Vonnegut's talk randomly found on youtube had an impact on me”
Vonnegut talk that had a personal impact
Not a blog post, but a piece of Kurt Vonnegut's talk randomly found on youtube had an impact on me: this video
“There's an excellent video where he goes through these [0], worth a watch if you have the time.”
Vonnegut walks through his story shapes on a blackboard
There's an excellent video where he goes through these [0], worth a watch if you have the time. [0] this video
“beautifully explored here among other places”
Explores the idea that stories have certain shapes
Yes, Hero's Journey plot ( link ) is very well understood and yet continues to sell well and generally the idea of certain shapes to stories is beautifully explored here among other places: this video
“There is a video of Kurt Vonnegut talking about story telling called Shape of Stories thats pretty good.”
Vonnegut on story shapes as a guide to telling stories
There is a video of Kurt Vonnegut talking about story telling called Shape of Stories thats pretty good. this video
“I like the later-in-life version of the talk.”
Later-in-life version of Vonnegut's Shape of Stories talk
You can find variations of this talk across his life but Vonneguts 'Shape of Stories' kept ringing in my head while going over this paper. I like the later-in-life version of the talk. this video
“There are a couple of lectures posted on YouTube.”
Lecture presentation of Vonnegut's story shapes
That's what I meant by presentations of his shapes of stories. There are a couple of lectures posted on YouTube. link this video The thinking originated in his (rejected) master's thesis at the University of Chicago. Here are some photos of some of the graphs: link Even there, in an incomplete copy, there are seven unique story shapes. And there's a major difference between saying here are some shapes of some stories and here are the only story shapes.
