Story Graphing: A Visual Editing Tool Brad R. Cook
In a workshop I give to young writers, I show the image of a standard story arc. The one we all know, starts low, builds through rising action to the peak of the climax, and then has a resolution on the other side. It looks like one side of a hill. In doing research, I came across a concept I’d seen years earlier – Kurt Vonnegut’s story graphs.
Kurt Vonnegut, an American literary giant who liked numbers and was a bit of a math guy came up with a theory that stories had different shapes, and those shapes were a good way of interpreting a plot. Now I will say, many have spoken out in favor and against this theory saying story graphing was too subjective to be real and similar stores will have wildly different shapes. Watch him graph Cinderella – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
I think Vonnegut was on to something. Maybe not the end all, be all of breaking down a story, but graphing is good for showing a few things. First, stories do have wildly different shapes, but stories within genres tend to look similar. The graphs show if the writer’s story is similar to others in the same genre or style. Two, as an editing tool for visual learners a story graph can show what parts are doing well and which parts need more work.
I like it because it allows me to see the whole forest instead of only the trees. This isn’t some magic wand to solve all your plotting problems, but it is a tool that can be helpful.
What is story graphing? Simply, it is a visual representation of the positive and negative points of the story.
1 – Choose Points to Plot – Writers can go chapter by chapter, scene by scene, or by major plot points. More points mean more detail in the graph. If you’re looking for an overview do 10 points, if you want a detailed graph of the story, use 20-40 points or more. The number is determined by how many scenes are in the story.
2 – Make the Graph – The vertical line is for the good and bad things that happen in the story and the horizontal line represents the beginning to the end.
3 – Assign Values to the Points – I suggest a scale of +5 and a -5, you could use ten, and I often use half points for accuracy. The key is to be consistent. Pick the high point and the low point of the story, they become the +5 and -5 of the point spread. The third point is the starting point - where does the story begin. Is it a 0, a normal day, or are they enduring hardship so it’s a -1? Maybe start at a 1 because life is good. Now, the next point, is the next scene, but is the character’s life improving or getting more challenging? Do the same for each new point, does the story get better or worse than the scene before?
One note, I suggest only having one or two +5 and -5. There should only be a couple of truly amazing or heartbreaking scenes in a book.
4 – Connect the Dots – Once the story is graphed, it can be analyzed for several factors.
Peaks and Valleys – All the peaks should be good moments or the emotional highs of the book, and all the valleys should represent the character's struggles. What a writer doesn’t want are plateaus, which means nothing has changed in the story.
The Overall Shape – The shape should be similar to other stories in genre or the tropes of the story. Depending on the story it could look like a roller-coaster, a descending arc, or maybe a deep valley with a high ending. There are several shapes that Vonnegut outlined.
What Needs Editing – Not enough peaks and valleys, could be a muddy middle. Does the low moment come shortly before the climax? Is the action too close together? Look at the story’s structure because the graph is the story.
Now graph everything. I like to graph the main plot, the main characters emotional arc, the secondary characters arc, and the villain’s arc, but anything can be graphed.
When these graphs are laid over each other they show data as well. Where the dots all come together usually are the big moments of the story. When the lines parallel each other that means the story is in harmony. The differences can point to parts that need work or parts where the story might be confusing to readers. How do the emotional arcs compare to each other? Do the emotional arcs connect to the main plot at the right points?
Things to Remember – Consistency is key. +1 has to mean the same throughout the whole story, but you are the one making these determinations. Be honest, don’t try and make a graph that fits some mold, plot the story, and see what it looks like.
Everything is relative. It’s the Whose Line Is It Anyway mentality, “It’s all made up and the points don’t matter.” What matters is that the writer knows what they mean.
Each new story will have a different set of values. For different graphs of the same story use the same scene point values. New points will be needed for different books though.
So why listen to Kurt Vonnegut and me? Story graphing can be fun, but it can also help edit, help plot, or help you see that your book is just like all those bestsellers and classics.
