An Invitation: Story Nerds Book Group
Agatha Christie You may have noticed that we at Smack Dab are a bit nerdy when it comes to story. We love taking deep dives into those story bits – theme, language, world-building, points of view, scene types, tropes and tone – that make a story timeless. At the core of every story is character. Character drives the plot even as plot molds the character. The relationship between character and plot offers endless possibilities and opportunities. If identifying these story bits is the first step, the second step is exploring how these bits are combined to create the story. Of course, easier said than done as these bits need to fit together cohesively. This implies there’s a certain universality to organizing some of these shapes and how they work. But is there such a thing as a universal shape to stories? Every English student knows about Vonnegut’s theory of eight universal story shapes: Man in Hole and Boy Meets Girl, Rags to Riches and The Quest and so on. Except, ...
