Inspiration: Kurt Vonnegut's "Shapes of Stories."

Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse-Five, said in his autobiography that his "prettiest contribution to culture" was his rejected master's thesis on the shapes of stories.

Maybe it's because I've always struggled a bit with plotting (or maybe it's because Vonnegut's dry wit is so on point), but "On The Shapes of Stories" seems spot on to me. You can watch it here:

Don't you love that? Since I'm currently knee-deep in writing a trilogy, I thought it would be fun to draw the shapes of the three stories I'm working on:

I like that the story shapes for the first and third books are roughly the same. The second book, as I was hoping it would, has a distinctly different shape from the other two. One of the hard parts about planning this series has been ensuring that the overall story arc for the trilogy has a nice flow to it. After this little exercise, I feel like I'm on the right track!

What do you think of Vonnegut's theory? Have you ever drawn out the "shape" of a story you're working on?

Why Do You Love To Read?

Why do you love to read?

Depending on the day, I might have several different answers. If I'm reading a series, I probably can't wait to find out what's going to happen to my favorite characters. Sometimes I want to read a book that reminds me of something going on in my life...and sometimes I read because I want to escape for a while. (Just being honest.) 

There's one more reason why I'm always disappearing into the pages of a book: 

I read because I want to connect.

After I finish a really good book, I close the back cover and feel a little surprised that I’m actually sitting in my living room. The world I was just visiting and the characters I just met still feel so real. The next thing I want to do (besides flip the book over and start reading again) is to go find someone and ask, “Did you read this? What did you think about…?”

The best thing about my first year as an indie author has been connecting with other book lovers. It’s really true that if you love your job, it will never feel like work – and I definitely love my job!

On this blog, I want to connect with you over the books I’m reading and writing. Plus, I hope to introduce you to some of the other book lovers I’ve met along the way. Most of all, I’d like to hear back from you!

Why do you love to read?