Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories

Want to understand fiction—or life—in under 5 minutes?

Let Kurt Vonnegut draw you a graph.

He maps the shape of every story you’ve ever loved—with chalk and razor-sharp wit.

Tt’s Vonnegut at his best: funny, weird, and sharp as hell.

If you want a deep-dive Vonnegut documentary, the best I’ve seen is “Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time” (which I rank 94/100).

Thx to The Memory Hole on Substack for the tip.

Watch “Vonnegut: The Shape of Stories”

You can find this clip on YouTube. Here’s the best one I’ve found:

He claims that this “Man in Hole” story structure is the most popular in Western Civilization—and anyone can make a million dollars retelling it.

Ratings:

Director’s Note: Unknown

Release Date: Unknown exact date, but this particular version was uploaded over a decade ago. Likely recorded in the 1980s or early 90s.

Vonnegut walks to a chalkboard, draws two axes—GI for good/ill fortune, and B to E (beginning to end).

Then he plots out the most famous story shapes: Man in Hole, Boy Meets Girl, Cinderella.

His thesis?

That stories have shapes, and those shapes can be graphed, analyzed, and—yep—fed into computers.

“Man in Hole” — These are stories where “someone gets into trouble, gets out of it again”—and says people never get tired of that.
Cinderella — — a little girl with dead mom, cruel stepmom, and a lost shoe turns into a million-dollar tale with “off-scale happiness.” His Cinderella curve starts “way below average” (mom dies, evil step-family), then climbs to “off-scale happiness.” He jokes that the graph of Cinderella’s happiness briefly flattens because it takes “about 20 seconds for the clock to strike midnight.” He blurts “Oh goddamnit!” mid-story when Cinderella loses the shoe—and the crowd erupts.
He says story shapes are “beautiful” and “not copyrighted,” encouraging viewers to steal them.

He originally presented this idea as a master’s thesis in anthropology—rejected by the University of Chicago. He later said it was just as important as any pot or arrowhead.
He uses “B for beginning, E for electricity,” just to be silly. It works. (E = Ending). People laugh. It’s classic Vonnegut misdirection.
He believed storytelling was deeply tied to the shape of emotional experiences—and that great writers manipulate those shapes intentionally.

“Off-scale happiness sounds a lot better than ‘lives happily ever after.’” —@Tujdosen
“Such a wonderful dry humor. He is one of my all-time favorites. ‘Goddamnit!’” —@Shockeye00
“It’s like a cross between a college lecture and a stand-up comedy routine.” —@melchiorvulpius8170
“Kurt Vonnegut was a true artist with an unrivaled literary voice… This is one of my favorite of Vonnegut’s speeches.” —@ghwalsh90
“He would have slayed at a TED Talk.” —@vincentpendergast2417

Wrap Up

In just four minutes, Vonnegut does what most books on writing can’t: make storytelling feel simple, funny, and totally human.

Thanks for reading!

Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc