# Storytelling basics ## Generic 1st part: - Where you've been - What you've done - What you want - Why you want it - What you've done so far to get it - 2nd part: - Where you are now - How you've worked hard and used up most of your resources - 3rd part: - Where you're going and how X can help you get there ## Kurt Vonnegut - X: Time Y: Good fortune / ill fortune - “The shape of the curve is what matters. Not their origins.” - Stories have defined patterns. - He makes the case for the Hero’s Journey - Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it - Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — so the reader may see what they're made of - To see who your characters really are, you have to make them suffer. Only then does your audience have someone worth cheering for. - End on a high note - It’s not accidental that the line ends up higher than where it began. This is encouraging to readers - The way a story makes people feel when they finish is how they remember it - Lift people up and they will love you - It’s called recency bias