Plateaux, Mountains and Valleys
Life doesn't run smoothly. Everything goes along fine for a while and
then problems come and we are in the valley of despair. Then things change
and we are on top of the world and wondering what the trouble was all
about. This is a common story pattern. You can draw a story line like
a graph, plotting the ups and downs as good and bad.
Here is Robinson Crusoe outlined this way:
|
He goes on a voyage |
Good |
| |
|
| His ship is wrecked |
Bad |
| |
|
| He is washed up alive |
Good |
| |
|
| The island is deserted |
Bad |
| |
|
| He manages to survive |
Good |
| |
|
| He discovers hostile natives |
Bad |
| |
|
| He rescues one who is friendly |
Good |
With Cinderella it would be:
|
Cinderella is orphaned |
Bad |
| |
|
| Her stepmother makes her a servant |
Bad |
| |
|
| The Prince wants to meet local girls
to choose a wife
|
Good |
| |
|
| Cinderella is blocked from the
invite to the Ball
|
Bad |
| |
|
Cinderella has a Fairy Godmother |
Good |
| |
|
| But the magic is limited to a few
hours at the Ball
|
Bad |
| |
|
| She has to run out of the Ball |
Bad |
| |
|
| But she leaves her slipper |
Good |
| |
|
The Prince tries to trace her |
Good |
| |
|
The stepmother pretends she is
not in the house
|
Bad |
| |
|
She appears and goes off with
the Prince
|
Good |
|
