3 Story Shapes according to Kurt Vonnegut

Some experts say a presentation, told as a story, has a shape. Actually, famed author Kurt Vonnegut shows there are at least three shapes describing different kinds of stories. Do any of these shapes look like your presentation?

1. Boy in a Hole – starts relatively happy, falls into a sad hole, climbs back out of the hole.

2. Boy Meets Girl – starts on an average note, climbs to delirious joy, falls to agonizing sorrow, climbs back to a happy ending.

3. Cinderella – starts sad, slowly builds up to hard-won happiness, topples back into sadness, ends on a happy note.

About the author: Bruce Gabrielle is author of Speaking PowerPoint: the new language of business, showing a 12-step method for creating clearer and more persuasive PowerPoint slides for boardroom presentations. Subscribe to this blog or join my LinkedIn group to get new posts sent to your inbox.