The rise-fall-rise plot, otherwise known as the Cinderella plot, looks like this:
This is the most basic iteration of the plot, and Kurt Vonnegut believes that the actual Cinderella plot looks more like this:
As you can see, this makes the perfect fairytale structure as we start with someone who is quite low down on the fortune scale, yet they end up the story with "off the charts happiness".
Kurt's version of events is particularly interesting as we see the character's gradual step-shaped climb out of ill-fortune. Were the plot to continue like this, Cinderella would still end up happy (although her tale would actually just follow a more complex rising plot). However, the big rise and fall motions add more drama we are happier to see her come out happy than if she had just had good fortune the whole time.
Can you think of any stories that match this plot?
Obviously, we have Cinderella, but there are some other examples in religious texts, notably the in The Garden of Eden.
Again, you should try writing a short piece using this final plot. As with all of the plots, feel free to modernise your story and start where you want on the chart. This one is less easy to modify if you use the Cinderella plot as you still have to end with off the charts happiness, but the basic rise-fall-rise plot is much easier to manipulate.
A final note on plotting...
This week, I have only gone over the structures of plots and not their actual content. Don't worry, this is something I will come back to at a later date! Hopefully though, if you've tried out a few of the structures, you should have plenty of ideas for content.
Also, just because we have discussed these plots in isolation, it doesn't mean they have to stay that way. You can combine these plots in order to make a longer story. You can see how J. K. Rowling combines them in The Deathly Hallows here:
Happy writing!
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