All 8 of Vonnegut's Shapes of Stories
- Man in Hole: Character falls into trouble, climbs out, ends up better for it.
- Boy Meets Girl: Character finds something wonderful, loses it, then gets it back forever.
- From Bad to Worse: Character starts poorly and things deteriorate with no hope of improvement.
- Which Way Is Up?: Ambiguous story where you can never tell if new developments are good or bad.
- Creation Story: Humankind receives incremental gifts from a deity, building from earth and sky down to sparrows and cell phones.
- Old Testament: Humankind receives gifts from a deity, then is suddenly cast out in a catastrophic fall.
- New Testament: Humankind receives gifts, gets cast out, but then achieves off-the-charts bliss.
- Cinderella: Incremental rise, sudden magical peak, devastating loss, then ultimate restoration to even greater heights.