salvatorefalco.com

That was a heck of a game last night. I didn’t really care who would win, and I haven’t followed football in years, so I hadn’t intended to do more than turn it on for background noise. At first, I thought it was going to be another dull blowout, but once New Orleans came back from the first quarter doldrums and started scoring, it was riveting football. I’d tell myself that at the next commercial break, I’d get to work on something–a letter, editing, a blog post, something. The computer sat there untouched each time because I didn’t want to miss anything when the game returned.

It was a lot like reading a good novel, when I tell myself I’ll stop at the end of the chapter, but I can’t stop reading when I get there. There was enough tension to hold my interest, and the level of tension varied so that it didn’t become monotonous. Little reversals of fortune grew in importance as time ran down, with a big, climactic moment and a quick denouement.

Maybe we can replace the “three act structure” with the “four quarter plot.”