Like it or not, there appears to be something to the idea of “formulaic” writing. And it appears to apply in ways Kurt Vonnegut understood pretty well without the sort of statistical analysis discussed here.
The idea focuses less on the activities and events of plot, and instead on the emotions of a story.
Can a Novel’s Plot Be Reduced to Data Points?
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/02/04/man-in-hole/
sharon p. lynn 