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In Story Skeleton: The Classics, we unlock the secrets of twenty-one enduring novels—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—revealing the plot points and craft genius that make them masterpieces. Discover the method behind the magic, and learn how to apply these timeless techniques to elevate your own writing and captivate readers for generations.

As Orson Welles said, “The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.”

A novel’s structural elements can be organized strategically, creatively, unusually—but in a satisfying narrative, they’re all there in some form. That form might be surprising when you realize what the author has really done—which often isn’t clear the first or even second time you read a complex novel. But once you crack the code, it’s immensely satisfying.

Table of Contents

Keeping it (Relatively) Simple

• Moby-Dick and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: A Comparison of “Straight-Shot” Trajectories
• The Old Man and the Sea: Simple Structure, Multiple Interpretations
• Giovanni’s Room: A Masterclass in Internal Conflict
• The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Tragic Allegory
• Pride and Prejudice: A Prototype of Romance Structure
• Of Mice and Men: Bookended Settings with a Twist

Getting Creative

• The Great Gatsby: A Novel that Begins at the Midpoint
• The Scarlet Letter: Splitting the Internal and External Conflicts
• The Call of the Wild: An Episodic Structure
• Madame Bovary: The Overlay of Two Trajectories
• Heart of Darkness: The Hero’s Journey with a Delayed Inciting Incident

Cracking the Code

• Jane Eyre: Five Arcs, Two Genres
• The Bell Jar: A Sidelined Narrative Goal
• As I Lay Dying: One Journey, Several Conflicting Goals
• To the Lighthouse: Where’s the Plot?
• Animal Farm: When the Antagonist Drives the Action
• The Godfather: An Event Structure
• Middlemarch: So Many Storylines
• Wuthering Heights: Framing with Unreliable Narrators
• Brideshead Revisited: A Series of Venn Diagrams

You can also preorder a copy here.