Analyzing the Reading Habits of Authors for Improved Writing Skills

Article Redraft:

Jumpstart your writing craft journey by dissecting published novels! Deconstruction, a clever technique to expose a novel's skeletal structure, will be your secret weapon in understanding the author's tricks and techniques.

Grab a favorite book or one that aligns with your writing project. Peel back the layers, identifying essential components such as protagonists, antagonists, narrative goals, and the intricate dance of relationships and structural points. Embrace the magic of a novel while understanding the complex machinery behind it.

For instance, Charlotte Bronte's timeless novel, Jane Eyre, at first glance might seem like a straightforward Bildungsroman (a genre focusing on a protagonist's personal growth). However, on closer inspection, Bronte does something more intricate and enticing. She partitions Jane's life into five stages of maturity—childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and married life—using the key structural element of setting to separate each stage. Each section has its own arc, culminating in distinct stasis, inciting incidents, and climaxes, with only a semi-resolution until the ultimate resolution at the end.

This deconstruction is valuable for any writer grappling with a novel that spans a character's lifetime, as it provides a structural solution to a genuine problem: sustaining causality when chapters leap over significant time periods. By analyzing Jane Eyre, you'll discover exactly how to do it: by condensing these periods of time in separate episodes, providing each with an arc, and maintaining causality within each episode, enabling you to make significant time jumps without breaking the causal chain.

Desiring to pen a tale revolving around a key event? Inspect The Godfather, where Mario Puzo has employed an event structure to anchor all subplots around the attempted assassination of Vito Corleone. If you prefer starting your story after the inciting incident has already occurred, study John Steinbeck's approach in Of Mice and Men. In this novel, the author thrusts the reader into the middle of the story, briefly mentioning the inciting incident.

For every peculiar narrative structure you can dream up, there's likely an author who has tackled it brilliantly, with insights that can help you in your writing endeavors, provided you sit with their novel and study it piece by piece.

Remember, story structure isn't merely mechanical—it's the heart that sparks readers' emotional investment. We connect with a protagonist who has a specific, tangible goal and high stakes that escalate the investment. Successfully organizing all structural elements of a novel to revolve around the protagonist's attempt to achieve their narrative goal ensures the reader remains engrossed in the story's outcome. Stasis sets the stage for the underlying motivation and the protagonist's narrative goal; the inciting incident is the disruption that impels action; the point of no return render the protagonist irrevocably committed to the story's conclusion; rising action introduces obstacles hindering the protagonist's goal; the midpoint marks the novel's turning point, often heralding increased conflict or a narrative transformation; climax answers the question raised during the inciting incident—will the protagonist succeed or fail and learn something valuable in the process; and the resolution ties up all loose ends, leaving the reader with a lasting emotion.

Here are some questions to guide your novel deconstruction journey:

Who is the protagonist?
How does the novel's stasis demonstrate the protagonist's driving motivation?
In which scene does the inciting incident take place?
What is the protagonist's narrative goal that crystallizes as a result of the inciting incident?
What's at risk if they don't achieve it?
Who antagonizes the protagonist?
Can you recognize the point of no return?
What does the midpoint entail and how does it affect the protagonist's trajectory?
When do stakes intensify?
What are the essential relationships, and how do they evolve?
Can you pinpoint a false victory or an all-is-lost moment?
Where does the climax occur?
What emotional payoff does the ending offer?

Taking apart a novel to comprehend its various components and how they interconnect is as valuable as any MFA class. My writing partner and I delved into 21 classic novels and novellas to crack their code. The result is Story Skeleton: The Classics, an informative book that reveals the plot points and craft genius that make these masterpieces shine. Learn from the author's strategic, imaginative, and extraordinary use of narrative structures, elevate your writing, and captivate readers for generations.

Michelle, the book's co-author, generously offers an EBook copy of Story Skeleton: The Classics to 10 fortunate winners. Enter the Rafflecopter contest below for a chance to win. Winners will be announced here and contacted via email on May 24.

Book Overview:

Story Skeleton: The Classics

Uncork the secrets of 21 lasting novels—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—unveiling the structural brilliance and storytelling prowess that have earned them timeless popularity. Learn the mastermind behind their magic and discover how to apply these enduring techniques to elevate your own writing and captivate readers for generations. A novel's structural elements can be artfully organized, creatively, unconventionally—but in a satisfying narrative, they're all present in some form. Sometimes their form may be surprising when you realize what the author has truly achieved—which may not be instantly apparent upon a first or even second reading of a complex novel. However, once you crack the code, the satisfaction is immense.

A huge thank you to Michelle Barker and David Griffin Brown for this generous offer. Good luck, everyone!

Michelle Barker, Senior Writing Coach

Michelle Barker is an acclaimed author and editor living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her newest book, co-authored with David Griffin Brown, is Story Skeleton: The Classics. They are also the authors of Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling. Her novel My Long List of Impossible Things was published in 2020 by Annick Press, and The House of One Thousand Eyes won numerous awards, including the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have appeared in countless literary reviews worldwide.

Michelle holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and is a senior editor at The Darling Axe. Discover more about our Resident Writing Coach team here, and connect with Michelle below. Michelle's Books

Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Twitter
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook
Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Pinterest
Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)LinkedIn
Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)Google+
Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)Tumblr
Click to email a friend (Opens in new window)Email
Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Reddit
Click to print (Opens in new window)Print

Storytelling and creative writing can be enhanced through the careful analysis and deconstruction of published novels, providing insights into an author's techniques and tricks.
By learning to recognize essential components such as protagonists, antagonists, narrative goals, and relationships in deconstructed novels, aspiring writers can better understand the complex machinery behind the magic of storytelling.
Deconstruction can help writers craft more compelling and engaging fiction by applying these insights to their own writing projects.
Online education platforms offer a wealth of resources for writers seeking guidance on the craft of novel deconstruction, such as Michelle Barker's Story Skeleton: The Classics—an informative book that reveals the plot points and narrative structures of 21 classic novels.
As a writing coach, Michelle Barker offers valuable resources and expertise in education-and-self-development, including her book Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling, and online workshops designed to help writers craft memorable and captivating stories.
Competitions such as the Story Skeleton: The Classics rafflecopter contest offer writers the opportunity to win an EBook copy of the invaluable resource, furthering their education and self-development in the writing craft.