The Online Books Page

Plots (Drama, novel, etc.)

Here are entered works on the construction and analysis of plots as a literary vehicle. General collections of plots are entered under Literature -- Stories, plots, etc. Collections of plots limited to specific literatures or genres are entered under headings for individual literatures or genres with subdivision Stories, plots, etc., e.g. English literature -- Stories, plots, etc.; Drama -- Stories, plots, etc.; American poetry -- Stories, plots, etc. Collections or discussions of plots of individual literary authors are entered under the name of the author with the subdivision Stories, plots, etc.

See also what's at Wikipedia, your library, or elsewhere.

• Authorship
• Drama -- Technique
• Fiction -- Technique
• Literature
• Drama
• Fiction

• Comparative literature -- Themes, motives

• Drama -- Plot
• Dramatic plots
• Fiction -- Plots
• Novels
• Scenarios
• Plot (narrative)

• Plotto: A New Method of Plot Suggestion for Writers of Creative Fiction (Battle Creek, MI: Ellis Pub. Co., c1928), by William Wallace Cook (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations (Franklin, OH: James Knapp Reeve, 1921), by Georges Polti, trans. by Lucille Ray, contrib. by James Knapp Reeve (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Universal Plot Catalog: An Examination of the Elements of Plot Material and Construction, Combined with a Complete index and a Progressive Category in Which the Source, Life, and End of All Dramatic Conflict and Plot Master are Classified (Springfield, MA: Home Correspondence School, c1920), by Henry Albert Phillips (page images at HathiTrust)
• Plotting the Short Story: A Practical Exposition of Germ-Plots, What They are and Where to Find Them; The Structure and Development of the Plot; and the Relation of the Plot to the Story (Franklin, OH: James Knapp Reeve, 1922), by Seymour Cunningham Chunn
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust; US access only

• Beasts of the Modern Imagination: Darwin, Nietzsche, Kafka, Ernst, and Lawrence (originally published 1985; open access edition Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), by Margot Norris (HTML and PDF files with commentary at Project MUSE)
• Motif-Index of Italian Novella in Prose (Indiana University Publications folklore series #2; c1942), by Dominic P. Rotunda (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Maiden King in Iceland (1938), by Erik Wahlgren (page images at HathiTrust)
• Fowles/Irving/Barthes: Canonical Variations on an Apocryphal Theme (Columbus: Published for Miami University by the Ohio State University Press, c1981), by Randolph Runyon (PDF at Ohio State)
• Das Schlaraffenland in German Literature and Folksong: Social Aspects of an Earthly Paradise, With an Inquiry into its History in European Literature (University of Chicago dissertation, 1944), by Elfriede Marie Ackermann (page images at HathiTrust)

Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms.

• Bad Ideas About Writing (Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Libraries Digital Publishing Institute, c2017), ed. by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe (PDF with commentary at wvu.edu)
• Whose Book is it Anyway? A View From Elsewhere on Publishing, Copyright and Creativity (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, c2019), ed. by Janis Jefferies and Sarah Kember (multiple formats with commentary at Open Book Publishers)
• Signature Pieces: On the Institution of Authorship (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, c1988), by Peggy Kamuf (PDF and EPub with commentary at Cornell Open)
• The Work of Authorship (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2014), ed. by Mireille M. M. van Eechoud (PDF with commentary at oapen.org)
• A Vindication of the Press (1718) (Augustan Reprint Society publication #29; Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1951), by Daniel Defoe, contrib. by Clinton Williams (Gutenberg text)
• The Psychology of Writing Success (New York: The Business bourse, 1933), ed. by J. George Frederick, contrib. by A. A. Brill, Thyra Samter Winslow, Mary Austin, Floyd Dell, and Thomas H. Uzzell (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Act of Writing: A Media Theory Approach, by Daniel Chandler (Word with commentary in the UK)
• Anonymity: An Enquiry (Hogarth Essays #12; London: L. and V. Woolf, 1925), by E. M. Forster
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust; US access only
• The Art of Short Story Writing (Cincinnati: Publishers Syndicate, 1910), by George Randolph Chester
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• The Art of Story Writing: Facts and Information About Literary Work of Practical Value of Both Amateur and Professional Writers (New York: Sully and Kleinteich, 1913), by Nathaniel C. Fowler (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Author's Craft, by Arnold Bennett (Gutenberg text)
• The Author's Year Book and Guide for 1904: Including Some 600 Names and Addresses of Publishers and Publications to Whom Manuscripts May be Sold (1904), ed. by W. E. Price (page images at HathiTrust)
• Beyond Life: Dizain des Demiurges (New York: R. M. McBride and Co., 1919), by James Branch Cabell (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Craftsmanship of Writing (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1920), by Frederic Taber Cooper (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Fiction Factory: Being the Experience of a Writer Who, for Twenty-Two Years, Has Kept a Story-Mill Grinding Successfully (published under "John Milton Edwards" pen name; Ridgewood, NJ: The Editor Company, c1912), by William Wallace Cook
  • Gutenberg text
  • page images at Google; US access only
• If You Don't Write Fiction (New York: R. M. McBride Co., 1920), by Charles Phelps Cushing (Gutenberg text and page images)
• Intentions (London: Methuen and Co., 1913), by Oscar Wilde (Gutenberg text)
• Intentions: The Decay of Lying; Pen, Pencil and Poison; The Critic as Artist; The Truth of Masks (New York: Brentano's, 1905), by Oscar Wilde, contrib. by Percival Pollard
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • multiple formats at archive.org
• Side Lights (London: T. F. Unwin, 1893), by James Runciman, ed. by John F. Runciman, contrib. by Grant Allen and W. T. Stead (Gutenberg text)
• The Writer's Book: A Compendium of Information Upon Matters Pertaining to the Trade of Authorship (Franklin, OH: J. K. Reeve, c1922), by James Knapp Reeve (page images at HathiTrust)
• How to Write and Sell a Novel (revised from Why Write a Novel?; New York: Woodford Press, 1948), by Jack Woodford (page images at HathiTrust)
• Trials of Authorship: Anterior Forms and Poetic Reconstruction from Wyatt to Shakespeare (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), by Jonathan V. Crewe (HTML at UC Press)
• The Art of Inventing Characters (Franklin, OH: J. K. Reeve, 1922), by Georges Polti, trans. by Lucille Ray (page images at HathiTrust)
• Books Fatal to Their Authors, by P. H. Ditchfield (Gutenberg text)
• Conjectures on Original Composition, by Edward Young (HTML at Toronto)
• Essays in the Art of Writing, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Gutenberg text)
• My First Book (London: Chatto and Windus, 1894), contrib. by Walter Besant, William Clark Russell, Grant Allen, Hall Caine, George R. Sims, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, M. E. Braddon, F. W. Robinson, H. Rider Haggard, R. M. Ballantyne, Israel Zangwill, Morley Roberts, David Christie Murray, Marie Corelli, Jerome K. Jerome, John Strange Winter, Bret Harte, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Robert Williams Buchanan, and Robert Louis Stevenson (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• My Maiden Effort: Being the Personal Confessions of Well-Known American Authors as to Their Literary Beginnings (Garden City, NY and Toronto: Pub. for the Authors' League of America by Doubleday, Page and Co., 1921), ed. by Gelett Burgess (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The Principles of Success in Literature, by George Henry Lewes (Gutenberg text)
• The Principles of Success in Literature (London et al.: W. Scott Pub. Co., ca. 1898), by George Henry Lewes, ed. by T. Sharper Knowlson
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• The Stories Editors Buy and Why (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., c1921), ed. by Jean Wick (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Crip Authorship: Disability as Method, ed. by Mara Mills and Rebecca Sanchez (multiple formats with commentary at NYU Press)

• (First Person)²: A Study of Co-Authoring in the Academy (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, c2001), by Kami Day and Michele Eodice
  • PDF with commentary at usu.edu
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Six Characters in Search of an Author, by Luigi Pirandello, trans. by Edward Storer
  • HTML at ibiblio.org
  • Librivox audio performance

• New Grub Street, by George Gissing
  • HTML at victorian-studies.net
  • Gutenberg text
• The Celebrity, by Winston Churchill (Gutenberg text)
• Dom Casmurro (in Portuguese; Rio de Janeiro and Paris: H. Garnier, 1899), by Machado de Assis (Gutenberg text)
• The Country of the Pointed Firs (21-chapter version), by Sarah Orne Jewett (Gutenberg text)
• The Country of the Pointed Firs (24-chapter version, 1910), by Sarah Orne Jewett (HTML at Bartleby)

• The Truth About Writing: An Essential Handbook for Novelists, Playwrights, and Screenwriters (c2003), by Michael Allen (PDF in the UK)
• The Writing and Selling of Non-Fiction (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1963), by Paul R. Reynolds (page images at HathiTrust)
• Writing for the Quality Market: A Scientific Analysis of Eight Quality Magazines Showing Requirements, Policy and Slanting (New York: Publications Division, Literary America, c1935) (page images at HathiTrust)
• "1001 Places to Sell Manuscripts" (Ridgewood, NJ: The Editor Co., c1915), ed. by William Reno Kane (multiple formats at archive.org)
• 88 Ways to Make Money by Writing (Ridgewood, NJ: The Editor Co., c1917), by Homer Croy (page images at HathiTrust)
• Five Hundred Places to Sell Manuscripts: A Manual Designed for the Guidance of Writers in Disposing of Their Work (first edition; Franklin, OH: Chronicle Press, c1894), ed. by James Knapp Reeve (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Five Hundred Places to Sell Manuscripts: A Manual Designed for the Guidance of Writers in Disposing of Their Work (fourth edition; Franklin, OH: Editor Pub. Co., 1900), ed. by James Knapp Reeve (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Information for Authors: Hints and Suggestions Concerning All Kinds of Literary Work (Brooklyn: E. Kirk, 1888), by Eleanor Kirk (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Lure of the Pen: A Book for Would-Be Authors (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920), by Flora Klickmann (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The New 1001 Places to Sell Manuscripts: A Complete Guide for All Writers Who are Seeking Avenues for the Publication of Original Manuscripts (Franklin, OH: James Knapp Reeve, 1922), ed. by James Knapp Reeve and Agnes M. Reeve (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Practical Hints for Young Writers, Readers, and Book Buyers (Boston: L. C. Page and Co., 1897), by Frederic Lawrence Knowles (page images at HathiTrust)
• Writing for the Magazines (Springfield, MA: Home Correspondence School, c1916), by J. Berg Esenwein (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Art and Business of Story Writing (New York: Macmillan, c1912), by Walter B. Pitkin
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• Where to Sell Manuscripts: An Alphabetical and Classified List Arranged for the Writer's Convenience (New York: Hannis Jordan Co., 1915), by Hannis Jordan Company (page images at HathiTrust)
• Writing for Money: How to Write Saleable Manuscripts; Where and Way to Sell Manuscripts; Over Two Thousand Places to Sell Manuscripts (Chicago: International literary bureau, c1913), by John V. Lambert (page images at HathiTrust)

More items available under broader and related terms at left.