This can be difficult to put our finger on, as characters often have many goals along the way, as well as deeper psychological and emotional needs, which we will get to in a bit. ![]() Probably the most important (and difficult) part of writing any novel is figuring out what the protagonist’s main goal will be. When Mary’s parents die and she is sent to live with her uncle, she must discover the secrets of his estate and bring a garden back to life in order to gain her own happiness and save the life of her cousin. "When A (inciting incident) happens, B (character) must do C (action) otherwise/before D (catastrophe)." (Screenwriters might call this a logline.) For an example, we can use Hannah Sheppard’s pitch test: ![]() Mary sets out to discover the secrets of Misselthwaite and bring the garden back to life.ĭespite the complexities of any novel, I think it’s useful when studying structure to see if a novel’s plot can be distilled into one line. She also hears rumors of a mysterious garden, locked up for over a decade after the death of her uncle’s wife. The manor is full of secrets, though, and Mary often hears the screams of a child echoing its halls at night, despite the servants’ insistence that it is only the wind. At Misselthwaite, she is mostly ignored and left to wander outside in the gardens. Mary is disagreeable, used to being waited on, and initially does not even know how to dress herself. After the death of her parents, she is sent to live at her mysterious uncle’s Yorkshire estate, Misselthwaite Manor. The Secret Garden tells the story of Mary Lennox, a spoiled young English girl being raised in India. ![]() Classic children’s novels are my favorite books to study and pick apart when I’m looking at structure, as they are concise enough to read in a single afternoon, and yet as complex as any adult novel. Long considered a classic, it’s still sometimes dismissed by scholars as “just a children’s book.” But children’s books can provide a master class in how to tell a complex story effectively in a short space. The Secret Garden is arguably Frances Hodgson Burnett’s most famous work.
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