Literary Forensics

The art of reading like a writer

  • The Book
  • Resources
    • Quick Links
    • Novels by Title
    • Novels by Author
    • Novels by Date Published
  • Novel Contour Map
  • Reading Worksheet
  • Literary Data Science

Resources

This page has grown so large that I’ve split it up into four smaller pages.

Quick Links

Basic writing techniques used as background in Literary Forensics, including: Reading Techniques, Story Architecture, Scene/Chapter Considerations, Industry Resources, and current Top Sellers

Novel Contour Map

This is Gary’s Big Kahuna diagram that shows the entire novel in a single graphic. There’s a lot on that chart: it overlays no fewer than seven unique axes of information onto the same timeline, so it’s difficult to decipher at first glance, and this page explains all.

Study Novels

It’s difficult to learn to read like a writer without reading a lot of books. Of course, any novel can be used in your investigations, but I have already curated a number of them. Every book on this page links to group study slides.

Literary Data Science

For you data nerds out there, a deeper dive into the AI and the NLP and all the good acronyms.

Copyright © 2025 Gary Alan McBride