This book shows the reader how to take timeless storytelling structures and make them immediate for fiction that's universal in how it speaks to readers' hearts and contemporary in detail and impact. Each chapter includes brief excerpts and descriptions of fiction from many times and many genres--myth and fairy tale, genre and mainstream fiction, film plots of all types, short story and novel. Tobias covers 20 fundamental plots that recur through all fiction--with analysis and examples--that outline benefits and warnings for writers to adapt and elaborate in their own fiction.