The Spine of The Story: Part 1

Last Thursday morning, I was thinking about how there’s three major storylines connecting the Matthews Family stories together.

I then thought of comparing them to the three sections of the spine, during which point I thought, “Wait, there is three sections, right?”

So I did some research, and lo and behold, there are 3 major sections of the spine: the cervical, the thoracic, and the lumbar. There’s two small sections at the bottom for the pelvis and tailbone called the sacrum and coccyx.

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There are three major story threads going through the Matthews stories:

1. Connor’s search for his birth family.
2. Kelly’s desire to reconcile with her siblings.
3. Connor & Kelly’s relationship.

There are three major sections of the spine:

1. The cervical section is made of 7 vertebrae.
2. The thoracic section is made of 12 vertebrae.
3. The lumbar section is made of 5 vertebrae.

Unfortunately, I can’t think of how to apply the last two sections to the series at the moment.

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Connor’s Search (Lumbar)

Since the lumbar vertebrae support the weight of the body, it is Connor’s search for his birth family that supports the weight of the series.

His search starts in Into My Life, which is the first-ish book. (I say first-ish because there’s a prequel about his parents)

At the beginning, he actually isn’t interested in his origins at all. All he’s interested in is getting on with his life. He doesn’t care much about making friends, or trusting people in general.

Then stuff happens and by the story’s end, he finds himself in want of answers. So, with a little help from Kelly, he starts his search.

It goes on through each story, getting him closer until he finally has all the answers he’s looking for, which will be in the last book.

While his search for his origins may be the main thread connecting each book together, it isn’t the heart and soul.

That may be Connor and Kelly’s relationship, which is what we’ll discuss in Part 2.

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Tell me your thoughts below!