But the formal structures that are asked to dramatize his ideas the scenes, characters, dialogue, and so on are generally flimsy and diagrammatic.

NEWYORKER: Off the Map

There is a supporting role for Mycroft, a possible appearance by Moriarty (Watson isn't sure) and a plot of such dazzling complexity that diagrammatic summary wouldn't do it justice.

WSJ: Book Review: The House of Silk

The narrative is so awkwardly arranged that when the pieces of the puzzle finally fall into place, the effect is less dramatic than diagrammatic character A slept with character B thirty years earlier, and, oh, yes, all of that connects to crimes X, Y, and Z.

NEWYORKER: The Black Dahlia

When I say that Gracie and I were shucking the sweet corn, what I actually mean is that Gracie was shucking the corn and I was drawing a diagrammatic map in one of my little blue spiral notebooks of precisely how she was shucking the corn.

NPR: Excerpt: 'The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet'