 
## How to Write a Novel

Copyright © 2018 by Edward Mullen

All rights reserved.

Published by Imperium Publishing at Smashwords

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Vancouver, BC, Canada

ISBN: 978-0-9880487-8-2

How to Write a Novel

Also by Edward Mullen

The Art of the Hustle

The Art of the Hustle 2

Destiny and Free Will

Prodigy

Prodigy Eternal

Prodigy Returns

The Secret Manuscript

Eden

I am Rome

# Introduction

Hi, I'm Edward Mullen—author, blogger, YouTuber, podcaster, and some other stuff. Having over a decade of writing experience, I've learned a few things. That's why I wanted to share with you some practical advice on how to write a novel.

This book focuses largely on the mechanics of putting together a book from coming up with the idea, creating and outline, planning, setting a writing schedule, and so much more.

The last half of the book talks about my writing process and some of the techniques I have learned along the way. As I continue to learn, I will keep adding to this book, so be sure to check back periodically for updated versions.

While this is how I write, I do not want to make it seem as though this is the only way to write. You may find different techniques or approaches that I have yet to discover. Nevertheless, this book should give you some insight into how a professional writer works and at the very least, give you some ideas for how to formulate a process that works best for you.

# Chapter One: The Idea Stage

What's the difference between a good idea and a bad idea?

Where do good ideas come from?

How can you produce more good ideas?

In this chapter, I'll be addressing these questions and more.

So you want to consistently come up with good ideas and incorporating more good ideas into your stories.

The first question we need to ask is, what's a good idea and how does it differ from a bad idea?

We'll start by defining what is a good idea.

As it pertains to writing, a good idea is a good when it has three things:

1. Interesting

2. Sufficiently original

3. Has a proper scope

What are **interesting** ideas? An idea is interesting if it captures the attention of the audience, it intrigues them and pulls them in. It spawns curiosity and imagination. It makes people go, "Huh, that's interesting."

A really good example of an interesting idea for me is the movie Annihilation. The premise is this strange bubble mysteriously engulfs this region. They try to send in drones and satellites to study it, but the signals are lost. Anyone who goes in never comes out. I won't go on further in case you haven't seen the movie, but my point is, that's interesting to me. It captured my imagination, and it continues to do so throughout.

**Sufficiently** **original** — why is it sufficiently original and not purely original you might ask? Well, frankly, it's rare to come up with an idea that is completely original. In all likelihood, your idea will resemble parts of other stories in more ways than one. And that's okay.

This is actually an important point to consider. Be original, but don't get discouraged by the fact that someone before you already wrote a similar story. Unless you blatantly plagiarize them, your story should be fine.

Take Stephanie Meyer for example, she wrote a series of very successful vampire stories. There have been countless other vampire stories before hers, but she added her own elements to make hers sufficiently original. She made her vampires day walkers who sparkle in the sun. So, old ideas with a new twist are okay.

My book The Art of the Hustle is a classic rags-to-riches story, but it's uniquely based on my life and the stories within are solely from my own experience.

So while the themes are not necessarily original. It's about having a unique perspective

Finally, I mentioned good ideas having **proper** **scope**. What is scope, why is it important, and what does it have to do with good ideas?

Let's think about that for a minute and come back to it.

First, we'll talk about bad ideas. As you may be able to guess, bad ideas are just the opposite of good ideas — they tend to be uninteresting, unoriginal, and lack proper scope. An example of a bad idea is boy who receives a fidget spinner for his birthday. And that's it. That's not particularly interesting.

I mean, I suppose it's sufficiently original, but the idea lacks scope. In other words, nothing eventful happens. Can you write an entire story about a fidget spinner? Maybe. I know the movie Inception has elements of a spinning totem, but the movie is so rich is interestingness, yes that's a real word, and originality, and it has a ton of scope. It's not just about a spinning totem, that's one element in a very complex story.

So you'll want to explore your idea to determine the scope.

You'll want to figure out all the plot points to see if you have enough material to write a full-length novel, which is usually around 70,000 - 90,000 words. If not, you can develop it into a novella (30,000 - 50,000 words), or a short story (under 10,000 words).

To do this, you can make an outline and have it as detailed as possible. In another chapter, I share with you my outline and some techniques I've learned.

Great ideas.

We talked about good ideas versus bad ideas, but what about great ideas? What constitutes a great idea?

I would say, great ideas are ones that share all the elements of a good idea, but are more interesting, more original, and yes more rare.

So where do good ideas come from?

Good ideas come from exploration. Imagine a house cat, who never leaves the confines of a tiny apartment. All they have is a very basic understanding of the outside world. Their experience is so limited. It would be very difficult for that cat to think beyond its experiences. How could it imagine an elephant if it's never seen one, or a spaceship, or the ocean.

Now consider a bird who flies around all day. It visits the city, the countryside, the ocean. It interacts with other things, has relationships, and overall more rich experiences.

Now which of these two animals do you think has better dreams at night, the cat or the bird?

How can you produce more good ideas?

Similarly to the bird and the cat, you need to have a vast reservoir of experiences to pull from. If you're young or don't have access to new and interesting experiences, you can accelerate your knowledge and experience by doing different things, pick up a new hobby, deep dive into a topic on the internet and learn everything you can about it, hang out with different people, listen and observe, listen to podcasts, read books, watch TV shows, documentaries, and movies, say yes to different experiences that you may otherwise say no to (while still being safe). With time, you will eventually build upon your skills and experiences.

Perhaps the most important of all is...

Be ready!

Ideas are often fragmented and incomplete. You may have an idea for one part of the thing one day, and the next part of the thing three weeks later. You need to be ready to capture your ideas, store them somewhere, and when the time comes, stitch them together into a cohesive narrative.

Most of us have good ideas throughout the day, obviously some better than others, but we may not always recognize when lighting strikes or know what to do with it when it does.

To me, ideas are like currency, and I treat the next idea that comes into my head as a potential life-changing idea that could garner me millions of dollars, respect, admiration, early retirement, and so on. So treat yours ideas with care.

Today, I read an article that talked about some advancement in technology that gave me an idea for one of my books. I wrote down the idea and emailed it to myself. Had I not clicked on that article, I may never have come up with that on my own.

This can happen not only with articles, but anytime throughout the day such as when you're walking your dog, watching a movie, talking to a friend, or even dreaming at night. If an idea comes to mind, grab it and write it down as quickly as possible. Don't ever think, "I'll remember that." Because you won't. If you don't write it down, ask yourself this, "Am I okay with losing this idea?" If you're not, take the time to capture it.

The final thing I will say about ideas

If you're young and just starting to write, you can always write about what you know and exaggerate it. Write about you family, your school, your sports team. Explore alternate ways the scenario you know well could have happened. What if your family had superpowers, what if you were the most popular kid in school, what if you got drafted from your sports team to play with the pros. The more you do it, the better you will be at expressing your ideas into words.

# Chapter Two: The Planning Stage

So you have an idea burning a hole in your mind — a story that must be told and if you don't get it out, you might just explode.

But you don't know where to start. Perhaps your ideas are flooding in faster than you know what to do with them, like trying to drink through a firehouse, it's just this explosion of just...well, you get the point.

You decided to write a novel and need some help planning. As a professional writer of over ten years, I'll tell you how I go about writing a novel. I'll go over my planning process and hopefully some of it will resonate with you and give you an idea of how to create your own plan.

While it's possible to write a novel without planning, it isn't advised. For one, you may encounter the dreaded writer's block — you dive in full of enthusiasm and good intentions, and get a few chapters in before you hit a wall. You step back and ponder how your story will unfold. You reach a place in the story and then ask yourself that fateful question, "What happens next?"

If you don't have an outline, you may waste a lot of time mulling over all the possible scenarios. In the end, you may become discouraged and give up with your idea all together faulting the idea and not your own habits. You may convince yourself that your idea is flawed and the next one will be different. But, chances are, it's not the idea that is flawed, it's the lack of preparation.

Look, I get it, it's exciting to write and create art, but we need to set ourselves up for success. If we try a bunch of times and fail, we may feel we are not cut out for being a writer and quit.

Also, without charting your course in advance, you are liable to get lost along the way and may end up 'writing yourself into a corner' so to speak. In other words, you write in a way that doesn't leave open a lot of possibilities. You're forcing the story down a particular path – one that you may not have envisioned from the start, and one that no longer aligns with the ending you had planned.

So, I recommend spending time before hand to get an idea of where you want to take the story. A good analogy would be an artist would roughly penciling in their drawing before making it more permanent with ink or paint. It's the same technique that we writers use. We want to roughly pencil in the basic form or structure, before we put hard lines down on the page.

All writers have different styles when it comes to planning a novel—some like to write their ideas on flashcards and organize them like a puzzle, while others meticulously plot out every detail in their head. Do whatever works for you. My approach involves the following four steps:

1. Notes

2. Character profiles

3. Outline

4. Storyboard

***

Step 1. MAKE NOTES

For me, when I come up with an idea, I usually wait a few months before even writing a single word of the story.

In those preceding months, I immerse myself in the story and make a lot of notes. Whether I'm walking, working out, or dreaming at night, I'm thinking about the story, the characters, and the conflicts.

I write notes on my phone notes app and email them to myself, or I speak into my Dragon Dictation app, which transcribes my voice into text, then I email the notes to myself.

I compile all those notes into a master file, something like: The title of the book + notes (e.g. The Art of the Hustle Notes).

***

Step 2. MAKE CHARACTER PROFILES

Part of the planning process is to think about what characters are going to be in your story.

What I like to do is create character profiles for each of the main characters — and I usually have about five or so main characters depending on the story.

I like to visualize what the character might look like, then find a picture online that resembles my image. I then think about the characters' strengths and weaknesses, their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, friends/family, a couple quotes, where they live, where they work, their skill level, education level, and a few paragraphs on what an average day of each person would look like.

You can add as much or as little detail as you need until you flush out who the characters are. Once I do that, I can get inside the characters' heads, figure out how they think, how they speak, how they interact with people, and what motivates them. If you are telling a story from a particular character's perspective, it stands to reason you know who the character is inside and out.

Here's an example of a character profile:

TREVOR MORRISON

• 17 years old - single.

• Lives and works in Banff, Alberta.

• He likes skateboarding, karate, and comics.

• He dislikes bullies, authority, school.

• He gets frustrated when people underestimate him or blame him.

• He is skilled in the art of deduction and charm.

• He is a high school graduate.

• He wants to be rich one day.

• He is honest and has integrity.

• He is a hard worker, hustler, and is persistent.

I then put together a few paragraphs that reiterate his characteristics. Writing it out this way helps the character seem more real.

Trevor is very independent. He spends most of his time skateboarding or watching movies. He doesn't put forward his best effort in school despite him being intelligent. He has issues with his parents, who are divorced. His brother still lives at home and goes to school. He is a natural leader, and does not like to follow others or to listen to authority.

Trevor gets along well with people, but feels he doesn't always fit in. He is optimistic and wants a better life for himself, but doesn't know how to get it. He gets frustrated with his station in life, but just sucks it up and deals with it. In his mind, he imagines a scenario where an opportunity presents itself, perhaps winning the lottery so he does not have to work ever again.

QUOTABLES:

"I need to get out of this town!"

"I don't know what I want to do with my life."

"I would really like to be a rich one day."

***

Step 3. MAKE AN OUTLINE

It is my belief that writer's block comes from a lack of planning. They charge ahead and begin writing without first creating an outline for their story. They figure they have an idea and they just want to get it out.

But sometimes what happens is that a few chapters in, they begin to run out of steam or write themselves into a corner. They become consumed with the dreaded question, "What happens next?" and for some, the endless possibilities of how a story can evolve and the direction it can take can be paralyzing if they haven't say down ahead of time and worked out all those details.

If that's your style and it works, go for it. I've written a few books this way and it has worked out fine, but an outline just makes things way easier. You may have heard of this term: planner vs pantser. Planner is obviously one who plans, and the latter is one who writes by the seat of their pants.

I have a file on my computer with a default outline that I use for each story. The outline is based on a five act story arch. There's also a three act story arch that is common - The setup, the conflict, and the resolution. I like the five act story arch because it helps me break up the story more. Here is a sample of the template I use:

Every story is comprised of a conflict between either:

\- Man vs Man

\- Man vs Environment

\- Man vs Self

First Act

\- Introduction to character

\- Attitudes/ personality/ opinions

\- What are character's wants?

\- Relationships

\- Ignorant to duty

Second Act

\- Instigating incident

\- Call to adventure

\- Refusal of the Call \- "You must stop them," - but what can I do?

\- Subplot of bad guys

Third Act

\- Meeting the mentor

\- Cross some threshold

\- Enemies/ allies/ tests

\- A crucial new piece of information is discovered

\- Big fight looming

\- Gather a posse

\- Equip themselves with knowledge

Fourth Act

\- Point of no return

\- Supreme ordeal

\- Some kind of reward

\- There must be a change in character's personality (for the better - maybe recognizes their duty)

\- Fails before succeeds

\- Climax

Fifth Act

\- Journey home

\- Resurrection

\- Satisfying ending

If you need a copy of this template, send me an email at Edward@EdwardMullen.com and I will be happy to send it to you.

Okay, so I have my outline template. From there, I use the notes and my imagination to start to roughly plot out the story. It's okay to deviate from your outline. There are many ideas I've had over the months, some good, some bad, and some that just don't fit the story.

Another important thing to mention is that while outline is important, I want to remain flexible enough to chase whimsies. During the writing process, I may get a new idea and decide to go down that path to see where it leads, just because.

Step 4. MAKE A STORYBOARD

Okay, so I have my character profiles, I created an outline using my notes, and now I'm ready to start writing. But before I do that, I need to create a storyboard.

What's a storyboard?

To follow up on the analogy I used earlier where I talked about an artist penciling in a rough draft, a storyboard is slightly darker lines with more detail, but still not committing to anything substantial.

What I do is take a legal pad and draw squares on it— say three across and three down so I end up with nine squares.

Each square represents some arbitrary grouping, perhaps a chapter, or a series of events, it doesn't really matter. Inside each box will be a slightly more detailed breakdown of the next series of events.

This allows me to navigate the story and remain on course and also acts as an agenda, so when I sit down to write, I know roughly what I need to do for that day.

To give you an example of how it works, suppose I have nine squares drawn out. In my outline I have a bullet point that says "Introduction to Trevor". But that isn't much detail at all. So in my storyboard, I'll say.

• Trevor in school

• Gets in trouble for throwing a snowball

• Has conversation with principal about his future

Now, in the actual book, I obviously need to flesh this out in more detail, but a least I know the beats I have to hit.

Once I finish writing all the content in the boxes, I draw nine more boxes, fill them in, and continue the process until the story is done. Again, this is a rough sketch of the story, it can always change if need be.

An important point to consider is that I very rarely know how my story will end. I usually have a rough idea, but all the little elements and complexities are discovered as I write. Some people may not do it this way, but this is the way I've always done it.

So while it's good to create an outline, don't let it confine you or else that may take the fun out of writing.

# Chapter Three: The Writing Stage:

Ah yes, finally we're talking about actually writing! But wait, before I start writing, there are a few things I do to set up my page:

PAGE SETUP:

1. I open up a new Word document

2. Set the orientation to landscape

3. Change the pages to two per page

4. Set the margins to narrow

5. Insert page numbers at the bottom

6. Save As

1000 WORDS A DAY:

Once I start writing, I try to get in a zone of focus. One way to do this is to not get too bogged down with how the writing sounds. Of course I'm still trying to spell things properly, use the right words, and be grammatically correct, but aside from that, I'm not too concern if what I write is garbage or not. There will be a time and a place for that. Writing, editing, and story are really three different skill sets you can develop as a writer. If you try to wear all hats at once, you may not be any good at either of them. Instead, when you're writing, wear the hat of a writer, and when you're editing, don't necessarily focus on the story, and so on.

My main goal at this stage is to get words on a page. I need to remain focused on that task or my attention will wander like a [insert really awesome analogy]. If I am stopping and fixing things, reading the dialogue to make sure it sounds natural..., I will break my mental focus and no longer be in the zone.

So, in keeping with that goal, I will usually aim for at least 1000 words a day. There are obviously days were I don't do any writing and other days when I write five or six thousand words a day. But as long as I try to write at least 1000 words a day, it will guarantee that the story will get done.

There are occasions when I stop writing for several days or weeks on end. In my latest novel, I stopped for several weeks, and I allowed for it. It wasn't so much as writer's block, it was that the story wasn't fully fleshed out yet and I had reached a pivotal moment where the choice I made would take the story in drastically different directions. In such cases, I go back to the drawing board and do more planning (because I may have been a little lazy on this step from the beginning).
What is good writing?

Do you ever wonder what makes writing good or bad? You often hear that, so and so is a good writer, or this was terribly written, but what does that even mean?

As a storyteller, our job is to be an effective communicator of ideas. In another chapter, I talk about Ideas being Currency and to treat them with respect.

Your readers cannot read your mind, they only know what you tell them, and what they infer from your writing. You need to tell a compelling story that engages them, moves them, challenges them, makes them laugh, makes them escape their reality, and potentially reshape the way they think about the world. We need to enter the minds of our readers, paint a thousand pictures, write music, create worlds that come to life in the minds...and all we have is our words.

This is no easy task.

So, the better we are with our words, the better storytellers we can become.

The tricky thing about good writing is that it looks very simple, creating unreal expectations of the skill. In fact, to get to a skill level where your writing looks clean, simple, and error free takes many years of practice.

Writing well is more than having proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar, it's about:

1. Being clear

2. Being concise

3. Having purpose

**Clarity** — use plain language and write in an informative way that doesn't confuse the reader. Avoid complicated or obscure words (you're not trying to impress people with your vocabulary), provide proper context so readers are grounded within the scene. For example, having two random people talking – we have no idea who they are, where they are, what relevance this has, and so on. Word choice has a lot to do with clarity. Some words are ambiguous, vague, or leave too much open to interpretation, or they are colloquial and don't connote the same meaning in other cultures or regions.

Having your ideas connected and organized in a logical manner makes a big difference. One sentence should naturally flow into the next, and one paragraph should flow into the next. Having non-sequitur sentences and paragraphs will confuse readers and make you appear amateurish.

**Conciseness** — being concise is actually very difficult and takes a lot of practice. There's a really great quote from Blaise Pascal where he was writing a letter to his sister and he said, "I'm sorry to have written you such a long letter, I didn't have time to write a shorter one. The obvious implication here is that writing concisely is more of a challenge. Novice writers tend to use more words to explain something that an advanced writer could explain using fewer words. More words tend to overwhelm the reader and add to their confusion.

When looking at a paragraph, ask yourself the following:

· Does this provide value to the story or reader?

· If I remove this part (word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, section) will any important details of the plot be lost?

· How can I say this with fewer words?

You may find that you can omit redundant sentences, choose more appropriate words, or scrap entire parts altogether.

Sometimes you need to make tough choices with your writing. For instance, if you spent a month writing a chapter and it's the best thing you've ever written, but it doesn't fit the story, then it has to go. You must be willing to let go of your beloved text. If you don't want to delete it, cut and paste it in a separate file, but leave it out of the story. Despite what some authors think, not every word they write is important.

Purpose — another mistake novice writers often make is they meander with their thoughts. Good writing is focused, it has direction, it has purpose. Every word and paragraph is there for a reason to drive toward a particular point.

A common examples that comes up often are:

· Off topic or irrelevant information

· Redundant information

· Fluff that adds no value other than to pad your word count — meaningless scenes or conversations

All these things just convolute the purpose of the story, which is to communicate ideas effectively.

It's not easy to write a full-length novel and it may be tempting to pad your story with fluff to make up the difference. Unfortunately, this will not make people excited to read your work. Writing that has no clear direction or lacks purpose will turn readers off.

This especially comes up a lot with dialogue, where two or more characters engage in a conversation for the sake of having a conversation.

Ask yourself, "Is this conversation necessary?" or "Does it drive the plot further?" If the answer is no in both cases, you should probably revise it or take it out completely.

# Chapter Four: The Editing Stage

Once my manuscript is done, I wait at least a month before I start editing it. This is just so that I approach it with fresh eyes. I then go through a series of three edits before anyone sees it.

**The First Edit** is done on Word. In this stage, I am usually looking for spelling and grammar, awkward sentences, format of paragraphs and chapters, and fix any glaring errors in the story. Once I've done that, I print it out on paper and begin my second edit.

**The second edit** is on print. With pen in hand, I go through each line slowly and make sure it sounds right. If it doesn't, I write in the margins letting myself know what needs to be changed. At this stage, I add a lot more details, fix major plot holes, and of course, correct any spelling and grammar errors I find. Often when I write, I am rushing to get the ideas out, but I will have skipped something, not explained things well enough, or maybe place emphasis on the wrong spot. This only becomes obvious when you evaluate the story as a whole. Once I go through the entire story, I go back to my computer and input the changes and save it as a PDF.

The Third Edit I do is using PDF format. The reason I do this is because it changes the look of the document and tricks your eyes into thinking you're viewing it for the first time. Try it, you'll be amazed at how many errors or plot holes you have missed previously. Changing the font, the page size, or the background colour also works—basically you want the document to look new and different.

Once I finish editing the manuscript, I take it to several professional editors and begin to polish it. This process can take several months and sometimes years. Don't be discouraged by this and do not overlook this step. I know when you just finish a manuscript, you want it to feel 'done' and release it to the world.

**THIS IS A BIG MISTAKE, YOU MUST RESIST DOING THIS!**

People are not forgiving when it comes to reading a story with errors in it. And of course there will be a few, nobody can catch everything, and even professionally published books will have a few errors, but try to get it as polished as possible and have as many different eyes view it as possible before it goes live to the rest of the world.

# Chapter Five: Marketing

My background is in marketing so I could probably write an entire book about how to market a book. There is so much to say. To keep it simple, I'll say a few things about this and then move on.

First, writing is not a meritocracy in the same way as professional sports. If you are the champion in your league, that means you have tested your skills against other top talent and you have risen to the top. If you are not a champion, you can often look at the champion and see what areas you lack. There is a chance through hard work, natural talent and ability, a little luck, proper coaching, the right equipment, etc. you could one day be champion too.

Writing is not like that. The best books don't become bestsellers, and conversely, the bestsellers aren't the best books.

Selling a book is a lot like selling anything — toothpaste, an energy drink, a bag of chips... you try to do the best job you can with the actual product, make it better than the competitors, ensure the packaging is enticing, set a competitive price, try to get it into stores and be places in a desirable location where your product can be seen by customers and hopefully be bought.

If you have the budget, you would also run advertising to promote your product and get in front of as many consumers as possible.

My point is, writing a bestseller has a lot to do with discoverability than it does writing. It often starts with good writing, but a huge component is promoting it to the right people. This begs the obvious questions: who are the right people, and what is the best way to get in front of them?

Once you feel your manuscript is ready, the next thing you should do is make it available to be discovered.

You can do this by creating a website, promoting through social media platforms, including paid promoting, start a blog, be a guest on someone else's blog, make a book trailer and other videos, post on Wattpad, upload to all the major ebook sites (made easy through Smashwords), and have people to review it, especially influences who can amplify to a large shared audience.

It takes a lot of work, but eventually, if your writing is good, you are active on social, and you do a number of other things, you'll eventually start to build an audience.

# Chapter Six: Practical Writing Advice

1. Practice Makes Perfect

Think about how much practice it requires to be really good at something. If you want to be exceptional, then you need to put in the same effort into your craft as Kobe Bryant puts into basketball – you need to write and edit every day. To give you an idea, I write or edit around 11 hours nearly every day. There's a really good quote I like to use often, it's from Steve Martin's book Born Standing Up – he says, "Be undeniably good." If you are undeniably good at what you do, then people will find out about you.

2. Take Your Time

A common mistake a lot of new writers make is they release their work too soon. RESIST THE URGE TO DO THIS!! To give you an example of what I do, I wait at least a year before putting any book or short story out, but usually longer. From the time I write something until the time it goes public is around two years. This is such an important point and should not be overlooked. Trust me, you need some separation from your work and within that time, your skills will have improved. You'll go back to stuff that at a time represented your best work, but a year later will be complete rubbish. So if you want to make the maximum impact with your writing, it has to be good, and a story hot off the press usually isn't good.

3. Make a Good First Impression

You've heard the saying 'You only get one chance to make a good first impression'. Make sure your writing is very polished. You won't be able to do this on your own so you must get editors to review your work. This also applies to the cover art as well. Make sure the product you're representing is indistinguishable from a professional book. If your writing is of a poor quality, and then your next book is the best book ever written, you may not get that second chance from people.

4. Expose Yourself

If you're writing for the sake of writing, that's great, but most of us want others to read our work. There's nothing wrong with that, nor is there anything wrong with trying to make a living from your art. However, to do this is very difficult. To build your fanbase, you must first reach some kind of audience – a large number of people who will evaluate your work and decide whether or not they like it. One way to do this is to be featured on a website that reaches a lot of people. You want the spotlight on your book for as long as possible to give people a chance to read your words. If your book is featured and appeals to people, you may even make a 'trending' list or a 'hot' list. This is also a great way to gain exposure. It also helps if you can be number one on those lists, but anywhere in the top ten is good.

Another great way to expose yourself is to have multiple avenues where people can access you, and don't be afraid to give your stuff away for free. Be active on as many social media accounts, respond to fans, have a podcast, have a YouTube channel, a blog, and be candid. People are usually really good at spotting fakes. If you want success in anything, you have to be authentic to who you are. Don't be afraid to expose your personality and even your insecurities, because those things are what make you unique.

5. Explore the World

Writing well is not only about constructing grammatical sentences, your ideas have to be engaging and interesting for people to read. Interesting ideas, interesting points of view, and interesting ways of describing things comes with life experience. As a teenager or young adult, your experiences may be limited so I encourage you to experience new things. While you are exploring the world, remember to be observant and take notes. Observe how people behave, how systems work, what the inside of an office building looks like, and capture your ideas in digital form or on paper for later review. The more experiences you have, the more reference points you will be able to draw from in your writing.

# Chapter Seven: Three Things You Need to be a Successful Writer

I'll get straight to the point, the number one thing you need to be a good writer is **discipline**. Writing is hard work and it is not always easy to find motivation to do it. You need to have the mental fortitude to endure long hours at your desk and fleshing out ideas.

The next thing you need to be a good writer, which ties into the first one is **practice**. Even if you have natural talent for writing, have a solid command of language, and know all the rules of grammar, it still may not matter unless you actually write a lot. To get to a level where someone will actually want to read your stuff takes years of practice, spending hours a day honing your craft.

The problem that I find with a lot of writers is that they skip this step. They think their level of writing is sufficient to publish. And they're not lying, they actually think that their writing is good when it really isn't. The reason for this is because it is incredibly difficult to be objective about one's own work.

I remember writing essays in college and I would put hours and hours into polishing the text until I thought it represented my very best stuff... at the time it was the best I could do. I later look back on those essays and cringe, because they are so bad. Even stuff I have written a couple years ago pales in comparison to where I'm at today. So if this is true for me, it is most likely true for you too. If you want to be a good writer, you must constantly be working on your craft.

Finally, and perhaps the most important thing you need to be a good writer is **creativity**. You may have talent, you have discipline and a hard work ethics, you may even be a really great writer, but unless you are a creative person, the type of person that can come up with interesting and original ideas, no one will care. To be a good fiction writer, you have to entertain. That is the sole purpose of having your stuff read by others, you need to entertain them. If your ideas are lacklustre, if you characters are cliché and unoriginal, if your plots are predictable, then nothing else matters, you have failed as a fiction writer.

If you possess any two of the three things, you will probably not be a good fiction writer.

Discipline and creativity will not produce good work if you don't practice.

Practice and discipline will not produce good work if you are not creative.

And if you are creative and you have practiced, but don't have the discipline, nothing will ever get done.

You really have to be all three.

# Chapter Eight: 17 Powerful Writing Tips

The following is a list of helpful and practical writing tips that I have discovered over the years:

1. Regarding tense and voice - Try to use the third person and past tense, it's WAY easier!

Regarding present tense: You can run into awkward instances pretty quickly. Usually in life, events happen, then we talk about it. Rarely do we narrate during the event, it would be strange. Imagine saying, "I'm getting punched in the face" while you're getting punched in the face. As a reader you should be like, "Hey, stop telling me your story and defend yourself!" If you notice, most professional authors don't write in present tense and this is the reason why.

Regarding first person: Writing in the first person eliminates pronouns and other names so you end up with a lot of sentences starting with "I". Third person offers many more options such as He, Charlie, Mr. Smith... which is helpful in avoiding dreadful repetition that can annoy readers. Also, if your protagonist is narrating, they can only describe events they experience. Think about it. How could they describe a subplot they are not a part of? So your story is one-sided and you only find out information as the protagonist does, which restricts your creative storytelling. Finally, with first person narratives, your main character cannot die (if you want them to). How can someone be dead and at the same time be describing how the killer got away?

2. Write what you know - Making things up is difficult. If you've run out of things to say, go gain some new experiences, do different things, or meet new people.

3. Create an outline. I usually storyboard at least three chapters ahead on a legal pad. That way when I sit down, I have an agenda or a general direction for the day.

4. Don't try to make it perfect on the first go. Just write anything that comes to mind, the real writing begins when you edit.

5. Make everything relevant to the story. My pet peeve is reading a bunch of blah blah blah that has nothing to do with the story, especially dialogue. You should never use dialogue as filler when you've run out of good ideas. In this case, see steps 2 and 3.

6. Capture ideas as soon as possible. Always carry your phone or a note pad because you never know when genius strikes. I use the Dragon Dictation app constantly to record my ideas.

7. Use Crtl H to find any instance of the words "get" or "got" and replace them!

8. Use Crtl H to find all sentences that start with "Well", and delete 90% of them.

9. Increase your vocabulary. I don't necessarily mean use bigger or more obscure words, but better words. For example, an assortment is better than a bunch of, and remain is better than stick around.

10. If you are using MS Word, use shortcut keys. My favourites are Crtl H, F, C, X, V, Z, and S. I also use Crtl end, Crtl home, and Crtl shift end and home.

11. Learn to use styles in Word, it will save you a lot of time.

12. Email your story to yourself, save often, save a backup on a USB drive, and even print it out occasionally.

13. Save as PDF for editing. When you save your document in a different format, or a different font, it changes the look of the document, which tricks your eyes into thinking you're seeing it for the first time. You'll be amazed at how many errors you will notice with this trick!

14. Read aloud, especially dialogue. Use final draft or some other program to read back your dialogue to see if it sounds right. You can pick up on a lot of flow issues and inconsistencies.

15. Try starting your writing day by re-reading the last two chapters you wrote. This not only warms you up to the writing process, but it also puts you back in the frame of mind for the story.

16. When you finish a chapter, you should always put a page break. This will make your life a lot easier when it comes time to do the final formatting.

17. At the start of every chapter, don't put the chapter number, just write "Chapter" and give it an H1 (heading 1 style). This will really help you out when your document nears completion because you can then add and remove (or rearrange chapters) without having to tediously change your entire book starting from chapter 7 to chapter 8, chapter 8 to chapter 9... and so on. Adding the chapter numbers should be the last thing you do. And you can do this really easily by switching to outline mode (under View in Word). If you are not familiar with outline mode, you can select which headings you see. The current setting is All, but if you switch it to show only H1's then all you will see is a long list that says Chapter, Chapter, Chapter... then it makes it really easy for you to put 1,2,3 ...etc, beside each one without having to scroll through 300+ pages.

# Chapter Nine: Overcoming Writer's Block

If there's one question I constantly get asked, it's from authors who struggle with writer's block asking me how I deal with it. The short answer is that I've never had writer's block, nor am I an expert on the subject.

I understand how frustrating it can be, but in not having it, I can sort of reverse engineer why I don't get it, and make generalizations about why others may get it.

So speaking in general terms, I think writer's block is a symptom of one of the following categories:

1. Planning

2. Motivation

3. Focus

4. Momentum

Sometimes it's hard to find the time to write when you have other obligations such as work, school, or family. It can be tough to find motivation and maintain momentum, especially with so many other distractions competing for your attention and limited resources, but it can be done.

In this post, I'll discuss some common resistance author's (and others) tend to face and what you can do to overcome writer's block.

1. NOT PROPERLY PLANNING

In my videos How to Plan and Outline a Novel and Ideas are Currency, I speak extensively about my planning process. For me, I think of writing a novel in several stages. I spend months and months planning and outlining before I even begin writing. When I actually sit down to write, I'm not spending a lot of time thinking about how the story will unfold — most of those details would have already been worked out.

So when you hit a writer's block, it's because you may be attempting to do two things instead of one. Your brain may be better served focused on one task at a time.

Plan, then write.

2. MOTIVATION

Look, this one may be a little uncomfortable to hear, but if this applies to you, then this advice could ultimately help you.

I believe like anything in life, if you want something badly enough, then you'll find away to do it and not be dissuaded by obstacles or excuses. If you don't have the thing or aren't where you want to be, it's most likely because you don't really want it bad enough and you're not prepared to work for it. This doesn't apply to everything in life, but as a general rule I believe it holds true.

If you really want to write, I'm talking really want it. It's all you think about, it's all you talk to your friends about, you're teeming with ideas, you can't wait to stop doing whatever thing that is getting in the way of your writing, then you will write.

If you don't write, it may because you don't really want it bad enough. Or dare I say, you may not be cut out for it. Again, sorry if this resonates with you and you weren't ready to face this reality, but I think the sooner you come to terms with this truth, the sooner you can dedicate your life to your true calling or passion.

I've met a lot of pretenders in my life and writing isn't that easy to fake. If you don't practice, you will be discovered for what you really are. You can dress the part, talk the part, put "writer" in your Twitter and Instagram bios, but if you don't love it and practice regularly, people can tell. You may be able to fool some people, but real writers will not be fooled.

I can't really tell you any secrets to motivation other than if you want something badly enough, you'll find the time to do it. Otherwise, you may need to be honest with yourself and re-evaluate whether writing, or whatever it is you need motivation for, is really something worth pursuing.

Eric Thomas has a great quote, he says, "When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful." Steven Pressfield also addresses this in his book, _The War of Art,_ where he discusses the concept of resistance. If you like something, but not enough to find time to do it, you may need to just move on.

If you really want to be a writer, but struggle with motivation, here are a few ways that can help you get motivated:

**Set a writing goal**. I aim for 1000 words per day, but if you cannot write every day, try a realistic goal such as 3000 words per week. Based on this schedule, you will complete your first draft in about six months. Mark it on your calendar, set notification reminders, and stick with it.

**Get into a routine.** Human beings tend to be quite adaptable to almost anything if they can create a habit. Getting in shape for instance works on the same principle. It may be tough at first, but then it becomes easier when you make it a part of your lifestyle. So schedule times to write and stick with it. So let's say you set aside time to write Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday night, and aim for 1000 words per day. Chances are you'll write more than that and finish your first draft ahead of schedule.

**Reading bad fiction** is a really strong motivator for me. I'll sit down on the couch or my favourite reading chair and dive into some book that I happen to own. Usually what happens around chapter two or three is I get up and say, "I can do better than this!" and go to my computer and immediately start writing.

3. FOCUS

Sometimes being overcome with too many or too few ideas and not knowing what to write or where to start can be a cause of writer's block.

Let's focus on **having too many ideas**. It's like trying to drink through a firehouse, there's just too much coming at you. My advice would be to write everything down and become more organized. Sort your ideas from good, bad, what is right for one story versus what is right for another.

**Having too few ideas** , which I've talked about this in my other post How to Come up with Good Ideas for your Stories, tends to be the result of not exposing yourself to the world enough. In general you need to have experiences in order to write. You need to rich reservoir of experiences you can pull from.

When you spend the time in the planning stage to sort and organize your ideas, then they begin to make sense. You can start building your outline and focus future ideas. Perhaps you lack a second act or a really satisfying ending. Or maybe you really need a certain character that will be integral to your plot, but nothing comes to mind. Whatever the case may be, you can focus on what you need and train your mind to think about those areas in your story.

There are many **software programs that can facilitate the writing process** and eliminate distractions. Try Write Room (Mac) or Dark Room (Windows) – they make the entire screen blank with only a cursor and your words visible. Some writers find this helpful so they're not tempted by the browser icon. While I'm discussing writing software, try Scrivener, it can be really useful for compiling notes and organizing large documents.

Another method I've heard of is having a "writing computer" that is not connected to the Internet. This will allow you to focus on the task at hand and not wander by checking email or social media sites. It is also useful for not losing your work since there will be no threat of viruses. One word of caution; however, most people's so-called 'writing computers' will be old, and old hard drives can stop working without warning. Make sure you're consistently backing up your files. You may want to get an external hard drive and leave it plugged in.

It's not always easy to sit and write when it's sunny out, or when people in your house want to hang out, so what you can **try is writing late at night or early in the morning** when everyone else is asleep. If you've never tried writing from midnight until 2:00 am, you should. You may be surprised at the result. Sometimes my best ideas come to me when my mind is fatigued. I also find this adds motivation because you're reinforcing your work ethic. Of course you could be sleeping – that's what most people are doing – but not you, you're working toward achieving a goal.

**Try cleaning your house, room, office, desk... whatever needs cleaning**. I don't know what it is, but when something is cluttered, my mind becomes cluttered and I can't focus as well. I like to take care of all the distractions before I start writing, so they're not nagging me.

4. MOMENTUM

Like many things in life such as building a new relationship, forming a new habit, or learning a new skill, momentum can go a long way.

Here are a few things that can help with momentum:

One really effective method to achieve something is **having a buddy working toward the same goal**. Together you will push each other and keep each other accountable. A writing buddy can also be a great way to brainstorm, or bounce ideas off and see which ones stick. This has been a tremendous help for me.

**Creative writing classes** are another way to get honest feedback. Look up courses at your local college or university and see if they offer a class that fits your schedule. You will partake in group discussions, writing exercises that sharpen your skills, and perhaps most importantly, you will have other writers critique your work. At first, this can be demoralizing to have a group of people rip your story to shreds, but you're all there to learn and become better. It also puts you in touch with other writers who can edit your work.

Even when you're not writing, it doesn't mean you can't be working on your story. One great quote I like is from Burton Rascoe, he says, "What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window." **Try to think about your story on your commute to and from work, while you're working, when you're at the grocery store**... and then capture any ideas you may have. Then compile those notes into a master 'note' file so when you sit down to write, you will have momentum throughout the week. In other words, you're not forcing yourself to come up with ideas at the time when you need ideas – it may not be the most efficient way to work. I come up with ideas all day, even when I'm sleeping, and when I sit down to write, I'm excited to explore where the ideas lead me.

If you find your momentum has waned a bit, you may need to **re-evaluate the plot** and see if you're still passionate about it. There's no shame in abandoning something that doesn't work and starting fresh, just make sure abandoning doesn't become a habit when the going gets tough. Some days are more of a grind than others, but hang in there and keep jabbing away at it. If the plot is no longer entertaining you after you've given it due consideration, then maybe it's best to leave it alone. You can always come back to it.

My final piece of advice is this – You've heard the phrase, 'you have to crawl before you can walk', well the same applies to writing a novel. **Try writing a blog post or a short story first**. The simple satisfaction you receive upon completing a short story will often inspire you to work up to a larger project.

I hope this helps.

# Chapter Ten: How to Describe Things in Writing

One question I get a lot is, "I'm not very good at describing things, do you have any advice?"

If you've read any of my books, you'll notice I never really tell the reader what my characters look like beyond "she was beautiful" or "he was scrawny", I let the reader decide those details on their own. Rarely do I describe rooms or tiny details of things. I think the brain is wonderful at extrapolating those details without the aid of the author. So the mental image I talk about is more for the author's sake than for the reader's.

Funny story... after reading my book, The Art of the Hustle, someone made a comment stating, "Great story, and I love that the main character is black!" I'm like, "He is? Okay, sure." So to this guy, his mind filled in the missing details with what was relevant to him and what he pictured in his mind, and I think that's great.

Another trick some author's do is put in a placeholder word that is easy to find using the search function and will not appear anywhere else in the text. So for example, use the letters TK any time you have to describe something and are getting bogged down. The idea is that you can go back to those spots and fill in the details later, and not fall into a trap and disrupt the flow of your writing. For instance, "Joe walked into the TK room and noticed a TK couch on his right..."

So my first suggestion would be to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. But if you don't like that idea, the alternative (there may be more than one) would be to work on your weaknesses much like you would working out at the gym. Eventually, you will get stronger in this area. So for example, what you could do is start your day with a writing exercise to describe some object in your house - something that you know well. It doesn't need to be in front of you, but have a clear picture of it in your mind. Describe the shape, texture, material, weight, shine... anything you think the reader would like to know about it.

Usually with good writing, you want to include the 5 common senses such as Sound, Smell, Sight, Touch, and Taste. If you keep those in mind when you describe a scene, you will get the reader more into the story. I've been using this approach a lot and I think it's good. Of course, you don't want to overdo it and describe the five senses every time your character interacts with something new, but let's say your character walks into an old kitchen - it should smell a certain way right? And maybe the fridge has a low frequency hum, and maybe there's s grease stain on the floor that's sticky, and so on. So you can see how you start to build a mental picture.

# Chapter Eleven: Chapter Length

There is no standard chapter length, you can do whatever you like. You could have one chapter 400 words and then the very next chapter be 4000 words.

What I like to do is keep my chapters between 800 - 1300 words. I don't know what it is about me, maybe it's through repetition, but my chapters naturally seem to end around 1000 words. I have some chapters that are around 2400, but those are rare and they never go over that number. Sometimes if a chapter is say 2400 words, I may look for a natural break in the action at the 800 - 1200 mark and choose to split the chapter into two, but that's just me. If you do this, look for a spot whereby ending the chapter there would make for an exciting cliff-hanger.

The shortest chapter I've seen was in the Twilight series. One of the chapters was one word long, it just said, "December." then you had to flip the page to read the next chapter, which was a little more substantial.

# Chapter Twelve: On Writing Mystery / Thrillers

I start by thinking of what I call a "major WTF event" - an idea that immediately makes you think, "WTF!". For example, in the short story I wrote for A&E called Oak Ridge, the major WTF event is people who were once dead suddenly return. I should state if it's not already obvious that this is A&E's idea, not mine.

So think of something like this that makes you think WTF. Then what I do is have my characters pick away at theories of what could explain the mystery, but never do they state what it is. So if someone was abducted by aliens, I will have the characters discuss a bunch of other possibilities, but not mention aliens as one of the possibilities. I don't want to plant that seed in the reader's mind and allow them to figure out the mystery in advance. I want the characters' ignorance to match the audience's ignorance. I usually throw in a couple of smoke screens just to draw people off the scent. I'd say, "it was bigfoot, it was mountain lions, it was a deranged psychopath..." and the theories must be plausible. This gets the reader thinking, "Hmm, maybe it was bigfoot."

To ramp things up, I add a bunch of "small WTF events". So the closer the characters get to the truth, there is even more mystery. Maybe a new clue is revealed at this time as well and some of the other theories are discarded, but the major WTF event remains a mystery.

You may want to do a major plot twist just to switch things up and keep people engaged. Some action scenes intermixed with more confusion works great.

Sometimes the characters can have more knowledge than the audience and this works well too. So have someone facing the killer and recognize them, but the audience is kept in the dark. Or maybe one of the characters finds a clue, but the audience won't find out about it for a while longer. When discussing the clue, you can be cryptic and vague.

When it's time for the big reveal at the end, it must pay off satisfactorily. If the mystery is lame or too implausible, it won't work. Also, if the mystery is too obvious, then your readers will likely be disappointed.

What some authors do is work backwards. So for a Sherlock Holmes mystery, you would plan out the crime in advance. You decide who the killer is and all the other details surrounding the crime such as the weapon, the motive, the opportunity, and then work backwards to conceal this information.

If you want to read one of my best mystery/ thrillers, check out The Secret Manuscript.

# Chapter Thirteen: How to Introduce Backstory without Boring Readers

I get a lot of questions regarding writing advice. While I'm no expert, I certainly have some opinions that I'm more than happy to share. Recently, I was asked:

How should I go about adding background information about characters, setting, and whatnot, while making it seamless and natural to the storyline, and engaging for the reader?

I would advise not to go too crazy in the beginning. In other words, it may be best to keep the backstory to a minimum in the first couple of chapters. Offer as little backstory as necessary, just enough to provide context, but not enough to make it a slog to get through.

Reading an entire novel requires a huge time commitment and a lot of effort, and there are a ton of other forms of entertainment competing for the reader's precious time. What a lot of readers do is read the first couple of chapters and see if the book is heading in a direction that will entice them to continue reading. If not, they abandon it and pick up something else. So more than any other time, the opening must be awesome, and backstories are generally not awesome, so save it for later, if at all.

In my book Prodigy, I have an intro, which I was not a fan of, but I just found it to be the best way. I basically set up the entire context of the story in one go. This is the point of an intro so I don't think the reader minds as much. It's when you begin your story, introduce your character, and then 'info dump' by stating everything about her.

An example of bad background info would be, "Amy sat quietly in class, listening to her teacher drone on. She was reserved ever since the accident last summer, where her and her friends went camping and accidentally killed a guy..." this may be okay, but not in chapter 1.

I consider it bad because upon first mention of Amy, it's 'dumping' the backstory onto the reader. Your reader doesn't care about Amy yet and at this point has nothing invested in her, so why would they care about her backstory? If you were to ask me, I'd say have Amy do something interesting, make the reader care about her, and then fill them in on some other details piece by piece – definitely not all at once, and definitely not in the first chapter.

You may also do a prologue. For instance, in The Art of the Hustle, I have a prologue of the main character and we learn that he is rich. He's being interviewed on some talk show and the interviewer asks him, "How did you become a billionaire, where did it all start?" Then I open the book with chapter one where we see the main character as a young broke kid finishing high school. I think this was way more compelling because the reader knows he eventually becomes rich, but doesn't know how. As the story unfolds, the reader is trying to guess how he becomes rich.

As the story progresses, I try to use dialogue as much as possible to introduce backstory. This seems natural since characters meeting for the first time don't know much, if anything, about each other. So naturally they would ask questions that would reveal their backstory. Even then, I wouldn't get too crazy with it. I may do a bit and then back off out of fear that the reader would get bored.

So let's say you are writing Batman and you open with an epic fight scene (usually a good way to hook the reader). Then you could have Bruce back at the bat cave, looking at a photograph of his dead parents and Alfred come in and say something like, "Today's the twentieth anniversary of your parents' death,. You would have made them proud, Bruce..."

In this example, we've seamlessly worked it into a piece of dialogue that naturally fits the scene. It seems organic and not shoehorned in.

So to reiterate, my preference is to provide background information sparingly, work it into the story as seamlessly as possible (e.g. through dialogue), and try to avoid 'info dumping' at the beginning of the book.

# Chapter Fourteen: How to Transition Smoothly Between Chapters

"Are there any 'good' ways to have smooth transitions between chapters so that the story flows in an understandable way for the reader?"

First we need to understand that there are two different types of transitions that can occur when a chapter ends:

a.) transitioning from one scene to a completely different scene

b.) transitioning from one scene to a continuation of the same scene, but just in the next chapter

In scenario (a) if there are large gaps of time between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next, then I usually say something like, "The last 6 months had been rough for Joe. He kept his head down and worked hard..." This is my "establishing shot" so-to-speak. It provides context for the reader and lets them know that the scene has now jumped. The next paragraph after that, I will have Joe doing something and engaging in a new scene.

My book does this quite a bit since I cover 10 years in the book. In one scene, there was so much of a gap (like 4 years), that it was weird to just transition from one chapter to the next so I made a new part. So the book starts out with Part 1 – Chapter 1,2,3,4.... then about halfway, I introduce Part 2 and mention that it has been 4 years later. In some cases, it may be more fluid to not have a chapter break, but instead just have a text break. So an example would look like this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

***

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

With this technique, you don't have to be all that smooth since the separator lets the reader know that you've transitioned into a different scene. If the gap in time is not that large, say the character is at work in one chapter, and then at home in the next chapter, I may just say "Joe was exhausted. He sat on the couch as he usually did after his shift and watched sports highlights..." Scenario (b) — a continuation of the same scene, but just in the next chapter — is much easier. I actually prefer this 'cliff-hanger' technique as much as possible to encourage people to continue reading. TV shows often end this way as well. So if a chapter ends like, "Joe turned around and was shocked by who was standing before him." I'll end the chapter there so the reader wants to keep reading to find out who was standing behind Joe.

Then, in the next chapter I would begin by saying something like, "Joe couldn't believe his eyes as he was now staring at a man he long presumed dead..." So basically you just pick up where you left off. In fact, I often write the scene straight through and then later pick some moment which I feel would make a good cliff-hanger and then end my chapter there.

Some writers have an 'A' plot and a 'B' plot and they stitch it together like a zipper. So in my above example, you would say something like, "Joe turned around and was shocked by who was standing before him." End chapter. Then the next chapter would be the 'B' plot — a completely different scene altogether.

Then once that chapter ends, you pick up where you left off with the 'A' plot. I tend not to do this, but it can add more excitement as the reader now has to read an entire chapter just to get back to where they left off in the story.

# Chapter Fifteen: The 7 Elements of Great Storytelling

What are the elements that make a story great? Recently, I sat down and decided to write the core elements that I feel make a story great, and I came up with seven.

Writing

Writing a great story naturally involves great writing. This is why I put this as the very first element. If you're thinking about having a career in writing, your writing must be good – a base level of proficiency should consist of:

\- Fluidity

\- Clarity

\- Purpose

\- Proper spelling and grammar

\- Expansive vocabulary

\- Appropriate word choice

\- Logical coherence

The good news is that almost anyone can reach this level with practice, which is actually encouraging. Unlike other disciplines such as singing or playing in the NBA, writing well has less to do with natural talent or physical attributes, it's just a matter of putting in the effort. Stephen King wrote in his book 'On Writing', "the first million words are practice," and I believe this to be more or less true. If you put in the work and show up every day, your writing will eventually improve.

Originality

Your idea or story has to be somewhat original and interesting. I say 'somewhat original' because it's very difficult to come up with a completely original and interesting idea. Most great storytellers borrow ideas from others. It's okay to be inspired by others and borrow ideas – I borrow ideas all the time, but I make reference of them to give credit where it's due. In my Prodigy book, I use themes from Plato's Republic, but I make sure to reference them to let the reader know that I'm not trying to steal Plato's ideas and pass them off as my own. Instead, I'm paying homage to something that inspired me.

To improve originality, it's important to be well-rounded in terms of your interests and your scope of knowledge. So try to be very broad with your understanding of things, especially areas where you have relatively no knowledge, whether it's science, religion, cultures, economics, history, geography... It's also helpful to be:

\- World travelled

\- Read books

\- Hang out with different types of people

\- Listen to podcasts

\- Watch documentaries

\- Challenge your opinions and assumptions – be critical and objective about your thoughts

\- Be observant about the world

\- Develop a new hobby such as archery, yoga, ballet, rock climbing...

Over time, you will uncover things, learn new truths, and develop original thinking in areas where you would otherwise not have gone down if you just stayed in this narrow lane of topics that interest you.

Characters

Your characters have to be well-defined and relatable. Part of having well-defined characters means they should each have their own distinct voice and unique set of characteristics that separate them from other characters in your story. Here are some things to consider:

\- Your characters shouldn't all sound alike

\- Each character should have their own point of view

\- Your reader should be able to tell who's talking without you telling them

\- Your characters should generally behave in a consistent manner

One method I use, and a lot of other writers use, is character profiles. These are simply one or two page summaries of each of your main characters. Start by selecting an image of what your character looks like (you can draw it if you like or find an image online). Next, write down the answers to the following questions:

\- What are their beliefs or values?

\- What is their background?

\- What motivates them?

\- What are their goals?

\- What are their interests or hobbies?

\- What are their opinions?

You can then have a few quotables, something like, "I'm working part-time and going to school to become a doctor," "My girlfriend is a painter," "I really don't like how lazy I am, I want to change." This will help cement the idea of their true nature in your head.

When you take the time to write character profiles, you can put your characters in any situation and have very good understanding of what they would do and how they would behave in that situation.

Pace

The pacing of your story has to be such that the reader does not get bored easily. Make them want to keep reading. I often use the metaphor of a monkey swinging from vine to vine – when it swings from one vine, and that vine has reached its maximum extension, there should be another vine within reach, ready to be grabbed and allow the monkey to carry its momentum forward.

So if you have a really lengthy and verbose opening that describes the house the person grew up in, the colour of the carpet, their lovely neighbours... and you go on and on and on about minutia, then it's going to be boring for many readers – it'd be like starting a race with your feet in mud. Why have your readers slog through mud at all. They should be able to take off with your story and maintain that momentum (or have the momentum increase) until the very last page.

If you want your book to hit with a lot of people, you need to hook them in immediately and maintain a steady pace. This may not come easy to you in the first draft, but it can be done in the editing process. For instance, maybe in the revision you decide that the first three chapters can be combined into one chapter, or better yet, one paragraph. This gets the story started as deep into the story as possible.

Story Arc

The story arc must be suspenseful. By nature, human beings are really attracted to suspense. In most stories, the hero always wins, and yet despite knowing this, we still love watching movies and reading books. That's because it's not necessarily the payoff at the end that we live for, even though that is satisfying. What we truly crave is the uncertainly of the drama.

In his book called, 'The Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama', David Mamet talks about this hypothetically perfect ball game in which he does a very good job of describing the kind of natural tension that we love.

He says, "The perfect ball game – what do we wish for in the perfect ball game? Do we wish for our team to take the field in thrash the opposition from the first moment to the final gun? No, we wish for a closely fought match that contains many satisfying reversals, but which can be seen retroactively to always tend toward a satisfying and inevitable conclusion. We wish, in effect, for a three act structure.

"In act one, our team takes the field and indeed prevails over its opponents, and we, its participants feel pride. But before the pride can mature into arrogance, this new thing occurs – our team makes an error. The other side is inspired and pushes forward with previously unsuspected strength and imagination. Our team weakens and retreats.

"In act two of this perfect game, our team is shaken and confused. They forget the rudiments of cohesion and strategy and address that made them strong. They fall deeper and deeper into a slew of despond. All contrary efforts seem naught and just when we think that the tide may have turned back the other way, a penalty or adverse decision is rendered, nullifying their gains. What could be worse?

"But wait. Just when all else seems irredeemably lost, help comes, which is act three. A player, previously believe to be second rate, emerges with a block, a throw, a run, and offers a glimmer of that possibility of victory. Yes, only a glimmer. But it is sufficient to rouse the team to something approaching its best efforts and the team indeed rallies. Our team brings the score back even and makes the play that would put them ahead, only to have it called back yet again by fate, or by its lieutenant, a wrong-headed, ignorant or malicious official.

"But see, the lessons of the second act were not lost on our team. People might say that it's too late or the clock is too far run down, our heroes are too tired... yet they rouse themselves for one last effort, one last try, and do they prevail? Do they triumph with scant seconds left on the clock? Oh, they do. They all but prevail. As the final seconds of the play, the outcome rests on the lone warrior – that hero, that champion, that person upon whom in the final moment all our hopes devolve. That final play, run, pass, penalty kick. But wait. That hero that would have been chosen for the task, that champion is injured. No one is left on the bench..."

There is the perfect game as described by David Mamet. It's very interesting and obviously points to these kinds of ebbs and flows, this tide, this yin this yang, this push pull tension where they're up, they're down, they're up again, they're down again. And just when it appears there is no hope, somehow by all odds stacked against them, they come back and become triumphant in the most unsuspecting way in the final seconds of the game. So if you can, your story could follow a similar arc as well.

Conclusion

Your story must have a satisfying ending, which is indeed difficult. When I write, a lot of times I don't know how the story will end. I may have an idea, but I usually discover it when I get there. I just wing it and hope for the best. It's difficult to have a satisfying, original, and unpredictable ending that pays off for the reader. If you build up the story adequately, the ending must deliver so that the previous efforts are not lost. You want your reader to finish the book with a smile, unable to contain their joy – they can't wait to tell their friends, read the sequel, learn everything they can about you... A good ending can also save, or make up for a lackluster climax. An average story with an amazing twist ending can bolster the story in ways that no other part of the book can.

*Bonus* — Timing

If you incorporate the first six elements of storytelling into your book, you may come close to creating a masterpiece. However, I think one bonus element could be included in the list that may elevate a great book to a nearly perfect book – and that is well-timed comedy or drama in appropriate places. By this I mean, if you're writing a really dramatic scene with lots of tension, a great way to keep the reader engaged is to inject some comedic relief (or if your book is funny, inject some drama in certain places). Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is an excellent example of this. And if done well, it could really take your book to the next level.

So there they are, the 7 elements of great storytelling. If you have any other insights or feel I missed some, please let me know.

# Chapter Sixteen: Writing Hack — Write a Story in Half the Time

When you do anything long enough, you not only get better at it, but you also develop techniques that can help you do it better or save time.

After writing a dozen or so books, I've discovered a really helpful technique for writing stories quickly. While outlining is nothing new, there is a next level of outlining that I have discovered that really speeds up the writing process.

I like to think of chapters as two types: plot drivers and connective tissues.

**Plot Driver** chapters move the plot forward. They are the meat of the story and focus on action, critical discoveries or revelations, plot twists, etc. In other words, some event happens that adds another step for the character to walk on. Without these kinds of chapters driving your story, your story doesn't really go anywhere.

**Connective Tissue** chapters aren't so focused on moving the plot, they are more expository. They explain or introduce characters, motivations, backstories, etc. If plot drivers are the meat of a story, connective tissues are what holds a story together and gives it meaning. These kinds of chapters are important too because they allow a reader to connect with the characters in meaningful ways. The reader can become invested in the character's journey by learning more about them. They identify with them, root for them, feel the tension when a character faces conflict, and so on.

Now, I can see some of you eagerly waiting to point out other kinds of chapters, or say that one chapter can do both. That's true — a really dialogue heavy chapter or one that discusses a character's backstory can be both connective and a driver. I'm talking in general.

Here's the hack: To speed up the writing process, I skip a lot of the connective tissue chapters, or what I sometimes call 'blah, blah, blah' chapters. Instead, I write the plot drivers first.

The key is to not ignore them completely, but to put in placeholder text — bullet points for how the chapter would look like had it be written. So it would look something like this:
Chapter One

\- Intro to character

\- Rushing out the door, late for school

\- Minor incident on the way to school

\- Arrives late

\- Some dialogue with a classmate

\- Some other stuff

\- Comes home later in a bad mood
Chapter Two

Molly took it upon herself to enact revenge on the girl who teased her on the bus. Taking out her notebook, she devised a plan. First, she would...

Chapter Three

\- Show Molly home life

\- Brother stuff

\- Mom and dad stuff

\- Dinner conversation

\- Goes to her room

\- Checks message on phone

\- Friend comes over

\- Dialogue with friend
Chapter Four

It was the day Molly had been waiting for. After discussing her plan with Gina, she was all set. It would go down today at lunch...

***

So this is obviously a made up example, I don't have a story with a character named Molly. But you can see how the style changes between these four chapters. For the connective tissue chapters, I breeze through them with bullet points, and with the plot drivers, I take my time and write the entire chapter long form.

Also, notice how in chapter two, I mention Molly wanting to enact revenge on the girl who teased her on the bus. In the previous chapter, all I had was a bullet that said, 'Minor incident on the bus'. I didn't even know about the teasing, but now that I do, I can go back and describe that scene. Working backward is often much easier than working forward because you can avoid that dreadful question writers often ask themselves, 'what happens next?'

I don't actually need to get bogged down with the connective tissue stuff. I can use the bullet points to inform what will generally happen in the plot driver chapters. I can always make changes and one can . This allows me to move really quickly through the story. Once I have the entire story completed, I can go back and colour in between the lines.

The bullet points are sufficient — they can have a little or a lot of detail, the point is to get on with the plot drivers so that I can finish the first draft of my story quickly. The reason this is important is because when you're writing a novel (as with many things in life) momentum is huge. If you can see the finish line, it will motivate you further to continue.

The second reason momentum is important is because your ideas will be strengthened because they will be top of my and current. If it takes you three years to complete a novel, then your connection to the material will likely be vague and distant. You won't necessarily remember what you wrote a year ago or even two months ago. But if you can write the entire novel in 4 – 6 weeks, your ideas will be cohesive and current. Hopefully that makes sense.

What you may find is that once the entire story is complete, you can get a better sense of who your character is because you have the complete perspective of what they've been through and what choices they've made, and what they've had to overcome. So the plot drivers can actually inform the connective tissue chapters.

If you want to get really crazy, you can plot out your entire story with this method. You can put in bullet points of every chapter. The analogy here would be akin to sketching. You loosely pencil in the outline without committing to any of the lines.

# Chapter Seventeen — How to Write a Great Opening Lines

As a writer, and a reader, I love opening lines. I'm always curious as to how myself and other authors choose to start their books — chapter one, first paragraph, opening sentence. There can only be one opening line, and for that I'm fascinated by them.

In this chapter, I'll go over what makes a good opening line, and show you some examples of my favourite opening lines, and why they work for me.

Why opening lines are so important

Have you ever read the opening line of a book and been completely captivated? Just from that one line, you're hooked, you're engaged, it draws you in and can't wait to read on?

Or, have you ever read the opening line and immediately knew the book wasn't for you?

In either case, opening lines are really important. They can either draw a reader in or turn them off completely.

The reason why having a captivating opening line is so important is because people are really quick to pass judgment, and I don't blame them. Their time is valuable.

Let's face it, there are a million things competing for people's attention and their time is limited. They may have only a few hours per day to dive into something of interest, and if it is one of our books, then we need to hook our audience immediately and keep them engaged.

Our book has to be more captivating than TV or movies, more engaging then video games, deliver more gratification than social media and YouTube, be better than going outside and doing something, more interesting than hanging out with a friend, better than relaxing, and better than any other book they could be reading.

Attention is the asset we're all vying for.

To do this, we need to understand broadly what captures people's attention. While I'm not an expert, I thought about what elements go into making great opening lines.

1. Dramatic or shocking

A dramatic or shocking opener is something a reader may not typically expect. It's a juxtaposition if you will. It's like getting hit in the face with a cold bucket of water. It wakes you up and engages you.

Here are some examples of dramatic or shocking openers that I like.

"Not every 13-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty."

— 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.

"The telephone was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse."

— War in Heaven by Charles Williams.

2. Philosophical

Philosophical opening lines make you think about something in a new way and challenge your current beliefs. They can be profound and not fully understood, and for that it creates a sense of mystery and wonder.

Here are some examples of philosophical openers.

"Nothing ever begins."

— Weaveworld by Clive Barker.

"Right here and now, as an old friend used to say, we are in the fluid present, where clear-sightedness never guarantees perfect vision."

— The Black House, by Stephen King and Peter Straub.

3. Poetic

As with most writing, poetic or pleasing sounding prose can often engage a reader. You want your words to flow effortlessly so that people can ease into the story. This could mean using descriptive language, a metaphor, alliteration, or playing with sounds of the words.

Here's an example of a poetic sounding opener.

"The trawler plunged into the angry swells of the dark, furious sea like an awkward animal trying desperately to break out of an impenetrable swamp."

— The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum.

4. Unanswered questions

This one is similar to the philosophical element — unanswered questions push people's curiosity button and makes them investigate further to satisfy that curiosity.

Here are few examples of openers that leave more to the imagination and invite people to question why something happened.

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

— To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

"Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face."

— Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

5. Simple

Often the most powerful openers are the simplest. They say something provocative in as few as words as possible, and for that it creates an impact and captures my attention.

"First the colors."

— The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

"A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories."

— Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

What you don't want to do

We looked at some examples of opening lines and what makes them work. Here are some things that tend to turn me off. This, of course, is subjective so take my comments with a grain of salt.

1. Expository

I tend not to like exposition in opening lines. This is where the author goes into detail about who the character is and maybe even describes what they look like.

"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife."

— The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

2. Wordy

Again, I'll preface this by stating that this is just my opinion, but wordy openers tend not to work for me. Here's a very famous example from Charles Dicken's 'A Tale of Two Cities', which is perhaps one of the most well-known opening lines in history.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."

In the interest of time, and making my point, I'll stop it there. I cut it at about the halfway mark. It goes on like this. Now, yes this is considered a classic, but I don't think this would hold up today. Modern writing has evolved to a point where it's much less dense and wordy. For me, this is overly wordy and gives my brain too many things to think about too soon.

3. Confusing

The last thing that I don't like about opening lines is when they are confusing. I get that mysterious, obscure openers could create a sense of intrigue for readers, but for me, I'm usually not invested enough to continue on if the opening line is confusing.

Here are some examples of confusing opening lines.

"How to explain? How to describe? Even the omniscient viewpoint quails."

— A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

"Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity, baripity--Good."

— Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

Opening lines don't just appear on page one

Opening lines aren't just used for the beginnings of books, they're important for every chapter. Each chapter is an opportunity for a reader to lose interest, put your book down, and find something else to occupy their attention.

For this reason, I try to have compelling opening lines for all my chapters. I even try to make the last line of chapters captivating and engaging, making people want to turn the page and devour the next chapter.

Don't overthink it

When it comes to writing the opening line of you book, it's best not to overthink it and try to come up with the perfect sentence. This can be a huge roadblock for a lot of writers. I've said this a million times before and I will say it again, the real work of great writing is in editing. To quote the late great writer Michael Crichton, "Books aren't written - they're rewritten."

A tip for writing great opening lines

One thing I like to do is start with an opening paragraph. Write the whole thing and then come back to it. You can actually do this at any point in the writing process, it doesn't have to be in the beginning.

Sometimes what I find is the best opening line is the last sentence in my opening paragraph. I just cut and paste it. As it's in the wrong order in which I wrote it, it often lacks context, but in more instances than not, it works. It almost has this inherently mysterious quality about it.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about this topic. I love opening lines and pay particular attention to them whenever I read other author's work, and especially in my own writing.

What are some of your favorite opening lines? Let me know in the comments.

# Chapter Eighteen — Sentence Length

There's a reason why writing is considered an art form. Especially writing fiction. Reading fiction requires a lot more from the reader than non-fiction. Readers not only have to think about what's being said, but they also have to create mental images, juggle characters, plots and subplots, come up with voices, anticipate what's to come, and so on.

Reading fiction is a skill, unlike reading a blog or piece of non-fiction, which tends to be more linear — you just follow along as someone tells you something. Reading fiction is often much harder to read because it requires more mental effort.

Why am I telling you this?

This is a roundabout way for me to tell you that one of your jobs as a fiction writer is to remove some of that pain. I talk at length about this in another chapter called — **How to Overcome Consumption Obstruction**.

Your sentences should flow effortlessly. You can achieve this in many ways such as using the right vocabulary, reduce the number of large paragraphs and chapters, have logical order of your ideas, and so on.

There's a really great quote from Gary Provost, from his book 100 Ways to Improve your Writing, which states:

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."

As you can see, having no variation in your sentence length can read a bit stiff or robotic, and in fact, it can be distracting. I think to be proficient at writing and storytelling, you want to create an immersive experience with as few distractions as possible.

Your words are almost like musical score under-toning the mental picture the reader creates in their mind. If you have jarring sentence or language that lack elegance and flow, it'll take the reader out of the story, they'll put your book down, and likely never read anything by you ever again.

Play around with different sentences lengths. You can combine two sentences, cut out unnecessary words from another, have a really short sentence consisting of only one word. If done right, it can really elevate your storytelling and captivate the reader's attention. It's almost like a spell. Readers may not even be aware of what you're doing, and they couldn't necessarily explain why they like your writing, but they do. They find themselves falling deeper and deeper into your world like a trance.

You can also play around with paragraph lengths. This is something that I do. I tend to want to break up large paragraphs just so that it's easier to read and creates more white space on the page. Again, like sentences, a short paragraph consisting of only one word or a few words can have a lot of impact if done right and not overdone.

So there it is, today's writing lessons. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

# Chapter Nineteen — Chapter Length

I thought I'd include a short chapter about what I do since I get this question a lot.

In short -- there is no standard chapter length, you can do whatever you like. You could have one chapter 400 words and then the very next chapter be 4000 words.

What I like to do is keep my chapters between 800 - 1300 words. I don't know what it is about me, maybe it's through repetition, but my chapters naturally seem to end around 1000 words. I have some chapters that are around 2400, but those are rare and they never go over that number. Sometimes if a chapter is say 2400 words, I may look for a natural break in the action at the 800 - 1200 mark and choose to split the chapter into two, but that's just me. If you do this, look for a spot whereby ending the chapter there would make for an exciting cliffhanger.

The shortest chapter I've seen was in the Twilight series. One of the chapters was one word long, it just said, "December." then you had to flip the page to read the next chapter, which was a little more substantial.

# Chapter Twenty — Using the Ignorant Character Method to Explain Backstory

I get a lot of questions regarding writing advice. While I'm no expert, I certainly have some opinions that I'm more than happy to share. Recently, I was asked:

"How should I go about adding background information about characters, setting, and whatnot, while making it seamless and natural to the storyline, and engaging for the reader?"

I would advise not to go too crazy in the beginning. In other words, it may be best to keep the backstory to a minimum in the first couple of chapters. Offer as little backstory as necessary, just enough to provide context, but not enough to make it a slog to get through.

Reading an entire novel requires a huge time commitment and a lot of effort, and there are a ton of other forms of entertainment competing for the reader's precious time. What a lot of readers do is read the first couple of chapters and see if the book is heading in a direction that will entice them to continue reading. If not, they abandon it and pick up something else. So more than any other time, the opening must be awesome, and backstories are generally not awesome, so save it for later, if at all.

In my book , I have an intro, which I was not a fan of, but I just found it to be the best way. I basically set up the entire context of the story in one go. This is the point of an intro so I don't think the reader minds as much. It's when you begin your story, introduce your character, and then 'info dump' by stating everything about her.

An example of bad background info would be, "Amy sat quietly in class, listening to her teacher drone on. She was reserved ever since the accident last summer, where her and her friends went camping and accidentally killed a guy..." this may be okay, but not in chapter 1.

I consider it bad because upon first mention of Amy, it's 'dumping' the backstory onto the reader. Your reader doesn't care about Amy yet and at this point has nothing invested in her, so why would they care about her backstory?

If you were to ask me, I'd say have Amy do something interesting, make the reader care about her, and then fill them in on some other details piece by piece – definitely not all at once, and definitely not in the first chapter.

You may also do a prologue. In the for instance, I have a prologue of the main character when he is rich. He's being interviewed on some talk show and the interviewer asks him, "How did you become a billionaire, where did it all start?" And then I open with chapter one as this young broke kid finishing high school. I think this was way more compelling because the reader knows he eventually becomes rich, but doesn't know how. As the story unfolds, the reader is trying to guess how he becomes rich.

Fun fact — the prologue was one of the last things I wrote and I had it as the last chapter of the book. Then I thought, what if I move this piece to the front to let the reader know right off the bat that Trevor is a billionaire and the book will all about how he did it. FYI — I purposely throw in some misdirects to keep the audience guessing.

THE IGNORANT CHARACTER METHOD

As the story progresses, I try to use dialogue as much as possible to introduce backstory. I call this the **ignorant character** method whereby one character is ignorant to some crucial piece of information or another character's backstory, and through a conversation, one character educates the ignorant character as well as the audience.

This seems natural since characters meeting for the first time often don't know much, if anything, about each other. So naturally they would ask questions that would reveal their backstory. Even then, I wouldn't get too crazy with it. I may do a bit and then back off out of fear that the reader would get bored.

So let's say you are writing Batman and you open with an epic fight scene (usually a good way to hook the reader). Then you could have Bruce back at the bat cave, looking at a photograph of his dead parents and Alfred come in and say something like, "Today's the twentieth anniversary of your parents' death,. You would have made them proud, Bruce..."

In this example, we've seamlessly worked it into a piece of dialogue that naturally fits the scene. It seems organic and not shoehorned in.

So to reiterate, my preference is to provide background information sparingly, work it into the story as seamlessly as possible (e.g. through ignorant character dialogue), and try to avoid 'info dumping' at the beginning of the book.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, let me know.

# Chapter Twenty-One — How to Overcome Consumption Obstruction in Writing

What is consumption obstruction — and more importantly, what can you do to overcome it?

OUR GOAL AS WRITERS

Your goal as a writer is not to impress your friends, or to carry around this air of arrogance so when you meet people at a party you can tell them that you're an author in hopes that you appear more sophisticated (I've met plenty of these people).

Your goal is the same as my goal, which is also the same as every other content creator — it's to **capture consumer attention**.

That's the asset we're all vying for.

We want someone to take time out of their busy day and consume our content whether its a blog or a YouTube video a film or a book, and let's be honest, there are a lot of other things trying to compete for that attention.

When you write a book and bring it to market with the hopes that it gains an audience and a loyal fanbase, you are essentially asking someone to forgo all the other options they could be doing with their time from hanging out with friends and family, exploring the world, listening to music or podcasts, watching YouTube videos, movies, online shopping, playing sport, practicing an instrument, creating art... there are a million ways people can entertain themselves.

And let's be fair, **reading a book isn't an easy thing to do**.

My guess is that most people read less than 50 book in their entire lifetime and there are millions of books already in existence, and every day new books are entering the market, competing for that limited resource known as attention. In most cases, let's say the average person can read a book, cover to cover, in 10 hours.

They maybe get 30 minutes to an hour per day, usually before bed, to escape the stresses of the day, be entertained, be engaged, fall into a world, and be so consumed with the story that they forget about their troubles for a moment and don't want to put it down. This is the so-called page-turner effect. This is what we want to create.

So why did I go on this big rant and what does it have to do with **consumption obstruction**?

The reason is simple.

OUR JOB AS WRITERS

Our jobs as writers is to:

Write a book that stands out amongst all other entertainment options. To do this, we must, at a minimum, have an:

  * Interesting premise

  * Intriguing title

  * Captivating cover art

  * An opening line that hooks the reader's attention

While all of this is extremely difficult and becoming more and more difficult everyday, let' assume we are able to do that. A reader has one of our books in their hand and they are interested in exploring it further.

Our job is not done. We still need to:

Keep the reader's attention all the way until the end, and then have the book payoff in such a meaningful, uplifting, inspiring, life-changing, perception-altering way that they recommend it to their friends, leave a positive review, buy our next book, become advocates for us.

That's the business we're in.

AVOIDING CONSUMPTION OBSTRUCTION

How we do all this is to understand what I call **consumption obstruction**.

In other words, evaluate your book and ask yourself — what, if any, obstructions or barriers are there for someone reading my book?

The first step is to identify them, the second step is to eliminate as many as possible.

Now, I'll admit, I'm guilty of breaking some cardinal consumption obstruction rules obstruction rules in some of my novels. In my book , I open with a lengthy introduction setting up the world, and it's also written with very academic language. I mention things such as "Pyrrhic victory", which most people probably aren't going to know what that means.

After the introduction, I still don't get into the story, I have a prologue, which is additional story setup.

However, I felt that the intro and prologue were necessary to establish context and that information didn't really fit anywhere else in the story.

Nevertheless, despite all this, Prodigy is by far my most successful book and I think it's because it has a number of things going for it that **overcome consumption obstruction**.

  * Short book length

  * Short chapter length

  * Intriguing premise

  * Interesting title

  * Captivating cover art

  * Initial hook

  * Gets into the story as quickly as possible

  * Not overly heavy handed on descriptions

  * The plot isn't overly complicated — it's easy to follow

  * Not too many characters

  * Recaps to calibrate the reader

I'll go some of the items on this list in a little bit more detail and explain what I mean and why it's important.

**Short book length** — I try to write short digestible books, usually around 60,000 words. I feel attention spans are getting shorter and I don't want someone to be put off with an 800 page epic. That's be an obstruction for a lot of people. If I have more story to tell after 60,000 words, I'll just write a sequel.

**Chapter length** — people don't always have loads of time to read. They may be waiting for a bus, or have 20 mins before bed. If you have super long, complicated chapters, that can turn a lot of readers off. I try to aim for 800 – 1500 words. I feel that is a reasonably digestible chapter length.

**Getting into the story as quickly as possible** — ask yourself this, "What if I removed chapters 1 and 2 (or 10) and my book started on chapter three, would I lose anything necessary for the story? I try to get as deep into the story as possible and anything relevant can always be brought up later. Any time there's a lengthy, convoluted set up where the reader has no idea who the main character is and what's at stake (we've all read books like this), that is a consumption obstruction and is going to turn a lot of people off (me included!).

Also, try to **avoid opening with an intro and a prologue** — get to the exciting stuff as soon as possible and hook your reader. Make them invested and care about your characters or plot.

**Initial hook** — your opening line or paragraph should pull them into a world. It's generally recommended not to start with dialogue or cliches such as — the alarm clock blared and so and so woke up...

**Descriptions** — this is obviously personal preference, but I tend to go a little lighter on descriptions simply because I feel the reader's brain is pretty good and filling in details that aren't on the page. I don't usually describe how the character looks with the exception of name, gender, and age. Other details such as height, weight, race, hairstyle, clothing, attractiveness, etc. I let the reader fill that in.

Once I received a comment about my book from this black guy and he was like, "I love your book, especially since the main character is black." In the book, I never mention race, but in his mind, that's what he envisioned.

**Interesting concepts** — have a plot that pulls people in and continues to deliver. Show the reader something they've never seen before. Keep them guessing, keep them anticipating what's going to happen. Books with boring, predictable, flat, uninteresting, uninspired premises are a consumption obstruction.

For the last two points, I'll briefly say this:

Reading fiction actually requires more work from the reader than non fiction.

Fiction isn't a passive thing that you can read casually. It requires balancing many different characters, anticipating where the author is going, following along on this journey and juggling various plot points that may not be fully revealed until later. Therefore, your job is to know your audience, what their comprehension level is, and to find that balance between not having it too simple and predictable where they get bored, and not being overly complicated. If you have a **too many characters** , they have weird names that are hard to pronounce, their relationships are complex, these are all barriers.

In some of my books, I'll go back and **recap** what has happened. Before I move on to the next part, I'll have one character explain the past ten chapters or so in a few short sentences. I'll have one person say, "Hey, wasn't it crazy when that happened, then this happened, we met that guy, and he gave us this crucial piece of information that's going to help us go there and do that." Having these recaps is a way to get everyone is on board with what's happening so that we can all move onto the next bit together. In other words, the reader is calibrated to the story. I may even do this several times through the book, just to really make it easy for the reader.

Notice in this very blog post you're reading, I made it easy to consume. I have short, inviting sentences, add bolded phrases to make certain text pop up and be highly scannable. I created numbered lists with bullet points to avoid large blocks of text. Headings further separate the wall of text, inviting the reader into smaller scannable and digestible chunks. Heck, I even included a video!

You can incorporate this same philosophy in your writing as well.

# Chapter Twenty-Two — How to use Level Ramping to Improve your Storytelling

In this post, I discuss the idea of level ramping in storytelling, which is likely a term you're not familiar with, because frankly, I made it up. There may be a better term for it, but this is what I've always called it.

Level ramping is a technique I use during the planning stage of writing a story.

Humans love stories, our brains seem to be hardwired for them, and we also love suspense. It's like a drug. Even if we know the hero is going to make it out of some precarious situation, the threat of them not making it, pulls us toward the edge of our seats and draws us into the story further.

To really master this art, and keep your stories engaging, they need to be suspenseful.

Usually stories start from a single idea, and then you expand on them. But, it's not always easy to do that. If you don't plan properly, you are bound to ask yourself the inevitable question – What happens next? This question may sideline you for days or weeks as you mull over all different possible scenarios.

Level ramping provides a guide so that you can figure out where your story is going, and also how it ends. And all it takes is a few minutes.

HOW IT WORKS

Suppose you start with a single idea: boy lost in the woods. You think that would make for an interesting premise, but you don't know the rest of the story, including how it will end.

What I do, is start with the initial idea, and then dial up the stakes by one level.

So if a boy is walking in the woods with a friend, what would be the next level of thing that would suck after that?

It would suck if they got lost. So that's what I would do in the first act — the boys get lost.

Okay, what else?

It would suck if they had to stay overnight in the dark, cold and scary woods.

Great, then what?

Wouldn't it suck if it started to rain in the middle of the night?

Wouldn't it suck if they got bit by inspects...

Go hungry...

Get separated...

Attacked by a bear...

One of the boy's loses an arm...

So just by dialing up the suck, I can figure out pretty quickly all the action beats. I can keep going.

Suppose one of the boys finds a group of campers, a seemingly positively event in a serious of unpleasant circumstances. But what if the campers turned out to be bad men, such as cannibals, and they already had the other friend. Maybe that's how the boys reunite with each other. Maybe then they steal some gear and escape, they get chased, fall into a river and almost die. In the end, rescue comes and they're saved.

So as you can see, I was just making that up as I went along, and I just told a complete story from start to finish simply by ramping up the suspense.

Recently I watched a movie called The 5th Wave, which does this well. I'm not sure if the book does this or not, because I haven't read it. But for the purpose of this lesson, we'll use the movie version.

Before I start, I'm going to spoil this movie so if you haven't seen it, maybe read this chapter after you see the movie.

So the premise of the movie is these aliens come to earth and attempt to wipe out the human race and inhabit earth. There are five waves of destruction which is a form of level ramping, but the movie focuses on the 5th Wave, which is to convince children that other humans are in fact aliens so that they kill each other.

The story follows a female protagonist – Cassie – played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Cassie lives with her father and younger brother (her mother passed away), and in the opening scenes lives a pretty normal life.

While out with her little brother, the first wave hits — a giant flood wipes out coastlines and drowns cities. Millions upon millions of people are wiped out in an instant.

Now, some writers may stop here because this premise alone could be used throughout the entire story — girl surviving alien invasion, chaos ensues.

However, the movie doesn't stop there, they ramp up the suspense.

What comes next is a gradually increase of peril that Cassie has to overcome. First, her dad dies and she has to take care of her brother by herself.

Next, her and her brother become separated. She is now on her own and must fend for herself. If the flood, the dad's death, being separating from the brother, being on her own weren't bad enough, she then gets shot in the leg, then kidnapped by a hunky guy, who turns out to be an alien, and so on...

Another example is The Walking Dead. Rick wakes up in a hospital only to realize a major world-wide zombie outbreak has occurred. Then his friends die, then his wife and unborn baby die, he gets captured, his hand gets chopped off, and so on.

All the writers are doing is taking an initial premise and gradually dialing up the suspense. You may come up with ideas as you go, but it can be helpful to plan it out before you start writing.

# Chapter Twenty-Three — 10 Tips for Writing Proper Dialogue

A lot can be said about dialogue, so this is by no means an exhaustive list. These are just ten tips that come to mind when I write dialogue.

Tip 1

Nothing frustrates me more as a reader than reading pointless dialogue, and I'll say pointless scenes as well. If there's a scene in your book where two people are talking and it doesn't

a.) develop the character in some meaningful way;

b.) reveal some information relevant to the plot

I strongly suggest revising it, or omitting it altogether.

Authors often use dialogue as filler because it takes up a lot of page space and it's relatively easier to write. Please avoid this temptation in your stories.

Tip 2

An important lesson about writing dialogue is that it is a bit different than how people actually speak. In normal speech, people stumble over their words, we say uh and um, we misspeak, we go off on tangents. However, in writing, this doesn't really work. Unless it's integral to the plot or the character such as a stutter when someone is lying, nervous, or guilty. I would strongly encourage you not to overdo these common speaking mannerisms in everyday speech.

Tip 3

In normal speech, we also greet people with hello, how are you doing, I'm fine thanks, and you? However, in writing, you can omit these. The reader will assume they greeted each other, or you can just write, "After exchanging pleasantries, Bill said, ..." and then just get to the relevant part of the conversation.

This is also true for outros as well. In writing, you can just end dialogue abruptly and the reader will assume they gave each other a proper goodbye.

Tip 4

I've said this in another one of my writing tips, but I'll include it here as again. Use Ctrl H to find any dialogue that starts with 'Well', and replace at least 90% of them. I see this a lot, even in my own writing. For whatever reason, it's tempting to start a piece of dialogue with the word 'Well'. I'm not even aware of how many times I do this until I use the find and replace function.

Tip 5

You want your dialogue to sound natural, right? When you write an email or an essay, you generally write every out long form such as: "Yes, there will be plenty of people at the party so feel free to join us. You are more than welcome to bring a guest. It is my last day in town."

However, if we were speaking, we'd likely say something like, "Yeah, of course I want you to come to my party. It's my last day in town so you should definitely come. And feel free to bring someone. What's up with that girl you were seeing? Bring her."

Notice in the second example, I use slang 'Yeah' instead of 'Yes', I conjugate phrases like 'it is' to 'it's' and I make it more personal. So instead of 'bring a guest' it's 'What's up with that girl you were seeing? Bring her."

Tip 6

Read dialogue aloud. You can either read it yourself, or have someone read it to you. I use a program called Final Draft to read me my dialogue. I'm sure other programs do it as well.

Tip 7

Embody the character. Write character profiles so you know exactly how each of your characters speak, what motivates them, what they would say and how they would respond, and so on. I like to become the character almost like an actor might try to get inside the head of a character they're playing. I do the same thing and it makes writing dialogue feel a lot more natural.

Tip 8

The next trick I use, which I've mentioned in other posts, is to use placeholder conversation. If I don't know exactly what each person will say, but I know what message I'm trying to convey, I will use placeholder text. I will write something like, "TK make plans with friend. TK friend is reluctant..." I use TK because I can then use 'Ctrl H' to come back later and write the dialogue.

Tip 9

I should say that this next piece of advice, like most of my advice on this channel, is coming from a place of someone who has been writing fiction for over ten years and reading fiction for even longer. So I'm by no means an expert, perhaps you you're your own opinions. It is my opinion, that opening a chapter, especially the first chapter, is usually not a good method. I've read in other writing tip books not to do this so I don't feel as though I'm the only one who doesn't like this. When you open a story with dialogue, it can be very difficult for the read to ground themselves.

In another video I talk about going from big to small, which is showing a series of descending establishing shots to set context such as city > building > scene. In other words, set the table before you serve the food. So when you open with dialogue, the reader is scrambling to find footing. They need to know:

What year is it?

What country are they in?

What does the world look like?

Who's talking?

What's the relevance of this dialogue?

Why should I care?

Chapters other than chapter one can open with dialogue, but I would do so sparingly. Again, that's just my opinion.

Tip 10

Lastly, I will say this about dialogue — when you close a chapter with dialogue, you often don't need the response from the other person. It can be much more powerful if you leave the statement hanging. For instance, if you have a scene where one person says to the other, "I am your father", that is a 'dun-dun-dun' moment that will be spoiled if you have the other person say, 'Oh my gosh.' Another example would be, "We'll meet back here tomorrow to rob the old lady." Just close the chapter there, you don't need the other person saying, "Okay" or "See you later."

# Chapter Twenty-Four — Writing Hack: Embodying the Character

In this chapter, I want to talk about a technique I use to flesh out characters and make their dialogue a little easier to write. I call in embodying the character.

Basically, what I do is I write extensive backstories about each of my main characters such as:

  * Where do they live

  * Where are they from

  * How did they grow up

  * What are their motivations and desires

  * Were there any formative events that happened in their lives that shaped them; and so on

I may never show anybody these notes, and it may never be brought up in the story — these are for me to understand who these characters are — much like an actor might do a similar exercise to figure out who their character is.

Once I have a reasonably good grasp on my characters, I can begin to create a mental image and embodiment of the character. I then jump back and forth and figure out what they will say, how they will say it, how they behave and act in certain situations, and so on.

# Chapter Twenty-Five — Why I write?

This is a question I've been asking myself for years. I slave over these stories, coming up with interesting characters and plots, spending countless hours in room, alone, typing feverishly away at a keyboard, giving up so many of life's pleasures such as freedom, relationships, sunshine... I invariably get to a point where I ask myself, why do I do this? What's the point?

So in this post, I'm going to go through the reasons why I write and more broadly, why is art important.

WHAT IS ART?

I come from a philosophy background so I will attack this problem using the tools I've been taught.

As with any philosophical inquiry, we must first define our terms. We need to know what it is precisely that we're speaking of. In this case — art.

Art is a very broad term. I actually took an entire course at UBC called the philosophy of art, and after a full semester, countless discussions, essays and readings, I'm no closer to defining what is art and what is not art.

As it turns out, anything can be art.

Art has intentionality behind it, art is what people label art, art depends on where it is displayed.

In 1917, artist Marcel Duchamp famously submitted a piece to the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, called Fountain, which was nothing more than a urinal with the words R. Mutt printed on the side of it. This submission challenged the art world's preconceptions of what constitutes as art.

My definition of art is the creative expression intended to evoke an emotional response, aesthetic experience, entertain, or spread ideas. Or another simpler definition that works is, you'll know it when you see it.

There's also good art and bad art. To me, good art is that which requires talent skill, technique, mastery, and creativity. Bad art exhibits less skill, talent, technique, mastery, and creativity.

Art can take many forms from film, music, podcasting, cuisine, theatre, painting, dancing, comedy, sculpting, architecture, typography, graphic design... all of which aim to entertain and make people happy and spread ideas about how a society should think and feel about a subject.

Stories are art, and often aim to make you feel some kind of way, pass on lessons or distribute thought-provoking ideas or information.

WHY IS ART IMPORTANT?

In philosophy, when we want to test ideas, we create what's called thought experiments, or hypothetical scenarios if you will to challenge ideas and see if they withstand scrutiny.

I'll be arguing that art is in fact important and meaningful for society, and to test my hypothesis, I will assume I am speaking with someone who fundamentally disagrees with me. My goal is therefore to convince this person that my view is correct, and the view in which they hold, the opposite of mine, is in fact incorrect.

First, I will request you set aside any ideas you have about the world and imagine if you will a world completely devoid of art. There's no literature, no paintings, no music, no movies, no dance, no fashion, no sculptures, no cuisines, etc.

Imagine further that in this world, there is no creativity of any kind that does not produce some meaningful utility to society. It is outlawed, non-existent, nor do people practice art in secret.

Of course there must be buildings, but the architecture is completely utilitarian and only serves a practical purpose for which it is built. Colour is only permitted if used to convey a deeper meaning like a stop sign or to indicate a hazard.

Now, ask yourself, is this a world you'd want to live? Would you suppose this is a society where people are happy and free to express themselves and communicate with each other how they wish; a place with progressive ideas, forward progress, and innovation?

I would suspect for most of you, the answer is no.

If that's true, then we can conclude that art, on some level, is indeed important. There's value in sharing ideas, creative expression, entertaining through different mediums, and displaying objects for no other practical reason other than the purpose of beauty, creating an aesthetic experience, or to elicit an emotional response.

Okay, so we're all likely to agree that a world with no art is not ideal, but on the other end of the spectrum, can there be a world with too much art?

Perhaps a world overflowing with art may similarly not be ideal? I'm not sure, but I'm open to that possibility. I would have to assume so since too much of anything is usually bad.

If you're interested in this subject, there's a ton of information online by some really smart people who have some interesting ideas about what is art and why it's important. I encourage you to check them out.

PEOPLE LOVE STORIES

Stories are a powerful tool with a longstanding history in human civilization. They entertain us, pass on lessons and ideas, shape our values, and help ground our understanding of the world.

Facts and figures are hard to remember, but if they are incorporated into a story, where we can form an emotional connection, they seem to be easier for us to remember. It's almost as if our brains have evolved to remember stories, find patterns, learn lessons, and so on.

According to researchers, stories stimulate both the logical and creative parts of the brain, which means viewers comprehend the information factually, visually and emotionally.

WHY I WRITE

The joy of writing for me is in the storytelling. As mentioned previously, storytelling is a powerful medium and is the perhaps the ultimate form of creative expression since it is so deeply rooted in language. The writer alone gets to decide who's in their story, what they say, how they interact with their environment, the world in which it's set, how everything plays out... all of it, you're in charge. There's something powerful about that. It has been said that writers get to play god — we create worlds and decide what happens.

Ideas are also powerful and stories are a mechanism for sharing ideas. Ideas are an interesting thing — they spread like viruses, infecting minds, changing perceptions and altering behaviour. They are literally responsible for every human invention from cell phones to sneakers to the internet — everything was once just an idea. Stories are filled with ideas and provide a platform to show the reader how these ideas can take form and shape the world.

Most children have wild imaginations and then over time, that creativity often gets squeezed out of them and replaced by more practical knowledge. Adults rarely pretend and play, instead they are content with watching movies or television, listening to music, or reading for entertainment. I like those things too, but I find much more joy in dictating the action — crafting a story in a way that suits me and sharing my ideas.

The other joy for me is that writing is very challenging. It takes many, many years of practice to be able to craft coherent stories, find the right words to describe what's in your head, create interesting characters to act out your scenes, etc. But you also need to be disciplined, and work hard. Discipline and creativity are different skill sets, which are not mutually inclusive — meaning you could have one without the other. For instance, you could be the best writer in the world — the best crafter of sentences and have the richest vocabulary, but unless you have good ideas and are discipline, then you have nothing.

A question I sometimes ask myself (and others) to determine my true passion is: suppose I had $100,000,000, what would I do with your life? For me, I would still learn, I will still be creative, and I would continue to explore. Money wouldn't change that.

To me art is more than just a skill set, it's a passion, a way of life; it's who I am and how I define myself. I don't do it for money or fame, I do it because it's in my DNA to tell stories. It's also difficult to master so I'm constantly improving.

I'm fascinated by the idea that I haven't written my best work yet and one day I will write the perfect story. Of course, art is subjective so that is unlikely to happen, but for me at least, I would hope to write something that even I couldn't possible top, and if and when that day comes, I'll walk away.

STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS STILL HOT

Another thing I sometimes think about, which admittedly is a bit pretentious, is that the story I have in my head will never get told unless I tell it. I know it's a lofty notion that perhaps isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. I mean, does the world really need or some of my other books? Probably not.

But still, I feel almost duty bound as a creator to bring these things into existence, and if I don't write it at the moment I feel the muse, then it'll never get written because with time, you'll age, have different sensibilities, different interests, passions and ideas. You'll want to write other books.

I had this idea to write a superhero book that I was so enthused about. I'd obsess about it and for months the ideas were pouring out of me. But sadly I never got around to writing it. Now that passion has died and I may never write it. I'm on to other projects. If I wrote The Art of the Hustle today, it'd be a different book. So I want to capture the inspiration before I become uninspired.

# About the Author

Edward Mullen is a novelist and podcaster from Vancouver, Canada. Born and raised in beautiful British Columbia, Edward developed a love for the wilderness. This love, combined with an innate curiosity about all things, eventually spawned a healthy imagination for storytelling. He continued to follow his natural passion through to university. Edward has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia and an Associate Certificate in Technical Writing from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Despite spending a lot of his time indoors writing, Edward continues to enjoy the outdoors. He is an avid tennis player, mountain biker, snowboarder, runner, and traveler.

For more information about Edward Mullen, such as his podcast, blog, videos, or upcoming books, please visit:

http://www.EdwardMullen.com

# Oak Ridge — Chapter One

Conor's breath froze in the crisp autumn air as he exhaled. Extending his arm out in front of him with one eye closed, he was attempting to determine how much daylight was left. By aligning his thumb on the horizon line, he counted how many hand lengths it took to reach the sun.

"I'd say we got another two hours before she goes down," he said to the small group.

Bundled up, the three set off into the woods. School had finished for the day and Conor and his friend Mitchel had decided to take the new kid in class, Charlie, on an adventure. Having been born and raised in Oak Ridge, he had spent his entire life exploring every inch of the small town and was quite comfortable in the surrounding wilderness.

His father, Sheriff Jameson, tried his best not to expose his only son to the sort of information that comes up in police reports — the type of information that could corrupt a young and impressionable mind — but Conor was a lot more clever than his father gave him credit for and would always find ways to get the latest town gossip. Whether he was snooping through records while at the police station, or eavesdropping, Conor was usually the first person in school to hear about the latest mishaps and secrets of the townspeople. Having this knowledge made him popular, even for a twelve year old.

Two months away from his thirteenth birthday, Conor showed no signs of maturing. He always seemed to find a way to push the boundaries of his mischievous behaviour. Being one of the biggest kids in his grade, as well as the Sheriff's son, made Conor a natural leader. Now leading a small expedition, Conor was looking forward to hazing another kid. A newcomer was even better since they were much more desperate to fit in and make a good impression. They were usually willing to do things other boys were not just to find acceptance.

Trying his best to keep up with the boys, Charlie was a few paces behind, growing evermore nervous with each step. His eyes were mainly glued to the uneven forest floor as pine cones and sticks crunched beneath his boots, but every few feet he would look up and take in his surroundings. He and his family had recently moved into the small town from Chicago and he had never really seen wilderness like in Oak Ridge before. Seeing the sun scatter through the large trees that extended skyward and the snow-capped mountains was truly awe-inspiring.

It seemed like they had been walking for hours, but in actuality, it had only been about 20 minutes.

"How much further?" Charlie called out through his panting breaths.

"Listen, Newbie," Conor barked back. "This is your initiation. If you want to be a part of our club, then you'll do as we say."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I'm not going to tell you," Conor said. "What would be the fun in that?"

"Hey, go easy on the poor kid, Conor," Mitch whispered.

"Relax, we're just going to mess with him a bit. When it's over, everyone will have a good laugh."

The three of them had now stopped in front of a narrow river. As it was the middle of October, the river had yet to freeze over, but it was still bitter cold and deep enough to make it dangerous to cross.

"On the other side of the river is our clubhouse," Conor pointed. "And how we get there is by climbing up this tree and making our way across that bridge."

Charlie craned his neck to look up at where the rickety bridge was tied to the tree. His eyes followed the rope all the way across the swift current to the ratty tree house on the other side.

"Is it safe?" Charlie muttered, asking the obvious question. He was trying not to show his fear, but on the inside he was absolutely terrified. His spindly legs trembled, but he tried to ignore it, telling himself it was just the cold weather and not his nerves.

"Maybe, maybe not," Conor replied. "But that's why it's an initiation. If it were perfectly safe, then it wouldn't be much of an initiation now would it?"

"You guys are coming after me, right?"

"No of course not, we'll need to be here to make sure you don't die."

"What?"

"He's joking, Charlie," Mitchel said, attempting to make Charlie feel at ease.

"And hurry up, Newbie, we ain't got all day. We have better things to do than to stand here like a couple of schmucks, freezing our cojones off."

With tremendous trepidation, Charlie summoned the courage to accept the challenge. A rope ladder was affixed to a branch about five feet up the base of the enormous tree. Charlie unlatched the ladder and let it fall to the ground. Gripping it tightly, he found his footing on the second rung and pulled himself up. He looked back at the two boys who were both watching his every move. If they said anything to him, Charlie didn't hear it. He was too focused on the task at hand.

Taking one step at a time, he made his way up the wobbly ladder and then transitioned to the thick branch that was used to secure the bridge. He was over 30 feet off the ground when he made the unfortunate mistake of looking down. Paralyzing fear consumed him and for a brief moment, he thought he wasn't going to be able to go through with it. He quickly closed his eyes and hoped the two boys below couldn't see.

_Maybe I can just find some other friends_ , he told himself. _No, if you don't do this, you will be forever known as the boy who wimped out._ His internal dialogue continued. _This has to be safe. Conor is just trying to mess with me. Just don't look down and you'll be fine._

After a couple deep breaths, he re-opened his eyes. The whistling wind blew through the trees, stinging his eyes and knocking loose more foliage to the ground. Stabling his balance, Charlie inched forward. He was now completely off the tree and onto the rope bridge. Staring across at the wooden planks that made up the bridge, Charlie began to walk across. It was too much to ask of him to stand up straight, so he crept forward in a crouched position, being mindful of the gaps between the planks.

"All the way across and all the way back!" Conor shouted.

Charlie heard the instructions, but didn't look down to acknowledge him. He felt at any moment, he might cry if he allowed himself to, so he consciously blocked out those thoughts. His snotty nose dripped on the already slick wood planks, but he did not want to remove his hand from the bridge to deal with it. He continued with what he had been doing up until that point — sliding his hands across the rope, then moving the rest of his body.

The rope bridge became scarier with each step and before long his shaking legs were battling fatigue, causing the swaying bridge to feel even more unstable. The further he got out, the louder the sounds became. The wind and the raging waters howled, making him unable to concentrate on his own thoughts, which he had been relying on to coax himself across.

Charlie took another step and was now in the middle of the sagging rope bridge. Both of his feet were planted side by side, which concentrated his entire body weight in the centre of the plank – the weakest point. Then he heard a creak. Charlie had thought he knew what fear was until he heard that distinct sound. The moment he heard it, he knew the plank was going to give way. A whole new kind of fear pulsed through his body.

Without further warning, the plank broke in half, causing a loud crack to echo throughout the forest. The two boys below watched on in horror. They both knew a rescue mission was beyond the realm of possibility. All they could do was watch helplessly from the shore.

With the gaps on either side of the plank, plus the space where the plank used to be, it was large enough for Charlie's slender body to fit through. His legs were the first to go, shooting through like a kicking mule. Following that, the sudden and unexpected fall jerked his weak grip loose. Charlie was in a free fall. In a last-ditch effort, he managed to grab onto the bottom rope of the bridge. His body now dangled precariously above the unforgiving current below. Instinctively, he began to look for a new footing. His feet thrashed about in all directions as if he were riding an invisible bicycle, but all that spastic movement only served to weaken his grip.

With a panic-stricken face, he screamed in terror as if no one was around to hear him. "HELP!" he cried, knowing he was about to fall any second. His arms extended above his head, desperately trying to preserve the last moments of his life. Then the nylon from his cheap mittens began to slip, making the feat even more difficult. Even without the mittens, at twelve, he hadn't developed the adequate strength to sustain his entire body weight as well as all his layers of clothing. Urine uncontrollably flooded out of his bladder, soaking his pants, but that was the least of his concerns as he clung for his life.

Then, the inevitable conclusion happened.

Charlie's fingers opened up and he fell 20 feet into the raging river. Time seemed to slow down. The fall wasn't enough to kill him, but as soon as he plunged into the water, his clothing became soaked and heavy, restricting his movement. He wasn't a strong swimmer to begin with, and the frigid temperature combined with his fatigue and water-logged clothing made staying afloat impossible.

The river swallowed the small child like a hungry beast. His arms flailed as bobbed up for air, but he was dragged back under by the current. His attempts to scream for help were impeded by the rushing water that replaced the air in his lungs. Then almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The rustling wind through the trees met with the flowing water to create a natural symphony. The two boys on the shore remained silent, in shock, independently trying to process what they had witnessed — what they had been a part of. When one of them finally spoke, it was Conor, advising Mitchel to never speak of this day.
