Everything. Remember, the core part of the writing triangle is knowledge. In day-to-day terms, this means knowing what you’re going to write before you write it, but in the bigger picture of your life as a writer, it means understanding your story choices on a deeper level. If you want your writing process to be fast and reliable, it’s not enough

the first question you should be asking yourself isn’t “Is this a good book?” but "Is this really the story I want to spend my time on?"

I started keeping records. Every day I sat down to write, I would note the time I started, the time I stopped, how many words I wrote, and where I was writing on a spreadsheet

Act III is what the complications of Act II lead up to.

That’s what Step 0 is about. You don't need to have a plot or characters or even an ending at this point, but you do need a certainty that the idea floating in your head is something that will not only hold your interest not only through the time it takes to write, edit, and polish a manuscript, but will, once finished, do whatever it is you want

problems in books tend to be non-linear.

You can absolutely make yourself sick of your world before you've even started writing, if you're not careful.

This, for me, is what editing is about. You are no longer just getting words down, no longer asking “What happens next?” You're asking “How can I prepare the reader for what happens next?” and “How can I make them love it?”

Write out a scene list. This one is a little odd. Here, I take that plot I wrote out at the end of step 3 and break the action down into scenes. Next, I group these scenes into chapters to make a nice little list. For example, the first chapter of The Spirit Thief would look like this: Chapter 1 Eli charms his way out of prison The king of Mellinor