The truth (that I often don’t like) is that the majority of my ideas for a story, essay, tweet, and really anything else are bad.

Ed Sheeran says, “Your mind is like a dirty tap.” What he means is the first flow of your ideas comes out dirty. Then, after a while, the ideas become cleaner. Finally, after longer, they become like the water gurgling... See more

Your writing asks questions. Those questions form “Loops” in the mind of your reader. Implicitly, you’re promising to answer those questions later in the story.

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Here are some other structures to keep in mind — helpful for both fiction and non-fiction writing:

• Promise, Progress, Payoff


• The Eight Shapes of Stories


• The Underlying Power of the Hero’s Journey