Fiction can do things that no other art form can. It engages the imagination on a deeper level, stirs minds and hearts, and brings about change in a way that few other art forms can manage.

Getting real is what happens when a scene’s subtext bursts through.

Yes, scientists really study this stuff. Seeking out a story to experience demonstrates what scientists call intentional motivation. The processing of a story then involves sensory memory, working memory, an episode buffer, and finally retention in long-term memory. While we speak of hunts and campfires, scientists posit Attribution Theory,

It’s a need to relieve inner anxiety, prove something, love and be loved, rage at what’s unfair, fit in, stand out, or find what will make us happy.

Something inside that has little to do with our challenges and goals.

Characters are the most interesting when they’re inconvenient.

Human beings can be divided into two broad psychological categories: those who store tension and those who store energy. Those things may sound the same but they’re not. People who store tension turn inward. Those who store energy turn outward. The first group ponders, reflects, thinks, and feels. The latter group acts.

To fasten the inner and outer journey, you only need to start with one element: either a plot event or a step in the inner journey. In the first case, go inside your protagonist to pinpoint what an outer event means. In the second case, stop at any inner moment and make something outward happen, something that symbolizes what’s going on inside.

Who am I right now? What has become of me? How did I get here? How do I see things differently? What did I want and have I found it yet?