Sublime

Some editors are put off by brilliant but idiosyncratic manuscripts and some, such as Perkins, are enticed by them.

· ASSIGNMENT: Create a section in your notebook, and write out and begin looking for your favorite examples of character introductions.

As the novelist James Scott Bell says, “Readers want to fret.”1 It’s true in story and it’s true in branding.

Every choice a character makes and everything she does should

Act first, explain later.

I am approaching the heart of this book with two theses, both simple. The first is that good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments. The second is that while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer

Always trust something that pops into your head as belonging on your list. The list tells you who you are as a writer. What you are really listing are your secret thematic preferences.

So lesson to be learned here? Make your reader want the love interest as much as your hero/ine does.

one makes you want to open it, right now, to find out what’s inside.