27 Essential Principles of Story

The most detailed writing book I've ever seen. Rubin really did his homework. I love that he refers to more than just popular movies and tv shows—like so many other recent writing books—but also novels and plays, new and classic. He even uses a popular game as an example.

And his advice to “max-out the middle” is a gem: fight sagging-middle syndrome by going emotionally crazy in the middle, challenging your protagonist to the breaking point. (He uses gut-wrenching James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk to illustrate this.) It's something I'd never heard of. Worth the price of admission.

Making your characters “work at the top of their intelligence” was a new one, too. Put your characters in situations where they have to figure things out—readers want to see characters who are fighting to survive, inspired, pushed, changed.

Rubin knows his stuff. So passionate about stories! (It didn't hurt that I listened to the audiobook, with Rubin's intense East Coast delivery.) Worth a second read!