on Career Authors:

Think about the words you see in a rave book review. Pacey, right? Propulsive. Riveting. Compelling. Page-turner.

And those are all shorthand for “fun to read,” and also for “something happens.”

Problem is, it’s textbook-easy to begin a novel and have something happen: that’s why there’s a story, right? Something happens.

But then to keep your story going, to keep it pacey and compelling , things must keep happening. (And that’s called telling a story. Or even better, revealing a story.)

And when faced with all those empty pages, it can be daunting to keep the engine of your book running. To keep the plane flying.

How do you keep your story propulsive? Here’s a trick: Think of it as a series of five steps. A repeating and varying arc of five specific segments. Here’s what I mean: