The Good Bones Page

A free worksheet for finding what your book needs to have standing.

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A draft's allowed to be messy. Rough sentences, a middle that wanders, names that change halfway through. All of that can be fixed later.

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A few things can’t be wrong, though. If they are, you get to the end with a pile of words and no book in it. The Good Bones Page is nine short prompts that get those things down on one page:

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• what happens in your book, and what it’s really about
• what your character wants underneath the thing they say they want
• what’s in the way
• the crisis they can’t come back from
• where it all ends

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It takes about 20 minutes. Use it before you draft, when you’re stuck in the middle or before you revise. Keep it next to the manuscript and come back to it when the story changes on you. (It will.)

Tell me where to send it.