Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

by Lisa Cron

Here’s the (very reassuring) skinny: at the beginning, just about every story starts with a cliché. A cliché is simply something that’s so familiar that it feels old hat. It’s the story’s job to make it, um, new hat.