1. We think in story, which allows us to envision the future, so from the very first sentnece, the reader must want to know what happens next. 2. When the brain focuses its full attention on something, it filterse out all unnecessary information, so to hold someone's attention, make sure all information provided in the story is necessary. 3. Emotion determines the meaning of everything. If people don't feel something, they stop reading. 4. Everything we do is goal directed, and or biggest goal is figuring out everyone else's agenda, the better to achieve our own. A protagonist without a clear goal has nothing to figure out and nowhere to go. 5. We see the world not as it is, but as we believe it to be. Writers must know precisely when and why the protagonist's goal was knocked out of alignment. 6. We don't think in the abstract, we think in specific images. Anything conceptual, abstract, or general must be made tangible int he protagonist's specific struggle. 7. The brain si wired o stubborly resist change, even good change. Storyh is about change, which results only from _unavoidable_ conflict. 8. A story must follow a cause-and-effect trajectory from start to finish. 9. A story's job is to put the protagonist through tests that she doesn't think she can pass, because brains use stories to simulate how we might navigate difficult situations in the future. 10. Everything should either be setup, payoff, or connective tissue. 11. Foreshadowing, flashbacks, and subplots must give readers insight into what's going on even if it's not immediately obvious because the significance changes or is updated later.