deeply impacts us, before they give themselves permission to talk about their emotions and feelings. And when you do that as an author, you give the reader the permis- sion to feel that emotion and engage with that emotion. Which is what you’re trying to accomplish with your book. You are not there as an author to just give the facts. Facts are great. Facts are important, facts are the bedrock of your book—but people don’t learn through facts and people don’t engage through facts. People learn through story and example. They make decisions about how to change their life with emotion. And that’s what you need to do to have a great book. It’s got to have both of those things in it. If you’re unsure about this, answer these questions: 1. What’s your favorite book? 2. What is your favorite part about your favorite book? What was the thing that impacted you the most? Right now you’re probably thinking about a part that was profound in the book that elicited a deep emotion in you. It wasn’t a fact. It was a story or an anecdote or a scene that brought something up in you. Do the same thing with your book. Tell stories and anecdotes that elicit emotion, because that will draw the reader in and make the facts stick to their brain. The more you show the ugly stuff, the more you say the things that everyone thinks and no one says, the more you show your true self and true thoughts—the better your book will be. 420 · ThE SCriBE METhOD