The exchange between you and the reader is they’re giving you their attention and you’re giving them a knowledge and wisdom they find valuable. So your story needs to embody that and display that, and if it does, it’s in. HOW VULNERABLE SHOULD YOU BE? HOW MUCH EMOTION TO SHOW? The other thing authors ask is how vulnerable they should be in their stories. The answer is, again: Be as vulnerable as you need to be to write the most impactful story for the reader. For example, if you write a book about managing money, it would be great to tell a story about how you filed for bankruptcy. That’s a hard thing to admit, and is a vulnerable thing to say in a book. Telling that story in a book about managing money will greatly benefit the reader. It will make them trust you, and you will seem credible because you let them know that you’ve been there and can help them get over their shame and their issues of money. But if the book is about knitting, I’m not sure how much sense it makes to talk about bankruptcy. That doesn’t get the reader any- thing. In that case, it feels like an emotional release for the author, but irrelevant to the reader. Your book should never be a place for you to dump your emotions on the reader. If writing the book is therapy for you, that’s okay. But you should not ask the reader to be your therapist. Think about it like any sort of sharing with a friend. If your friend has a bad day and tells you about it, you listen and empathize. Then if you had a bad day, you share that as well. You’re sharing, you’re empathizing with each other, that’s okay, right? 418 · ThE SCriBE METhOD