these seven writing techniques are so good I shouldn't even be telling you them but they've helped me and they've helped a lot of people that I've edited for so we're going to start with the double up technique a huge mistake that a lot of writers make is that they only give each scene one purpose progress the plot comedic relief information romance but you really should aim for having every scene do at least two things at one time for example inspector James Bond needs to get some information but does he have a normal sit down conversation with an Informer no he gets it while Romancing an extremely attractive woman a little bit later he needs to have a conversation with money Penny but does it happen over a shaking not stirred Martini no it happens during a car chase scene we get both action and information that develops a plot at the same time got another name will you a beginning writer would make each one of those scenes two scenes one with the conversations and then one with the romance and one with the car chase instead you need to combine both scenes into a single scene that's doing double the work two tell the reader about the farmers you want to create suspense in your work don't you you do a great way to create suspense is To Tell the readers information that makes them nervous for example in The Fantastic Mr Fox R doll takes an entire page to tell the reader about how Mr Fox crawls out of his hole one night this would be very very boring except the reader knows one thing three Farmers named bogus buns and bean are waiting to Ambush him rifles at the ready it's super boring if we don't know about the farmers it's just a really really slow scene but since we're anticipating the gunfight at any moment it turns it into a really suspenseful scene scene make sure readers can anticipate the conflict that's about to happen in your book tell them about the farmers three no half measures this is a really great writing lesson from breaking pad when you need to have a character tell another character something you could just have them say it but sometimes that's not the best way to do it in Breaking Bad there's a scene where Mike needs to tell Walter no half measures but instead of saying that he tells this whole story when he was A Beat cop he kept on getting calls to a guy beating his wife the 10th time it happened Mike took him out of town stuck a gun in his mouth and said listen you do this again and you're going to get it he thought that warning would have been enough but in hindsight he wishes he would have gone the whole way and killed him a week later that husband killed his wife but two weeks later he killed her and then Mike says the point of the whole story I chose a half measure while I should have gone the whole way I chose a half measure when I should have gone all the way the point is so much more powerful if there's a story behind it number four delayed emotions this is a great technique to help your character feel real whenever you have some sort of gigantic tragedy in your character's life like they get rejected from all the universities or they experience the death of a loved one your first instinct is to show them reacting really strongly they cry on their knees or they go out drinking or they engage in unsafe sex but here's my recommendation delay that reaction later on have that character break down because of something super small that triggers them someone cuts in line at the grocery store or they can't open an envelope check out this example from Manchester by the Sea when Patrick's told about his father's death he doesn't react in any way he doesn't cry he doesn't outwardly appear to be phased and as the story progresses he just continues to bottle up his emotions then finally when struggling to put frozen chicken back into the freezer he breaks down and has a panic attack as the audience we realize he's not having a panic attack over chicken this is really about his father delayed emotions are really true to life you've probably done it I've done it and it will make your character seem like an authentic human being five funky emotions to make your character seem real give them funky reactions to events let me tell you a story to illustrate this I was in New York City on 9/11 I was on the 21st story of an apartment building in the West Village and I had a better view of downtown than the news helicopters after the towers had fallen I went down and headed toward the collapse against all the hordes streaming up town they were all covered in white like mes I was hoping I could help but when I got there the dust was so thick I couldn't even breathe and so I ended up fleeing like everyone else but there's another part of that story that I never tell anyone right after the towers fell I went to New York University where I was studying at the time and I went to the wait room and I did a ton of sets of bench press why why would I do that after one of the greatest tragedies on American soil why did I do that I don't know maybe I wanted to feel strong in the face of a tragedy that made me feel weak maybe weight rooms had always been a place of comfort for me maybe it was just a place to hide from the craziness that was happening outside but look I hope that makes my point that you want your character to have very strange reaction to events for example someone who is nonchalant when Pearl Harbor happens someone who is upbeat when a tsunami happens someone who is stoic when a huge earthquake happens this type of unorthodox reaction will separate your character from all the other characters out there who would react in very predictable and expected ways tragic events help you expose your character for who they truly are six the gold coin writing technique there was this author called da fry and he kept on being frustrated because his readers would abandon his books right in the middle so came up with the gold coin writing technique his strategy was to periodically Place gold coins throughout his book to keep the reader hooked think about it as long as you're rewarding the reader periodically they're going to keep reading your book so what is a gold coin in a story well there are plot coins a surprise or a Twist an introduction of a powerful object or maybe a cliffhanger and there are also character coins a cameo by a character from earlier in the book or series an introduction of a new character who's funny or weird the discovery of new information about one of your characters as arriv your goal is to deliver these dopamine hits of pleasure periodically throughout the novel and never let a big gap happen between those hits if you deliver enough and space out those gold coins your readers will keep reading till the end seven lean away figure out the ending to the scene that you're writing or the chapter you're writing or the whole book that you're writing and then lean away from it by lean away I mean convince the reader that that isn't going to be the outcome if you're writing a basketball movie and they are in the final game your goal is to convince them they have no chance of winning this final game their star player gets hurt or their ranked way lower or their coach has a baby and can't be there if your character is entering a singing competition make us feel like they won't win it there's really tough competition they have a cold and their throat hurts or there's a psychological hurdle like the father loses his job the more insurmountable those odds the more satisfying it is for the reader when the character finally vaults them if you don't lean away from the ending the reader is going to be like oh I mean I kind of expected that next make sure to check out my video on 9 authors break the storytelling rules and subscribe