Million Dollar Outlines

Million Dollar Writing Series

by David Farland

David Farland has taught dozens of other writers who have gone on to staggering literary success, including such #1 New York Times Bestsellers as Brandon Mull (middle-grade), Brandon Sanderson (fantasy), James Dashner (young adult) and Stephenie Meyer (young adult).

Along the way, Dave helps writers learn how to outline books and screenplays so that they will have a huge audience appeal. This is a key to raising your work from just being a commercial book or movie to becoming a bestseller.

Dave has trained authors in conjunction with his role as coordinating judge of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Program, as a creative writing instructor at Brigham Young University, and he has honed his skills in dozens of writing seminars and classes.

In this eBook, Dave teaches new writers the basics of how to analyze an audience, and outline, draft, and polish a novel.

The secrets found in his unconventional approach will help you understand why so many of his authors go on to prominence.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Ebooks, Business, Self Help, How To

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

David Farland is the author of the bestselling Runelords series, including Chaosbound, The Wyrmling Horde and Worldbinder. He also writes science-fiction as David Wolverton. He won the 1987 Writers of the Future contest, and has been nominated for a Nebula Award and a Hugo Award. Farland also works as a video game designer, and has taught writing seminars around the U.S. and Canada. He lives in Saint George, Utah. He passed away on January 14, 2022.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidf...

Reviews

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, what a mixed bag.

There are parts of Million Dollar Outlines that are so good that I want to recommend it to every writer I know, but also parts that are so bad I'd be embarrassed to make that recommendation.

First, I guess, I should start with content warnings. Because, yes, this *book about writing* requires content warnings. ???!!!!

CW: extreme violence. For some reason, out of every book ever written, David Farland uses incredibly explicit crime fiction as his example. WHY.

CW: sexual abuse. Casual discussion between two directors about a scenario that's either stat rape or child molestation. Gross either way!!!!!

Phew. Onwards.

I fundamentally agree with Farland's core philosophy in Million: that a writer should give full, frank and analytical thought to what readers are looking for from a novel. This is a basic principle, yet I see pushback against it every day from writers who seem to think that writing anything except what's in their heart is absolute affront. Listen: it's not compromising yourself as an artiste to write something that people actually want to read!

All that said, the statistics Farland uses to tell us what different demographics of readers are looking for are broad at best, farcical at worst. Apparently teenage girls are not interested in reading pornography. Tell that to the Explicit tag on AO3. :x

I also found Farland's description of how he outlines to be confusing verging on nonsensical, so for an actual step-by-step guide to creating an outline, you may want to look elsewhere (or sort of botch through it on your own, as I'm doing).

However, there's loads and loads of nuggets of good advice in Million on creating stories that sell and maximising emotional impact (I would consider those things two sides of the same coin). The idea of 'stacking conflicts' and 'doubling' (letting your protag first anticipate how a scene will go and then letting the scene play out differently), among others, are brilliant suggestions, succinctly explained.

So. Yeah. A mixed bag. But one worth pawing through to see what you get.

[J.F. Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote pages of notes from this book as I continue to try and improve my own writing. It goes through the top selling books and films and breaks down aspects that are common to them - e.g. the emotional draw, the mystery to be solved. Plus there's a great list of literary plot devices - timebombs, the crucible of setting, reversals, conflict, spectacle and more. I particularly enjoyed the discussion between Spielberg & Lucas on Indiana Jones and how they figured out the story.

[Tammy Salyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you're a casual writer looking for ways to improve, or a serious writer wanting to strengthen skills you already have, this book is a must.

I've been wanting to take a novel writing class from David Farland for years, and wanted to learn to be a more disciplined outliner for even longer than that, so finally reading his Million Dollar Outlines was a perfect synthesis. Not only did the book fit the bill for thinking through and outlining a story, it went far beyond that. David also includes an in-depth and well-explained look into all of the nuts and bolts of a good novel: from characterization, to million dollar plots, to creating winning conflict, to building emotional resonance into your story. All intensely important components of any tale that is meant to have expansive appeal to readers, and laid out in easily groked and understood chunks. Plus, it contains an added highlight: excerpts from a conversation recorded in the late 70s/early 80s between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan as they hashed out the plot for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Pure gold!

I am a heavy highlighter in almost every nonfiction book I read, and here are a few of the myriad great tidbits from Million Dollar Outlines. I'm sure I'll read it at least three more times, it's so full of great advice.

"Budrys points out: if the hero does not have to make three attempts to resolve a problem, then the problem was not difficult enough in the first place."

"Every story should start with promises made—promises that you must keep."

(On creating conflicts) "If a person is at the root of his own problem, it hints at secondary problems—internal conflicts."

"Look at truly great stories and you will see this pattern emerge: The author often pulls off a complex resolution rather than working toward a simple resolution."

[Caleb CW · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has its moments, but for the most part, I didn't get much out of it. The outline structure relating to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was far and away the most useful part of the book. There were a couple of other stand-outs, like when he was talking about filling in plot holes, but other than that, I had heard a lot of this before, and from authors who explained it far deeper. I think this is a decent tool to start out, and if I would have read it before K.M. Weiland's writing guides, I would have gotten more out of it. But I didn't... so, if you read this and then hop on over to K.M. Weiland's stuff, it would help to bolster what Farland put out.

There it is and there you have it.

[Selina Gonzalez · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Started good with some nice insights, but got weird. A lot of disturbing crime examples and personal anecdotes, casual misogyny, weirdness with story examples featuring teenage girls that came across extremely creepy, the audience analysis sections felt more like stereotyping to me, and I feel like he based a lot of his ideas of what people want in stories on like...stats from the 90s or something. Like some of the books I see trending right now fly in the face of some of his claims (not books I'd ever read or enjoy let alone write myself, but still). Overall, this felt outdated, and not in a "written in 2013" way but in a "this wasn't written in 1995?" way. There's also a decent bit of repetition. He also sometimes doesn't condense thoughts well--it's explained in lengthy and often confusing examples with no clear principle enunciated in a way that's easy to remember. I started skimming and skipping sections and speed reading and just glanced at the Harry Potter outline example and didn't even bother with the Indiana Jones discussion. The relatively short part that is actually on how to make an outline didn't make a lick of sense to me. All the graphing and such just isn't how my brain works, which meant that this was rather useless for the actual outlining aspect. So, some really good principles of writing and ideas and insights scattered throughout, but overall, I don't recommend it. I think there are other clearer and less problematic books on writing and plotting and writing to market our there. Glad I read it through KU and didn't directly pay for it, and I don't think I'll try any of Farland's other writing books (or fiction for that matter), even though originally I'd planned to.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took nearly a year to read, but well worth it. This how to book on assembling an outline for your novel gave many poignant and useful ideas on how to make an outline that will lay down the bones of your story and actually HELP you in writing the first draft of your novel.

Has anyone else had the feeling that reading a book on a kindle takes longer than an actual paper book does? It seems that way to me.

[Abel Keogh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A writing book that actually helped flesh out a project I'm working on. That's a first.

[Dakota Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the single best book about writing I’ve ever read. Informative, high level writing advice. Highly, highly recommend to anyone who wants to write.

[A.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watch the YouTube series of lectures given by Brandon Sanderson at Utah uni. He took over the course from David Farland a few years ago.
Farland’s writing books are always a good read.

At that point I recognized that reading a formed story that conforms to Feralt’s plotting outline might be a type of emotional exercise that allows us to handle stress.(Kindle Locations 270-271).

And this is why some people are bored, and some captivated by the same story; people are different and they have different stress levels.
You know yourself, on a bad day not every book can help you escape that stress. Proven favourite authors, or favourite reads might work.
And keep in mind that if you, as a writer, don’t follow the rules then you leave your reader stressed. The romance novel that doesn’t have a happy ending, for instance. The hero’s quest where the hero dies rather than gets home to tell the tale. That gives you angry readers.
We all know stories have a beginning a middle and an end, but those parts also have to be causally linked. Plus, it should be entertaining.
Farland drops in some amazing things:

After all, I used to be a prison guard. My grandfather worked for the mob and took me under his wing when I was a child, teaching me how to run whore houses, run smuggling operations, and how to rub out the competition. More than that, I worked in Hollywood for awhile— and I became acquainted with sleaze at levels that my grandfather never dreamed of. (Kindle Locations 2277-2281).

I am side-eyeing the book thinking ‘is he just messing with us’ because I can’t find it in his bio.
Is this really Farland’s story? Wow.

Similarly, I’ve made hundreds of thousands of dollars writing on other projects, including young adult novels for Star Wars, The Mummy, various video games, and movie proposals.(Kindle Locations 2530-2531).

WAIT… Farland wrote the Mummy? *kisses his feet* I adore that movie.
I have highlighted passages in this and copied other parts out to keep as I write.
His ten steps for making an outline are worth the money alone!
It’s that good.
5 stars

But I do have an issue, and it isn’t about Farland.
He gives us an extra bit to demonstrate how great story writers brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other.

There is a link now available to download the 125-page transcript (in the form of a .pdf document) of the original 1978 story conference between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan for a little film called Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Kindle Locations 2791-2793).

Sadly, the link doesn’t work. But I found one that does
http://maddogmovies.com/almost/script...
And this segment is there. They are talking about the Indie/Marion relationship and how it all happened before we see them together in the movie scenes.

He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.
L— And he was forty-two.
G— He hasn’t seen her in twelve years. Now she’s twenty-two. It’s a real strange relationship.
S— She had better be older than twenty-two.
G— He’s thirty-five, and he knew her ten years ago when he was twenty-five and she was only twelve. It would be amusing to make her slightly young at the time.
S— And promiscuous. She came onto him.
G— Fifteen is right on the edge. I know it’s an outrageous idea, but it is interesting. Once she’s sixteen or seventeen it’s not interesting anymore. But if she was fifteen and he was twenty-five and they actually had an affair the last time they met. And she was madly in love with him and he…
S— She has pictures of him.

And now consider the dialog of that scene in the film:
INDY: I never meant to hurt you.
MARION: I was a child! I was in love.
INDY: You knew what you were doing.
MARION: It was wrong. You knew it.
INDY: Look, I did what I did. I don’t expect you to be happy about it. But maybe we can do each other some good.
MARION: Why start now?
INDY: Shut up and listen for a second. I want that piece your father had. I’ve got money.
MARION: How much?
(Kindle Locations 2886-2887).

Wait… what?
WHAT?
Oh, yes… the promiscuous twelve year old… it’s ‘amusing’ to make her a child, and even when she’s sixteen and ‘no longer interesting’ she’s still ACTUALLY A CHILD!!!
*blinks*
Whispers *Please don’t make me burn down all my favourite things*

[pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is on the one hand chock full of many valuable pieces of advice that I haven't seen elsewhere, expressed as clearly and practically. On the other hand it is so full of upsetting imagery and gross examples and anecdotes that I had to periodically breathe aloud: What the fuck. There were too many things that I actually regretted reading... seriously Jesus Christ lol. Too many times Farland just springs an awful visual thing upon you and it's just blech. It's ostensibly due to the fact that (as he goes into far too much detail about) his childhood and immediate family were extremely problematic, so that leaches into one's psyche and writing I suppose. Idk. Man needed a filter, RIP etc. No wonder this book is out of print lmao.

[Einar Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer to outline books so this was something of a find as I got it on Audibles New Year's Resolution Sale. Farland has many interesting point and explores his subject matter from many different angles. As a audio book I'm not sure I got the full experience or all of the author's advice. I am considering getting this in hard copy and reading it while I listen to audio version to get the full experience. So all I can say is that if you like to write and prefer to outline, check this out.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outlines are, in fact, only one aspect of what this how-to-write book covers. It does concentrate on the big picture, like what emotion appeals work for what audiences, story structure, building (and orchestrating) characters, what sorts of conflicts are involved, and many other useful things.

[Charissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This writing book had some great ideas and suggestions for better outlining stories before an author begins the drafting stage. The author has worked in Hollywood, so his premise was how to write riveting, inspiring, life-changing stories and characters that can sell well in Hollywood and to publishers before an author even writes a word of their story. His outlining plan is very detailed, and has some great suggestions I want to put into action in my own storymaking. I felt it was definitely worth the time and money to read. It wasn’t a boring book at all—quite entertaining as well as informative.

[Evelyn Freeling · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a craft book, it has solid, practical advice for anyone interested in implementing an outlining process. Farland lays out his outlining process step-by-step while also providing a lot of great information with regard to story, story elements, etc.

I'm just still confused why he make an example of a hypothetical story that involved a detective falling in love with a 16-yo polygamist widow. It was.... weird. Af.

[Cristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book so insightful. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to write for publication (even if you're not a plotter, there's great information here).

[Ryan Neely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap! My brain is overflowing with knowledge. David Farland's Million Dollar Outline has more information in it than I can possibly consume in a single reading. I've made bookmarks and highlighted passages which require a second pass, just to absorb the total wealth of knowledge and information provided.

This is a great book, and one I recommend to anyone serious about improving his or her craft. Normally I wouldn't have picked up this book. It's cover looks a little cheesy, the "Million Dollar" part speaks of something too-good-to-be-true, and (honestly) I'm at the end of my rope with how-to manuals for writers. I've read so many, with so many fantastic (yet surprisingly different) takes on writing, I don't want to read another for a very long time (and now that I'm done with Dave's book, I think I'll stick to that promise).

The reason I did read it was that it was provided as part of the course material for one of Dave's online workshops "Story Puzzle" (you can find out more information at www.mystorydoctor.com). The workshop is great and has forced me to look at my story in a new light. The book, however, goes hand-in-hand with the workshop and offers so many tools to help improve the overall scope of telling a good story (we're not talking about the mechanics of sentence structure and subject-verb agreement here).

There is so much great (useful, important, inspiring) information in this one volume, I don't even know where to begin with a review. Perhaps I will sum up the biggest take away for me at this moment. Toward the end of the book, Dave discusses a writing conference between George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, and Larry Kasdan as they discuss the story which will become Raiders of the Lost Ark. According to Dave, these three men spent 9 hours a day, over 5 days, discussing everything that could possibly happen in the story. They had so much information, they actually had enough for two films.

One point Dave makes is that many new authors start with too few ideas, and the result is a weak story. His advice: brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. Create so many ideas to choose from, and then start culling. This will help you make a rich and fascinating story--and give yourself the time to do it. This has been my problem by far. I don't allow myself the time to properly brainstorm, create characters, plot, settings, arcs. Let alone simple scenes. I fear that if I'm not writing prolifically--I try to write a novel a year, and several short stories besides--I'm not being productive. But I never take the time to do these things. Maybe that's important.

This is a great read with so much information I recommend taking it in chunks and really allowing yourself to absorb every word.

[Kimberly Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title is a misnomer. There is a small section on outlines (which doesn't even include an outline) but the majority of the book is how to market your idea and how to make sure it is marketable. That information is pretty basic and straightforward, but it is also probably true and subtly often missed. I think this would be a useful book for someone that is intent of figuring out why there books are not selling, especially since there is a lot of hints as to why some books are not even read by editors past the first few pages and which cliches are going to automatically get rejected. It would be useful to at least read through once by some authors and read through many times by others, especially since so many are trying to self publish when they don't get the response from publishers that they are looking for.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book didn't really live up to my expectations. Tons of references to movies, which didn't really fit with writing book outlines, in my opinion. I found a few nuggets of good, helpful information so I didn't feel it was a total waste of my time, but it wasn't what I expected.

Also, there was a reference to what women look for in men (re: characterization), to the effect of "polls say women want this, but what they really want is this", and I found it rather insulting. It was probably just a phrasing issue, but it's one that really kind of turned me off the book more than I already was.

The author has made over a million with his books, so obviously he's good at writing fiction. I don't think this book is a good example of his work.

[Denise McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! For a book with Outlines in the title, I learned much more about the mechanics of how and why some stories work better than others. The actual outlining portion was a mere chapter at the end. However, everything you learn up to that point gets poured into that outline and makes it shine. Can't wait to try this method to spruce up my current WIP.

This is definitely a book I can see myself reading several times and absorbing something new with each read.

[Erin Hartshorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a lot of the book familiar, as Farland uses much of the material in his Daily Kick e-mails. However, it's useful to read it all together rather than in bite-size chunks. The best part, in my opinion, was the appendix -- both because I hadn't seen the information before and because the discussion of Indiana Jones (né Smith) was amazing. I definitely found this book helpful and will revisit it, I'm sure.

[Dan Guajars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este hombre es un experto, es quien enseñó y propició el éxito de Brandon Sanderson y Stephanie Meyer, entre otros.
Su análisis del mercado es bien contundente y la manera en que expone sus ideas es muy clara. Lo estoy estudiando detenidamente, a veces releo capítulos completos.
Buenísimo, aunque tiene la mirada mercantilista que no me agrada mucho, aún así lo recomiendo para autores que quieran pensar en dedicar su vida a escribir (únicamente).

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of useful advice for writers. I'm not following all of it, since I'm writing for my own tastes rather than focusing on what the audience wants. But I do want to please the folks in my narrow niche so I'm paying attention. Farland did inspire me to scrap the original opening of my work-in-progress for one that better fits what the book's become.

[Clark Chamberlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

First rate book on writing to sell your work. Goes through tried and true market trends and helps to give your writing precision focus like a laser guided missile to reach down the chimneys of your intended audience.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit jumbled, and some of the ideas feel more dated or less valuable than others. But the core insights into finding the conflicts that drive a character, and plotting those conflicts out over the arc of a story, are worth the purchase price.

[Jason Thorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight on creating captivating stories and characters. Contains about a million typos, which can be distracting (and I'm really not sure how that was even allowed to happen) but helpful nonetheless.

[Nathan Shumate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very much a pantser, so I appreciate this book as being full of ideas and practices on structure and flow, rather than a Syd Fieldian straitjacket of story musts.

[Marius Mulder · Rating 1 out of 5]

More marketing than outline.

[Momo Minomo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, this book has me SO conflicted. On the one hand the writing advice is solid and I honestly believe reading this book HAS helped me create better stories. On the other hand, however, I have two main issues with him. One of these issues is a minor annoyance but the other is pretty horrifying example of transphobia (not to mention the casual sexism and the use of the 'r' slur for an autistic girl). The minor annoyance is that he inserts these "personal anecdotes" that are supposedly from his own life but are so over the top they're obviously made up. According to him he:

1. Had a violently abusive father and a mobster grandfather who bragged about murdering people in detail to him as a child and openly encouraged him to be the same.

2. Created a book with an Asian character that was so profound and amazingly written that a famous Chinese director bowed to him when he'd never showed anyone that level respect and managed to get the script okayed by the Chinese government in a few hours rather than the year it usually took.

3. Was the one to identify his sister-in-law (who was a famous photographer, apparently, but he never actually says her name) when she committed suicide in a hotel room via taking a drug that asphyxiated her to death and left her face and body contorted in agony.

4. Was a prison guard who heard a cold-blooded killer and gang member be gentle and unbelievably wise on the phone with his family.

5. Once picked up a hitchhiker who lived his life solely on the $300 he prospected in gold each year and was happy as a clam with an idyllic life.

You see what I mean? Any one of those events would probably be difficult to believe (especially with how casually he's describing them) but all of them? And more? These anecdotes sound like they're scenes ripped out of summer movies and I'm supposed to buy that this is just his normal life?

I could have just rolled my eyes and ignored the giant lies he's telling every single chapter but then there's that horrifying transphobia in one of the examples he uses in the section called "The Third Alternative". Here's 3 excerpts from that section to showcase how awful he gets with it:

"𝐿𝑒𝑡'𝑠 𝑔𝑜 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ. 𝑌𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑥 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑜𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒-𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛."

"...𝑌𝑜𝑢'𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜'𝑣𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝐼𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑚 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒-𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝. 𝑃𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 [𝑠𝑖𝑐] 𝑛𝑒𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑛𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦-𝑡𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒, 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑦 𝑗𝑎𝑤, 𝑒𝑛𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑠- 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑔𝑜𝑎𝑙."

"...𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡, 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑖𝑥 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎. 𝐻𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙, 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠. 𝐻𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝟣𝟣 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑏𝑜𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑. 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑟𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑛ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑏𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚, 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑘𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑘𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑒. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ. 𝐻𝑒'𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒, 𝑡𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑚. 𝑌𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑏𝑠, ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔. 𝐻𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙- ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠."

I know this book was released in 2013 and it's only a few paragraphs but this is awful and so insensitive it made me feel sick to my stomach. I ended up giving it 3 stars for the writing advice but knocked two of them off for the bigotry. Like I mentioned before I do honestly believe this is a gold mine for writing advice (though some of it is a little outdated at this point) but I also don't want someone to be caught off guard by the bigotry so I figured I'd just lay all out in the review and let potential readers decide if the risk it worth it for them.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have got to stop listening to self-help books on audio instead of reading them. So much of the advice given is lost on me as I try to keep up with the narration while folding socks or commuting or whatever and I struggle to retain any of the information presented. That is probably the main reason I have so few take-aways from this book. It was full of solid advice but I don't have much confidence that it will affect my writing much. How much of that is the fault of the book and how much of it is the result of the way I accessed that book is hard to say.

Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells have talked about David Farland multiple times on their wonderful podcast, Writing Excuses. Both of them credit him for much of their early success and have encouraged their listeners to take classes from him whenever possible. After listening to this book I can see why because the advice is no-nonsense, practical, and success-directed. There is no concern for art for art's sake. It is a book about making your writing commercial and successful, not about making yourself an artiste. Thank goodness, because I hate pretentious literary crap and I would never want to write it, so this is definitely a good approach for someone like me. He had good advice, what I can remember of it, about how to write for your audience and he breaks down the main interests of that audience by gender and age. I didn't agree with his points 100% and thought he was more than a little sexist but, political correctness aside, he's not far off the mark.

One place I thought he was a little gender-blind was when he said that women and girls prefer to read about female characters but never acknowledged that women are much more willing to read across genders because they have almost no choice in the matter. There is a reason that J.K. Rowling used initials to hide her gender and wrote about Harry Potter and not Hermione - girls will read boy books but boys will emphatically NOT read girl books. But that's a subject for another day and another rant.

For a book that calls itself Million Dollar Outlines, there was very little practical advice about how to outline. Most of the book was spent breaking down what makes a movie successful and much less time was spent in giving step by step advice for how to write an outline. The audio book really suffered from the lack of visuals, too. There should have been an accompanying PDF to show the reader/listener the charts and so on from the book.

I'm sure this book will be useful for people in a certain place in their writing trajectory, but for someone like me who can't plot at all, it was more entertaining then helpful. I liked the parts about character development the most but wish I had been able to glean more ideas for how to plot and outline. Maybe I should get the print version and give it another try. Not all books work well as audio books and that's not the fault of the book but the format. I would be willing to come back to it again in print.

Judging by audio alone, it's a 3 1/2 star listen.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded to 4. Reviewing this book is tough because the advice here is solid, but there were some unnecessary inclusions that were more distracting (and in some cases upsetting) than helpful.

The good: Farland does an excellent job describing the story elements and emotional beats that make stories entertaining and have a lasting impact on readers. I’ve written multiple books so a lot of this was familiar, yet I still picked up some ideas I hadn’t considered and terms I will be using in the future when outlining my own work. The section on why people read — to confront fictional conflicts and experience the stress in a safe space—especially caught my attention since I’ve never seen reader motivation explained this way, yet it immediately made sense to me.

The okay: Some of his audience analysis resonated. I liked the advice to include characters from multiple demographics to appeal to a wider audience, as well as considering story in terms of the emotional beats readers are looking for. But the demographics and associated interests he invoked felt more stereotypical than anything else.

The bad: Some of the anecdotes from his personal life felt unnecessary and downright silly. He tells a story about the Runelords movie being greenlit in China because the book understood Asian culture (while conflating Chinese and Japanese culture) that had me rolling my eyes. I’ll take “Things That Didn’t Happen” for $400, Alex.

The amount of casual misogyny, violence, and in one unfortunate passage, transphobia in one of his example plots also screamed for a sensitivity read. There was no reason to include such upsetting and potentially triggering images in a book on writing craft. At the very least an editor should have advised him to ditch the transphobic plot and take a discerning eye to some of the other elements that could have used content warnings.