This book had its origin in a TED talk where the author presented her insights on mind patterns writers get into. The identification of patterns that aspiring authors commonly hear or get into on their own is useful and clear. Some of the examples she gives to illustrate the points are jokey and silly but the idea is to make them stick in mind better. this book came out over ten years ago and I had already heard a lot of the points it made before back when I was more actively writing fiction, but there were others that hit me in a new way. A lot of the issues brought up aren't currently at the front of my mind right now so they were welcome. There is an emphasis throughout on what works emotionally in a story rather than what gets included as part of rote practice, which I appreciated. I think that this one thing is the main way the book has something to offer among all the other books on writing practice. The asides on brain science are sort of interesting but I think not really essential takeaways. The book isn't aimed at the writer who has a good deal of experience and already has ways to avoid the common pitfalls or at people producing other kinds of work such as non-fiction or experimental literary fiction. It also does not give the reader lists of ways to apply the principles described directly in their current project. But for what it tries to do I thiink it does a good job.