What rules do you follow because you believe they will lead to success? What tools do you use to ensure you can be as relevant as possible? What if these rules and tools have the opposite effect on your life, and you can’t see it because you’re too close? What if social media is actually turning you into a new person you don’t want to be, doing what you don’t want to do? What if all your daily actions to stand out and get noticed shape you into a societal clone? How many more questions can I fit into this opening synopsis? One more? I love it when a book enters my world and shakes it up. Anti Rule: Navigating The Lies About Fiction Writing by Christian Francis is the small but mighty book that inspired today’s episode. So, put on your dunce cap and join me in detention. It’s time to chat about what we’re doing wrong.

1. What rules do you follow blindly despite knowing they aren’t working, hoping that if you just hold on a little bit longer, inertia will shift and success will be in your favor?
   
   
2. What tools do you use begrudgingly because you think they are what you have to use to be accepted?
   
   
3. How can you embrace the label of “fool” and become devoted to the work that matters to you, while stripping away all the baggage?
   

• Anti Rule: Navigating The Lies About Fiction Writing by Christian Francis
  
  
• Echo On Publishing
  
  
• Love and Monsters (2020)
  
  
• Midjourney prompt for episode art: surrounded by clones