What You Should Consider When Plotting Your Novel

And How To Piss Off Your Kids This Christmas

John Ilho
The Writing Cooperative
6 min readNov 15, 2023

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Made by the author in Canva

One Christmas, a long time ago, I was promised a bicycle.

When Christmas morning came, however, no present underneath the tree matched my expectations. No large clunking wrapping, no giant box. Nothing. Only a parade of socks.

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I’m a former head chef turned full-time writer. I know, right? I, too, thought my mom had raised me better than this.