"[This book] is meant to be a resource for writers and designers and those who must work with us and who may want to talk intelligently with us at some point. This is not a book of rules that, if slavishly followed, will guarantee success. You’ll see that just about every time I try to lay down some canonical law to follow, I immediately think of exceptions. Don’t be afraid to break any rules as you write, as long as you know exactly what they mean, and why they’re rules to begin with. Pablo Picasso knew this, as you’ll soon see. It is one of the continuing themes running through this book. Think of it as a book of ideas and of choices. With any luck, it will help you to generate ideas of your own. And you will feel more comfortable when choices present themselves as you write. Knowing which choices to make is not teachable. It’s part of that creative instinct we call talent whose secret voice guides us in our decisions every time we sit down at the keyboard. And anyway, they will be different for different people. Despite what writing gurus say, all stories are not identical. They are shaped by all those unique facets of the human beings who write them." (Introduction)