John Matthew Fox helps authors write better fiction. He is the founder of Bookfox, where he creates online courses for writers, provides editing and offers publishing assistance. He is the author of "The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments" and “I Will Shout Your Name,” a collection of short stories.
The Gold Coins Writing Technique
Hi Bookfoxers,
Don Fry was an author with a problem.
He was frustrated that his readers would often ditch his book or article right in the middle.
Readers would write to him, complaining about what he’d written, and it was obvious they’d never made it to the end!
So he came up with a strategy to solve this problem.
He called it the “Gold Coins” writing technique.
Imagine you were walking in a forest and found a gold coin. You’d be ecstatic. And if you saw another one up ahead, you’d run to that next one.
And the next one.
And the next one.
Until you couldn’t find any more.
Basically, you’d keep going as long as you kept finding gold coins.
Writing is a lot like a chain of gold coins on a forest floor. As long as you’re rewarding the reader periodically, they’ll have the energy to keep reading.
Now Don Fry used this technique in nonfiction, but I think it works equally well for fiction.
The question is: What is a gold coin in a story?
Well, there are plot coins:
- A surprise or a twist
- Introduction of a powerful object
- Cliffhanger
There are also character coins:
- A cameo by a character from earlier in the book or series
- An introduction of a new character who is funny or weird
- The discovery of new information about one of your characters
Sometimes a gold coin can be small:
- A beautiful sentence
- A perfect detail
- A powerful quote or line of dialogue
As a writer, your goal should be to deliver these jolts of pleasure, these dopamine hits, these shiny gold coins, to the reader.
If you deliver enough of them, they’ll keep reading all the way to the end.
But there are three pitfalls to avoid.
1. Overloading
Watch out – if you overload your book with gold coins, it can backfire and make your book feel like: a soap opera a cheesy book a book with pacing that’s too fast
2. Uneven Gold Coins
Writers have a tendency to give a ton of gold coins at the beginning of a story, and a ton at the end, but miss the middle.
That’s a big mistake. Big. HUGE! (hat tip to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman).
Read your book looking for an even disbursement of gold coins. If you’ve read a chapter with only one or zero, then you might need to throw a handful (or throw a largesse – such a fun word that I never get to use because I don’t write medieval epics with generous kings).
3. Missing the Mark
Each audience values different things for gold coins. If you’re writing a Romance, a gold coin is:
- a touch of the hand
- An awkward kiss
- A first date
These advance the storyline, and they deliver the romantic currency to the reader (which is what readers are there for).
Romance readers are less likely to appreciate the gold coins of:
- Worldbuilding
- An exquisite paragraph-long description of a tree
Know your audience well enough to know what they would consider a gold coin.
And Happy Writing!
John Matthew Fox
Bookfox
John Matthew Fox helps authors write better fiction. He is the founder of Bookfox, where he creates online courses for writers, provides editing and offers publishing assistance. He is the author of "The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments" and “I Will Shout Your Name,” a collection of short stories.
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