The Chapter Challenge

That’s it. Nothing to sign, nothing to download. You raised your hand, and honestly, that’s the hardest part already behind you.

Here’s the whole deal.

The assignment

One chapter. Or one scene — I’m not counting. It does not have to be good. It does not have to be finished. Nobody has to die, though I won’t stop you.

The deadline

December 31, 2026.

The prompt, if you need somewhere to start

Two people are sitting across from each other. One of them is lying. Don’t tell me which one.

Use it, change it, throw it out and write something else entirely. I like that one because it teaches the thing that took me two years to learn: the reader doesn’t need to be told. They need to be shown just enough to guess. Get that right one time, in one scene, and you can build a book on it.

How to send it

Paste it in the box below or attach a file — either one is fine, and neither one impresses me more than the other. Replying to any letter I send you works too.

I read every one that comes in, and I write back. Not as a critic — as a guy who was sitting exactly where you are three years ago, with no idea whether he could do it either.

Four hundred words counts. Go start.

— Brad