When I was a child, one of my favourite books was called "The Monster at the End of the Book'. It should not come as a surprise that my favourite adult books are the ones that slay the same monster (FEAR). Here is a brief summary of the children's book that left a lasting impression and inspired these formulas.
Having read the title page (or, in later editions, the cover), the character Grover is horrified to learn that there is a monster at the end of the book. He immediately begs the reader not to finish the book to avoid meeting this dreadful, scary monster.
Growing increasingly fearful as the reader continued to turn pages and frustrated that they do not seem to realize the terrible danger, Grover resorts to constructing a series of ever-more-elaborate obstacles, such as tying sheets together, nailing one page onto the next one and finally, even laying a brick wall to keep the reader from advancing further. But nothing works, primarily because from the reader's point of view these are simple illustrations, not actual difficulties.
Finally driven to total despair by the reader's ability to "overcome" the obstacles, Grover makes one last frantic plea to the reader not to turn the final page...
...Only to discover that on that last page, in a surprise self-referential plot twist, that the only monster in question is Grover himself. He tries to laugh it off, saying he knew it all along—but the reader can see that he is embarrassed.
We are the monster; it is our obstacles that are put up. In life, we only need to overcome the challenges of the challenges we have created. Stay Tune as I will be posting each formula every Monday along with the podcast. Get More with Bare Slate.