Learning more about Story Structure
As I've mentioned before, one of the areas in which I struggle is structure -- specifically at the scene level. For a long time, I didn't know how to determine whether a scene was advancing the plot or not. But I'm learning.Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of Scene & Structure by Jack M. Bickham. It's part of Writers Digest Books' "Elements of Fiction" series. It seems to be helping. I'm learning more about cause & effect, stimulus & response, and how they play into creating effective stories. It also goes into detail about scene goals, conflicts and outcomes (aka disasters), and how these affect the overall story goal. If you struggle with understanding h

Will Equal Rights Issues Date My Fiction?
Change is happening. Slowly. Often with two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes two steps back. Much of New England allows for marriage equality, even though Maine then pulled a "Prop 8" and voted it out. But the issue is in play at a level it never has been before.We also had recent passage of the Hate Crimes Bill that punishes violent offenders who harm someone  based on their perceived sexual orientation or gender expression. That's another important step forward in LGBTQI equality. And while I'm discouraged that DOMA and DADT remain on the books, in spite of President Obama's campaign promises, I remain hopeful that change for these remains on the horizon.

Priming the Writing Pump
When it comes to writing a novel, there are "outliners" and there are "discovery writers". "Outliners" create a detailed outline of scenes before beginning the first draft. "Discovery writers" prefer to work without an outline and may or may not have an idea of how the story should progress. Neither is necessarily better or worse, just different. There are successful writers in both camps. Outlining works best for me and the way I write. And yesterday, I took it a step further. Normally, I have a general description of what will happen in a given scene.Character A runs into character B. They have an argument about what A did to B last week. The fight is brok

Making Changes Mid-draft
When I wrote the original draft of The Skinless Girl two years ago (it was during Nanowrimo and was titled A Sense of Community back then), I wrote it in third person limited. After letting it rest for a few weeks, one of my first editing tasks was to change the entire novel to first person. Not an easy task on an 80,000 word manuscript.Since having it professionally edited, I realized that there were major structural flaws. So I am essentially re-writing the darn thing from scratch, though occasionally pulling a scene or part of a scene from the previous edited draft.Today, I decided to make an additional change. Ignoring the fact that I'm already half

Stories in Motion
I just mailed off my short story Waffle Shoe Wake to The Georgia Review. It's always an exciting thing to do. Lots of expectations and hopes, tempered with the reality that I face a lot of competition.There's a part of me that just wants to podcast the short story and put it up here for everyone to enjoy. But to do so would sabotage its chances of being published. So I am practicing patience and trusting in the process. I've set a reminder on my calender for May, so that if it's not picked up by The Georgia Review, I will know to submit it somewhere else.In a few weeks, I will begin work on another short story. I have no idea what it will be abou