This shouldn’t be lost. Robert Carlson created a summary chart of thirteen (13) story structure overviews. Here’s his diagram (saved from a comment at reddit). Across the top, note the Act I, Act II (parts A and B), and Act III divisions. Squinting at the chart so the details blur, I can spot four structures […]

Scrivener is for big writing such as novels and non-fiction books. It is also wonderful with briefer works such as short stories, blog posts, and things that start small but might later bloom. To cope with the big works, Scrivener can do a lot of things. And there’s the rub: like the works it supports, […]

Four nights a week, the Central Phoenix Writers Workshop meets to critique and commiserate. A recent Wednesday evening session is pictured above a half hour before the meeting begins. It draws twenty or so writers most of the year, with more in the summer when school is out and the school’s teachers of English and […]

Anyone who writes for others on a regular basis knows perfection is impossible. The writer sees what should be there, not what is. “One final fix,” we say as we correct an error, click Save but then only to spot another before the page refreshes. In practice, we learn it is never really finished. Instead, […]