Welcome to “An Education”

A deconstruction wherein we analyze this critically-acclaimed story… part by part, milestone by milestone, scene by scene. Let’s do this. I always get a little nervous when I tear into a deconstruction.  What if the milestones are in the wrong place?  What if the storytelling principles I write about are contradicted and blown to smithereens? […]

Wordplay: And the winner is…

Last Tuesday I posted a fun little diversion in the form of a friendly challenge: spilt a multi-syllable word into separate words and write a clever new defintion for it. Seventy-one of you contributed over 300 examples of wit, sarcasm, biting truth and scary writing chops.  If you didn’t see it, click HERE to have […]

Prologue or Epilogue? You be the judge.

Considering a Prologue or an Epilogue for your novel is like playing with guns.  You need to point them in the right direction or you can get hurt. A Prologue is a tricky little piece of business that, definition-wise, resides somewhere between a hook and seductive foreshadowing. An Epilogue is like a soft kiss goodnight […]

A Quick Wordplay Challenge. Fun. Prizes.

Let’s have some fun. Last night I was watching an episode of The United States of Tara, Showtime’s brilliant Spielberg-produced series starring Toni Collette as a wife afflicted with multiple personalities. Yeah, like that never happens. What I saw that inspired today’s idea had nothing to do with the story.  As a background piece of […]

The Short Story on Structuring Your Short Story

You think writing 100,000 words is tough?  That shaping them into a coherent and meaningful story is challenging? Try writing 1000 words sometime.  Or 5,000.  With the same goal. Try writing a short story.   As paradoxical as it may seem, short stories are harder to wrap your head around than a novel.  And harder yet […]

How and Why to Deconstruct “An Education”

There’s a reason prospective doctors spend much of their first year in med school poking around the embalmed nether regions of the recently departed.  Would you want your appendix removed by a doctor who hadn’t?  Just sayin’. We have learned how to reverse-engineer the human organism.  At least, right up to the point at which […]

Story Structure in a Series

This weekend I was privileged to participate in a panel discussion at the conclusion of a long day of writing workshops.  The venue was the annual Write on the River conference in Wenatchee Washington – a great event, very professional and well attended – and I was among 12 presenters on a stage answering questions […]

Shutter Island — The Guest Posts

This is the 200th post on Storyfix.  We launched June 1, 2009, and so far over 2000 of you have signed on for the ride.  You are the reason I do this.  Thanks for your vote of confidence.  Much more to come, too. Last week I posted a call for Guest Posts in response to […]

Reader Poll… Coupla Other Ditties

Greetings from Wenatchee, Washington.  I’m here as a presenter at the “Write on the River” writing conference, a great event in a gorgeous college venue. I’m delivering two workshops, one on how to pump up the level of tension in our stories, the other a 4-hour version of my basic “Six Core Competencies” workshop.  This morning […]

StoryFix: The Invite, The Opportunity and a little News…

The Invite There’s still time to submit Guest Posts that cover the Shutter Island deconstruction experience. Everyone gets published.   Somebody gets the #1 spot and a free book.  All are welcome, provided you are on-topic and not off-color.  Send your article to: storyfixer@gmail.com.  No more than 750 words, please. The Opportunity Are you in a […]