The Write Stuff

It's good to reach a goal and Molly's Golden Coffee Cup was exactly what I needed this month. Heck, I'll be going back to my favorites when I need a boost of inspiration.

I did finish the first third of my book and I can't wait to read my instructor's editorial letter. I know she will help me to re-vision my story so that I will dig deeper and better. I've been working slowly on the next chapter. And it's good to share pages with my friend Jen Heger.

This is going to be a busy month but I will take a few moments each day to write and pray. These ground me like nothing else.

Some good books and movies that I'd like to recommend, considering that you might be doing some Christmas shopping:

Because all my books are little movies playing in my head, I've decided to study movie structure so that I can use it to improve my novels. Save the Cat! is a wonderful little book that is concise and useful. Plus, it's got a killer title. And the writing style? Well, you have to read it for yourself. This guy is good. Very shortly after I bought this book, I read that he died. My heart goes out to his family. He has a sequel called: Save the Cat Goes to the Movies in which he analyzes many different types of movies. I think this is very, very useful. I've done this with many short stories and a couple of novels and it's a great way to learn structure.

I'm reading Days of Little Texas by R. A. Nelson and enjoying it tremendously. It's about a boy who has the power to heal. I've always wondered what it would be like to have powers ... but always worried that what if the power came from the devil. How does one know the difference? So this is an interesting read for me. There is a love interest, Lucy, and my gut feeling is that she'll have something to do with the devil. But I won't spoil the book for you.

United 93 is a beautifully made memorial movie about the events of 9-11. It was the one plane that didn't reach its target because the people on board chose to fight the terrorists.

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