Current location:	Dragon's Lair
Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	Your Wildest Dreams - Moody Blues

Funny what you find when you tidy up....
I was doing some pretty hefty updating of my pc today (only cos I wanted to upgrade to IE7 and found I didn't even have XP Service Pack 2 and about a squillion updates - eek!) so while that was happening (and is still happening because after I got back from having dinner with the ex and started up the pc again there were another squillion updates) I began to sort through the pile of paperwork/magazines/stuff that always seems to accumulate and gets shoved from one spot to another over a period of time.

I found an exercise book in the pile and flicked through it, only to find the most precious bunch of notes any writer could ever wish to have. I remember exactly when I wrote this down - it was one of the first workshops I did through QWC here in Cairns - and how I wish I'd not buried it.

The notes are on the structure of a storyline and I'm going to share them with you before I type them up as a checklist for myself both as a writer and as an editor.

Here goes:

1. Story opens with the balance of relationships that currently exist and existed before the story begins.

2. An event happens that upsets that balance.

3. The Central Character (CC) emerges from this event.

4. CC must try to right the balance, formulate a plan to fix the situation.

5. Obstacles must be presented that prevent the CC from restoring the balance. This is where we learn about character and human nature.

6. Complications come into it now - elements that change the direction irrevocably and take the story to a whole new level.

7. The CC has a crisis of faith and needs to re-think the dilemma.

8. The climax.

9. The resolution which gives us a glimpse of the new balance at the end of the story.

As soon as I read all this today I applied each of those points to the novel that is slowly being rewritten and realised that the re-worked plot fits every point (does happy dance).

As I said, I'm going to write these up as a checklist for myself, and thank myself daily for finding and not throwing out the exercise book!

I seem to be getting back into the writing frame of mind - I did a crit today for the first time in ages in CritMonsters. It had been so long that phillberrie wondered "who was that masked dragon!"

Heheheee, the dragon is back in town!