Thursday, September 2, 2010

You're Never to Old to Learn

I'm a great beginner.  Opening lines of stories come easily to me.  Sometimes, entire chapters will suddenly spring to life in my head (often in the midst of a business meeting, church services or other inconvenient time). 

The end of stories come pretty easily, too.  In fact, I once started a story knowing little more than an ending scene.  That was a rarity since usually I see the beginning and the end together.

Unfortunately, the middle of the story is my nemesis.  Like my own anatomy, the middle of my stories tends to be saggy and shapeless when what I'd really like them to be is trim and defined.  So what am I to do?

Well, last month, a writer friend suggested an online class on PACING by author Mary Buckham.  The idea appealed to me, so I signed up before I could get cold feet.  The class started this week and I already had an aha moment.  Mary suggested that my love of thrillers might be hurting the pace of the cozies I also like to write.  She asked me to look at them and see if I was speeding up the pace in them faster than I intended as I was subconsciously choosing the faster pace of the thrillers I read.

I'd never thought of that.  Interesting food for thought.  I'm looking forward to the class to really dig into the pacing differences.

I'll keep you posted!
~ Stephanie