I wanted to talk real quick about where the idea for this workshop came from, because the idea for this workshop came from a writing retreat, but probably not in the way you would expect.

Many years ago, my critique partner and I were spending a long weekend at a boutique hotel in Lake Travis, Texas, which is down by Austin. It was this cute little hotel, and we were on the 3rd floor.

There was no elevator.

 The only way to get to our room was up these very narrow stairs that had multiple landings. As I was dragging myself and my suitcase up the stairs, I started to think about story structure. That this is how stories should work.

Every time we hit a landing. The stairs would turn in a different direction. Just like once you get comfortable with the story, the story should turn just a bit. That's where the idea came from.

*I also started thinking about the fact I was way out of shape and breathing like an asthmatic walrus, but that’s not the point.

 Let's get started talking about story structure.