Why a Staircase? 0:28

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 think.

My critique partner and I many years ago were spending a long weekend at a boutique hotel in Lake Travis, 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 these really narrow stairs that just randomly turned for no reason, and as I was dragging myself and my suitcase up these stairs I started thinking about story structure.

That’s how stories work. Once you get comfortable with the story, the story should turn a bit. Every time we hit a landing, it would turn in a different direction. So, that’s where I came up with the story structure staircase.

*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 on our staircase!