Reviewing with River

Thanks to River for hosting this month's topic and for the many fine suggestions by others posted herein.

Just finished Nano. What made me stop at 82 K? That pesky outline begun in October Prep wouldn't stretch the plot any further. All the loose ends were pulled together, crises resolved, and characters had done their part.

All of us review our own writing in our heads if nowhere else. What I found most useful getting where I got? Writing each chapter patterned after what I did entering WdC short story contests. Paint a picture with the setting, introduce a crisis, characters wrestling to resolve it (with key elements connecting the last chapter sewn in), and some kind of tease at the end dangled before the reader's eyes to interest reading further.

Looking back at the chapters of WdC novels I've been asked to review, I find I look for the same kind of structure, for stories within stories that stand alone while offering some greater quest.


Now to take the advice of some fellow travelers offered me. To let my first draft settle and rest, as now I will from such heady goals and desires.