Well, despite Mexican Food issues, yesterday turned out to be a great day.

First off, I received the thumbs up from Deidre on the synopsis for my current WIP. She was very excited about it and that really fueled my motivation.

Then, I had to leave work early thanks to the afore mentioned Mexican food, so I though my day was going downhill fast. But I got home, called Maria, and we started to chat about my story. I was happy with what I had so far, but something was missing. I couldn’t quite figure it out. So, Maria suggested I read the thread on scene and sequel in our RWA Online forum and maybe that would help me see things differently.

To be honest, I had been avoiding that thread. I get so overwhelmed sometimes by the rules of the craft. But, Maria is all-knowing, so I had to at least give it a shot.

I’m so glad I did. I didn’t even get through the first page before I had an “aha!” moment.

The scene is what is happening. It’s the action. Okay, I get that. Every scene has a goal, a conflict, and a disaster. I get that, too. Or so I thought.

Something that kept catching my eye: The more dramatic the disaster the better.

Okay. Fine. I’ll just keep reading.

Every scene has a main goal. It doesn’t have to be anything big. It’s just the purpose of the scene. The disaster is the final twist that stops the pov character from achieving his/her goal.

I didn’t have to go any further. I realized where I had gone wrong. My disasters weren’t really disasterous. They were more like hurdles. They didn’t stop the character from achieving the goal in the scene, they just made it more difficult.

So, my characters were achieving their goals which made the conflict kinda blah.

It’s soooo much better now, thanks to a quick brainstorming session with Maria. And I took my pages from 38 to 45 last night.

I love it when things go right!