As a result of posting my work on YWO, I came to realize there was something missing from my work, though I received very helpful and mostly positive comments. I did a bit of head scratching. In stumbling around the web, as I'm wont to do when I'm looking for answers, I came across something called 'story structure'. What is that, I asked myself? I mean I understand about beginnings, middle and endings and the need to show not tell via scenes involving action, characters, dialogue and story arc. But structure??? As I delved deeper into this subject, I discovered the 'what was missing' aspect of my work. In the past six years, I've produced four novels, a memoir, and a dozen or so short stories. Not once, in all this writing, did I give structure any thought. I just wrote the stories as they evolved. And yet, repeated revisions and rewrites while they resulted in improved work didn't produce the final product I was after, and I couldn't figure out why. The why, I believe, was lack of a properly thought out structure. I am now working on At The Level of The Heart, which many of you have reviewed, applying what I've learned about structure. I'm stunned by what happened. I see how completely I missed the boat with this story and with Miss Lawson's Gift. And Angel Feet. And, and, and!! So, I'm taking a time out to restructure the work I've posted here and, eventually, repost it, properly structured.

If any of you are interested in this aspect of writing, I highly recommend storyfix.com. I downloaded Larry Brooks' ebook "Story Structure - Demystified." I recently took an all day seminar on the subject. There's a lot of info on the subject out there. I'm just kicking myself I didn't find out about structure earlier, or maybe I did and didn't pay attention, thought inspiration and imagination were enough. I've discovered they're not.

I thank you all again for your time and generous comments. I've had the pleasure of reading some really fine work here. I hope to be back in a month or two to read more. Sigmund Freud: "The Irish are one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no benefit whatsoever."

Willowtree - thanks very much for this - I'll certainly be taking a look at story.fix.

Best of luck with the revisions, and see you again soon. nil desperandum

Thank you all so much. I'm feeling bogged down by the whole thing just now. Your responses cheered me up no end. Sigmund Freud: "The Irish are one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no benefit whatsoever."

That Storyfix looks interesting, thanks for pointing it out. Also found an article just posted today that gives some insight on story structure: Emma Darwin - what makes a short story really work?

Cheers
Trant

Thank you so much, Carola. That was a nice pat on the back. I'm hard at work restructuring a couple of my short stories. See what happens. Writer Tony McFadden (google him) has a post on his website 'story structure in 1 minute'. Not just funny, but very instructive, I thought. Be back soon! Sigmund Freud: "The Irish are one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no benefit whatsoever."