School begins. Story never stops.

Hey, just checking in to say my first week of classes has come, so my last week of Graduate school has begun. I have to say I'm really excited this year because all the hard work of learning is really starting to translate into unique well-formed ideas and strong tightly-written pages.

I can't stress enough how important it is to really work on story before even thinking of getting to pages. The first classes of the year are always full of us writers pitching our ideas and it was such a huge benefit for me to have my entire story down in outline form to pitch. I got great feedback, notes, and ideas already just one class in.

There is no shortcut to telling a memorable story. Those who came in and pitched just an idea without much idea of the characters involved and how the plotting unfolds were left without much given in return, besides the obvious answer, "You need to think more about that character or concept."

The best writers are great storytellers. It's in their DNA and they can churn it out on the page or in the room. To become a professional you must repeat story over and over until you know it inside out, backwards and frontwards. If whatever you're writing doesn't get you passionate enough to repeat it to people over and over, you're probably not telling the right story.

Find the ONE...start working on that.