Writing

Matt woke up suddenly and looked at his alarm clock.  It was already 6:50.  Would he have time?  If he can start by 7:00 he should have time for a 30 minute run.  That's as far as he thought he could go this morning.  He drank a glass of water, got dressed, and put on a gray hooded sweatshirt.  Would he need the sweatshirt?  He hadn't had time to check the weather yet. Matt grabbed his phone and headphones.  The temperature on his phone says 48 degrees.  A cool, calm, Montana June morning. He stepped outside and was glad to be wearing the sweatshirt.  After getting some music playing it was time to start running.  This was his first morning run for many years.  He was feeling a bit cold and stiff, but he decided to start without stretching.  He would just take it easy at first and get warmed up while he was running.  He might regret making that decision later, but for now it made sense. For the first mile he plo...

I woke up suddenly.  It was already 6:50. "Do I still have time to go for a run? I told myself yesterday I would do it." I thought to himself. Even if I'm a little late I still want to go.  A short run should only take 30 min.  If I can get started before 7:00 I'll make it in time.  I drank a glass of water, got dressed, and put on a hooded sweatshirt.  Then I found my shoes.  I forgot my phone and head phones.  I quietly went back to my bedroom and grabbed them without waking my wife.  I put on my shoes and I was out the door just before 7:00. It was cool June morning in Montana.  My phone said 48 degrees, but the sun was shining so it felt nice.  I hadn't run in the morning for a long time.  Also I had only been out of bed for a few minutes at this point.  I was slow getting started.  I felt stiff.  The cool air quickly woke me up.  I began to run. "Even if I have to go slow I think I can make it."...

I have been watching a series of Youtube videos by Brandon Sanderson .  The videos are the lectures recorded from his sci/fi fantasy class.  I am currently watching the sixth one which deals with world building.  I am a bit worried about this topic with my story because it seems like it will require a lot of world building.  The second lecture on world building is about making it seem like you did a lot of world building when you only did just enough to make the story work. There is also a lot of good information on plot and character development in the earlier lectures.  He discussed the importance of character arcs and relationships.  Plot points like conflict and promise/payoff were talked about a lot.  I was aware of conflict being important to keep people interested, but I hadn't heard the promise/payoff structure broken down and described like this.