This is K.M. Island and you are listening to the 400 fourth episode of the Helping Writers

Become Authors podcast. After launching the Creating Character Arts Workbook

last week I'm happy to be settling fully back into

focusing on writing my portal fantasy sequel Dreambreaker. I took a 10 day

vacation to see family in September but with one thing and another I ended up having to be away from my

writing for nearly three weeks. It was a good break but it's funny how even now

after almost a month back I'm still feeling the loss of those three weeks.

I guess it's kind of like that whole absence makes the heart grow fonder thing.

I'm still busy with this whole house remodeling project which completely took over my summer in a good way

So I'm still busy nearly every day trying to finish up some painting projects before the weather turns cold on me

It means I'm not able to dedicate any extra time to writing right now, as good as that sounds,

but I'm steadily pressing forward with the book and enjoying how much I'm enjoying it right now.

The latest post on my blog is your guide to preparing for a successful nanomom.

Get ready for your best November writing spree yet, preparing for National Novel

Writing Month. Now we'll give you the foundation to outline a solid novel.

To read the post, visit helping writers become authors.com.

And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast.

Four reasons you're confused about scene structure.

Scene structure is the backbone of strong narrative storytelling.

Built properly, scenes effortlessly link one to another to create a chain of give and take, cause and effect, action and reaction, question and answer.

The whole point of scene structure is to create an ebb and flow that mimics how humans balance forward momentum with the necessary introspection to process that momentum.

Another analogy might be extra version, an introversion. Classic scene structure, as I discuss in my book

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