This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 237th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast.

I just finished up copy edits on the Writers Digest annotated classic Jane Eyre.

I don't have a final release date yet, but we seem to be looking at a late summer

launch. I'm really excited about the launch party for this one. Can't say much yet, but there's going to be a lot of fun things

in store. But for now I should get to see the galley soon. Can't wait for that

either. The latest post in the video series on my blog is Is Your Story's Tone lying to readers?

It discusses why your Story's Tone must be consistent in order to create a cohesive and powerful story

and offer some examples of what happens when you fail to do so.

To find the post, visit my site at helping writers become authors.com and now I hope you

enjoyed this week's podcast entitled Creating Stunning Character Arks Part 7 the

first act.

The first act is one of my favorite parts of any story.

On the surface, the first act seems to be the slowest part of the story, and it often is.

It's just set up after all, right?

True enough, except for that one little word, just. It isn't just set up. It's set up. It sets up the

plot, but even more importantly it sets up the character arcs. As you've already

seen in the previous six parts of this

series the setup necessary just to prepare for your first act is pretty intensive.

But once you've got the prep work of deciding upon the lie your character believes,

the thing he wants, the thing he needs, his ghost, his characteristic moment, and his normal

world out of the way, the first act itself is comparatively

simple to piece together.

...