A million miles in a thousand years: what I learned while editing my life

pt. 1. Exposition. Random scenes

A million miles in a thousand years

They fell like feathers

My real life was boring

Flesh and soul better

My uncle's funeral and a wedding

Going to see the professor

The elements of a meaningful life

How Jason saved his family

pt. 2. Character. Writing the world

Imperfect is perfect

You'll be different at the end

A character is what he does

Saving the cat

Listen to your writer

Something on the page

pt. 3. A character who wants something. How to make yourself write a better story

An inciting incident

Pointing toward the horizon

Negative turns

A good story, hijacked

A practice story

A positive turn

Meeting Bob

pt. 4. A character who wants something and overcomes conflict. A better story

The thing about a crossing

The pain will bind us

A tree in a story about a forest

The reason God hasn't fixed you yet

Great stories have memorable scenes

pt. 5. A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. Squeezing the cat

The beauty of a tragedy

All you have to do is try

To speak something into nothing

Summer snow in Delaware

Where once there was nothing.