As I continue pursuing a writing career, it's clear I've committed to a life-long journey of self discovery.

I'm experience tremendous personal growth, both in terms of my writing and what really makes me tick.

For the last couple years, I've spent a great deal of time mastering story structure. As a result, my work became stiff, unnatural - meticulously planned and machine like.

Two weeks ago I turned in material to my critique group. The feedback was unanimous: The plotting was good, but the story was lifeless.

So I compared what I'd turned in with earlier work and immediately saw the problem. My early work, while raw, had distinctive flair. The story lacked focus, but it had heart.

Somewhere along the way that heart slowed to a flutter.

This week I tried an experiment: Write with my heart.

I got my head out of the way. I set aside the structure, act breaks, catalysts, midpoints, etc.

I put my imagination back to work, let my excitement guide me, and wrote with my heart.

What a difference!

The characters and world came to life.

I'm not condemning time spent mastering structure. It's critical, and I'm thankful to have it. Whenever I get stuck there are tools and guides to provide direction.

And story needs direction.

So my latest discovery is this:

Write with passion. Re-write with purpose.

Somewhere along the line I expect some natural synthesis to occur and I'll simultaneously write with both purpose and passion.

For now though, I'm allowing my writing to be lead by the passion, the need, to tell stories.

It's why I started this journey.

As a writer, I struggle relaying the big picture elements when pitching my stories.

Not good.

A good pitch should be concise and to the point. No extraneous information. Short on details, and long on concept.

Blake Snyder would say the trouble stems from not really understanding what your story is about.

I agree.

Today I was asked to pitch a story. In less than five minutes I received a red light. I had already lost the listener. It struck me how much this essential skill eludes me.

Writing more loglines will help. Pitching more will help.

I've gotten better, but I'm still not good at it.

Ultimately, it's about boiling off all the crap until there's nothing left but the essence of the story. Once you have that, the details aren't propping up a weak concept, rather they're further enhancing an already stellar story.

I received a call yesterday from the local film company, they like my material and want to move forward. This may become my first professional writing assignment. Exciting! =D

It's fascinating how quickly life changes. A couple years ago I left a safe software engineering career to pursue writing and filmmaking. I've spent that time studying story structure, character development, and mythological archetypes and applying that knowledge in my writing. I've always been comfortable crafting entertaining stories and characters. Working with professionals at UNCSA provided tools for giving those stories a cohesive structure. It's like knowing how to speak without understanding how to communicate. Shaping words in colorful or interesting ways doesn't necessarily mean you've connected with an audience and effectively imparted your message. That's where structure and skill enters play, and now I'm getting the opportunity to employ both talent and skill doing something I love.

I'm off to the ballpark to photograph a day game. Crank up the shutter speed! Should capture some impressive action shots today.