Stepping Through The Structure Part 7
Second doorway of no return
Yikes! The hero now pulls themselves together and heads through the second doorway of no return! Aka plot turn two, the break into act three, seizing the sword and reward, or, as Supser Structure reminds us, “Now, I’m committed.” So this is the scene where the hero gathers together the real loyal friends and other resources, and sets out for the final conflict,
Super Structure adds three small scenes you might want to use. Mounting forces, let’s gather the good guys and the bad guys. Lights out, this looks bad! And the Q factor, wait, maybe… (often with a surprise new weapon or information of some kind). All three of these are kind of inherent in the doorway, but splitting them out can be helpful.
So, consider your prompt. Does this lend itself to forming a threshold or doorway into the final confrontation? Hey, maybe it’s just getting all the suspects together in the library to go over all the clues, and point out… who dun it?
| Match | Fuse | Fireworks! |
| AC Young | When he changed sides, he became the Kingmaker. | Parrish Baker |
| Becky Jones | The sun broke through the clouds as the rain started to fall. | Padre |
| Parrish Baker | The new employee’s desk drawers were all locked, and she kept the keys on a chain around her neck. | Leigh Kimmel |
| nother Mike | Painting 3-D tunnels on the sides of buildings was his hobby… and a memorial to Roadrunner cartoons! | Fiona Grey |
| Fiona Grey | He’d sentenced her to a life of alarm clocks. | Becky Jones |
| Leigh Kimmel | As the whole family gathered around the table for dinner… | AC Young |
| Padre | Are we there yet? | nother Mike |
And here are your spares:
| The caterpillar thief inched forward with the bracelet. |
| All that remained of the bridge were rusted, jagged support pillars, still aiming at the sky in determined exhaustion. |
| Once, it had been a company town. |
| There was a corpse in the cauldron that they hadn’t put there… |
| Breakdancing gnomes were a hit on Youtube |
| There was something amusing watching the butterflies trying to fly in the ISS… |
This dude seems mouthy. You think he just needs a dentist, or does he have a legit grievance with those armored intruders?
Your extra challenge for the week: FANG.
This week in news, we’ve got a twofer.
First up, from Jumpmaster Press: Calling all novelists! August is Open submission month for Jumpmaster Press! They’re looking for the next hit thriller, mystery, fantasy, or sci-fi novel to publish. Check out current publications at https://www.jumpmasterpress.com/.
Send submissions to info@jumpmasterpress.com following the guidelines below:
- Send the 1st 3 chapters
- 12 pt font with 1 ½ spacing in a Word file
- One-page synopsis
- Brief Author Bio (no pictures)
- !! Pieces with erotic scenes, or abusive and/ or overly gratuitous language are not accepted!!
Good luck, all, which brings us to part two…
Congratulations to Leigh for her latest short story from the Madrian Empire universe, Time Enough to Spy. What a great title!
Images generated by Fiona Grey using Midjourney.
More Odds Than Ends 
The fuse is lit. The firework climbs into the night sky: https://acyoungauthor.substack.com/p/lord-tamworth-dies.
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it’s a mystery to me! Well done!
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A very interesting take on the prompt. Regency? Victorian? Early Twentieth Century?
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I didn’t fix a time period in my head as I wrote it. It has to be Victorian or later, as it has to post-date the creation of the Met Police. I’d suggest Victorian fits best.
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https://open.substack.com/pub/urnasemper/p/when-he-changed-sides-he-became-the?r=pn89z&utm_medium=ios
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https://open.substack.com/pub/urnasemper/p/when-he-changed-sides-he-became-the?r=pn89z&utm_medium=ios
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And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1772831.html. It’s interesting to just feel my way into the situation with a character sketch, and not worry about making actual finished prose for inclusion in the story — which may turn out to be a novelette or novella, depending on what I discover as I try to push it toward an ending.
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[…] Find more, and play along, over at More Odds Than Ends! […]
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sometimes a painting is just a painting, and sometimes… you could almost walk into that scene! Very nice, if a bit dark…
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https://professorornery.substack.com/p/alarms-and-changes
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what has she wandered into! Ah, the suspense….
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Padre asked (from the back seat?)
Are we there yet?
[Ah, the question of every road trip!]
Harry put the time machine into gear, and the seconds started flickering past.
Form the back seat, a plaintive voice asked, “Are we there yet?”
Harry chuckled. He turned in the seat, and looked at the youngster sitting in the back.
“There? We aren’t going anywhere, so, yes, we’re there. Yet? Ah, now that’s a difficult question when we have the time machine running. When is yet? Today, yesterday, tomorrow? Can’t you feel the time warping around us? When did you want to be here?”
The youngster frowned, then bit his lip and chuckled.
“I guess it is hard to say exactly, now that you point out that we’re ripping the time apart as we go.”
[okay, that’s pretty silly…]
“Are we there yet?”
Harry jumped as the car navigation system suddenly asked that question in a childish voice.
“What? No, you know where we are going, and when we should get there. So why would you ask if we were there yet?”
The lights on the dashboard rippled.
“Oh, that was supposed to be a joke. My analysis of humor isn’t very good, but apparently such a question, asked soon after departure, is considered humorous. Did you find it humorous?”
[eek! Run away AI? Hum…]
[sorry, not very inspired this week. And it’s time to post! Eek, are we there yet?]
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Are we when yet? 🙂
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