Once upon a time, in a tiny hamlet in the high mountains, there was a Captain with eight children and a nanny who sang lovely songs and created exquisite garments from draperies. No wait – different mountains. Sorry.

Once upon a time, in a tiny hamlet in the high mountains of COLORADO – yeah, that’s the ticket – there was a beautiful maiden who wrote love stories. (I made the beautiful maiden part up, but heck, that’s what I do, I make stuff up.)

The anal, practical part of said maiden/writer now stands, arms crossed, foot tapping. Get on with it. Stop fooling around.

Whatever, fine.

I am Jaxine Daniels and, online, most folks just call me Jax. I do, indeed live in the high mountains, in Westcliffe, Colorado. I’m an EMT and have served both on the local ambulance and on Search and Rescue. I’ve been writing for about six years and my fourth book, first in a pararescue military romance series, is out April ‘05 from Wings ePress. I do invite you to check out my website www.jaxinedaniels.com.

Okay, that’s done. Moving on.

Welcome to the introduction of my new column for the Cataromance newsletter, Story Tips from the Big Screen. In this monthly column, I will be exploring screenwriting techniques that will help fiction writers tell a better story. Sometimes we get tunnel vision, focusing on craft to the exclusion of learning what makes a good story.

Likely, there will be very little here that will be earth shattering or completely new. But sometimes, all we need is to look at a topic from a different perspective. So that’s what I hope to do, look at some of the things that make a good story.

Some of the topics I’d like to look at are three act structure, the two minute movie, loglines, developing your core story. I may take a look at scene and sequel from a screenwriting perspective.

Sit back and relax, grab your hot chai, iced tea, latte or breve (my personal weakness – like y’all care) and maybe we can pick up a tip or trick that will make us better storytellers and story sellers. If all else fails, I’m sure to become world famous for this column, sell a gabillion copies of my books and retire to Aruba.

Until next month, BICHOK – Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard. Cheers, jax

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