The other day my mother-in-law informed me that she wanted to write a novel. Her enthusiasm and passion about the project caused me to think back on my own experience as a writer. To say the least, my journey has certainly been filled with lots of ups and downs. Heck, how I got through the first year still boggles me. I dove into my project head first and completed the entire draft within ten months. Then, without editing the piece, I proudly posted the story on an online critique site, half expecting the reviewers to gush over it. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed by the feedback I received. I learned there were enough point of view shifts to inflict whiplash on a reader. My plot had more holes than a warehouse filled with Swiss cheese, and the characters were one-dimensional. Essentially, my grasp of the basic fundamentals of fiction writing was nonexistent. After licking my wounds for about three months, I realized I missed...