Joy Don Baker The four young women in the Nurseketeers series were born one afternoon at the movies. I arrived early for a chick flick, although I no longer remember its title. With a journal in hand and time before the show, I found something else to watch. Four women entered the theater and sat several rows below me. The five of us were the only people in the theater. As they talked amongst themselves, I took notes. I identified each woman by her hair color or clothing. Ms.

Most openings don’t fail because the prose is bad; they fail because the reader can’t tell what kind of story they’ve entered, who they’re following, or why they should keep turning pages. The 3-Scene Test is a fast diagnostic you can run on your first pages. It doesn’t require a full rewrite, just three scenes (or three distinct beats) that prove your opening is doing its job. What the 3-Scene Test checks By the end of your first three scenes, a reader should have three anch

Join the Nurseketeers in the effort to be “one for all and all for one.” The Nurseketeers is about paying forward to the profession and...