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Once upon a time, in the dark ages before the advent of the Internet, a young mother dreamed of writing fiction.

She said, “How do I learn to write a story?” but there was no one to answer.

She went to her small-town library and whispered the question to her librarian. Very, very quietly the librarian replied, “Here are the books that teach you how to write,” and showed her the shelf.

All eight books came home with her. She read them. They talked about points-of-view and plots and conflicts and sentence structure. How was that supposed to help? She didn’t know where to start so, after three weeks, she took the books back and fixed many more lunches.

Time went on, and the dream of writing fiction rekindled. But once again, there was no one to show the way. The library had nine books now, but adding a description of the hero’s journey was no help to her. She returned the books to the library, no wiser than before, and folded many loads of laundry.

More time passed. One day she said, “No, really! I want to learn to write a story.” And the sun shone upon her that day, because the Internet had been invented and there were people—mentors—who freely gave advice, some of it good. And. . .some of it not so good.

A few more years passed. She learned to turn ideas into plots and plots into stories. She learned the long, slow, hard way because her mind needed to find all the ways that didn’t work before finding ways that did. She wrote one novel, then another and another until she’d written ten.

And one novella, which she sold to a traditional publishing house.

She began to mentor other writers. She taught workshops online and, later, at regional conferences. To her astonishment, she loved teaching. Loved seeing the “aha” moment. Loved sharing the multitude of ways that didn’t work for her, but might work for someone else. Loved talking shop.

Along the way, she remembered what it felt like in the beginning, when she knew nothing. When the information available overwhelmed her, and when she just needed to get a glimpse of the over all process, from beginning to end.

Then she had a thought. What if she started a website? What if she wrote a course on how to write a story, one that didn’t get too bogged down in details but showed the process? One that pointed to other resources, like blog posts, how-to books, deeper courses, or other helps? What if she made it free?

“Aha,” she thought. “That is what I will do.”

And she did.

She’d like to invite you to come and learn to write a story with her. It’s FREE, more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and guaranteed to give your characters their own happily ever after—at least if you want them to have one.

Come to To Write a Story and join her big adventure!

“She” is Valerie Comer, an author and blogger Where Food and Faith Meet Fiction. Valerie is passionate about locally grown real food, about her walk with Jesus, and about her granddaughters. (She did tell you a lot of time had passed!) Her novella “Topaz Treasure” is part of Rainbow’s End, an inspirational romance collection set during a geocaching event in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks.