Recently Story Grid mastermind (and my editing teacher) Shawn Coyne invited me to join The Story Grid Podcast as a guest host and lab rat for what we’re calling The Masterwork Experiment.
My job as lab rat is to complete a whole 10,000 word novella over the ten weeks of the experiment…and not just any old novella that might occur to me.
No, he’s asking me to base it beat by beat, character type by character type, on Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, but set in the English Regency.
I got this plum job because Sue Campbell, my book launch coach, writing-group co-founder, and partner in Pages & Platforms, chivvied me into submitting Restraint for consideration by Shawn’s publishing company.
Well, the novel isn’t in their wheelhouse, but Shawn liked it. My tagline of “Pride and Prejudice meets Brokeback Mountain” suggested a shorter project with an even clearer tie to Annie Proulx’s masterpiece.
The hypothesis for the Masterwork Experiment is that an experienced writer can steal and repurpose all the Lego-blocks of a great work and still create something original.
We’ll see.
Episode 1 goes live today on The Story Grid Podcast. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, or listen to it here.
