Start with theme. Before we do anything else, let’s decide what the story is about. What does Grandma Julia’s life mean? Is her story about female empowerment? Is it about the white man’s arch-crime of wiping out Native America and Native American culture? Is it something specific to Grandma Julia’s family? A male-female struggle, perhaps, with a father or a husband? A great love? Is it something religious? Personal? Political? We have to work hard here. This is the toughest and most important part of the whole project.
