The Break

by Katie Sise

The thing not everyone realizes is that writers should watch a lot of television and movies, because the art of story is laid out for you in bite-sized pieces: either a two-hour film or an hour drama usually gets the job done—beginning, middle, end. Watch the way it works: Opening conflict. Introduce your characters. Main character is actionable and drives the plot forward. Obstacles galore. Emotional conflicts everywhere. Setbacks. Twist—three or four, if you’ve got them. All characters hurtle toward a boil, and then boom: unexpected consequences. Twist again. Revelation: the truth surfaces. Resolution. Every character wants something on every page. When you figure out what that is, and how all the characters’ motivations and scheming fit together, you have a story.

think of how out of place my parents seemed when they were here, and I wonder if me living here will make me less and less like them. How much of where we are determines who we are?

know all of this lightning-quick, like a taste of sugar, a bird shot out of the sky. And a part of me accepts it, like when you stare down a massive wave and tuck under to the peaceful part of it, knowing you’ll see the sunshine again once it passes if only you can time it right.

there’s no way my husband killed a young woman. But haven’t I written enough novels and read enough true crime to know it would be a mistake to assume that? We have no idea what we’re capable of; we certainly have no idea what someone else is capable of.

She kind of comes off like a grand dame mixed with a mean girl.

It’s just we don’t usually get put in the set of circumstances that test the things we hold so dear. I mean, you might think you’d never kill for anything. But how can you really know?”