All Clear – Flash Fiction Story

September 5, 2012October 5, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

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a broken home for abrasive fiction

September 2012

ALL CLEAR

By: Sheila Good

They invited her into the room because of her expertise in the field, the family, and the doctor’s soft spot of guilt for bungling her case years ago. She stood stoic at the foot of the bed, as the code team applied paddles for the eighth time. Every time they got him back another run of ventricular tachycardia would start and his heart would stop.

“Clear!”

Rigid with interest, she didn’t want to miss a second. His body convulsed with each shock as her eyes darted back and forth from the monitor to the bed.

“Got him,” the nurse said.

She flinched. The paddles had worked for the moment. The team stepped back satisfied. A less dangerous heart rhythm danced across the screen and the steadier, stronger beeping sound of his heart rate were like ice picks to her soul.

The doctor handed the chart back to the nurse and walked over to her.

“Are you okay? “

She cut her eyes at him and waited for him to continue.

“We’ll transfer him as soon as he’s stable,” he said. “Right now, it’s just too precarious.”
She nodded feigning interest. The reality? She couldn’t have cared less.

He glanced at his buzzing pager then back at her. “He seems stable, for now. I need to check on other patients, but stay as long as you like, or if you prefer we can call you if anything happens.”

She crossed her arms, and leaned against the counter. “I’ll stay.”

He smiled, nodded his head in understanding, and gave her arm a consoling pat. “Don’t worry. I’ll check-in on him after rounds. I’m confident he’s safe with you. ”

The doctor left, and she let go, closing her eyes against the onslaught of memories. Alone in the room, she gripped her elbows as the years of hatred roared through her for the man who had stolen her childhood and robbed her of having a family.

She watched the monitor and prayed for the return dance of the V-tach across the screen. V-tach gave her hope.
“You’re here to watch me die,” he said.

At the sound of his scratchy, tired voice, she turned to face him for the first time in years. Her eyes were cold and hard. The beep-beep of his heart rate soared as their eyes met.

She stared at him, refusing to take the bait.

“I know that’s why you’re here. You hate me.”

The effort of talking and the stress of his sins were taking its toll. Short of breath, he fumbled with the oxygen mask, as beads of sweat popped out on his pasty brow, and she heard the stumble of the beeping as his heartbeat began its dance.

She pushed away from the counter and walked silently to the door, glanced out, nudging it closed before returning to the bed. His eyes followed her, uncertain.

Calmness, settled over her as she leaned in close to him, face-to-face. She smelled the fear on his breath and for the first time in a lifetime, felt free.

“You’re damn right,” she said.

– See more at: http://www.cowpasturechronicles.wordpress.com/p/all-clear-flash-fiction-story

Dominoes And Your First Chapter

August 28, 2012October 20, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 6 Comments

Imagine for a moment, going about doing the mundane things you do every day, putting a load of laundry in the dryer, reading the morning news, or making a phone call. Small things. The sorts of things you do without thinking when suddenly something unexpected happens, and your world is thrown out of kilter. You’re forced to make different decisions, change behaviors, or even your life style.

It happened to me. The past week has been eventful, to say the least. While doing routine things around the house, An unexpected event knocked me and my ordinary life off kilter, literally. BAM! Without warning, I fell unconscious to the floor!

After spending a few days in the hospital, I’m better and certain I will be fine, but will I have to do things differently than before? For a while. When all of the excitement died down, I was able to relax a bit, and the first thing I thought about was my novel. So, this is what an inciting event feels like.

More than 30,000 words into my first novel, I keep coming back to the first chapter and all its intricacies. Had I hooked my readers?

After my own inciting event, a light bulb went off. That one event created a domino effect setting off all sorts of conflicts in my life for at least the next month.

As soon as I was able, I pulled out my novel and reread the first chapter, with a new appreciation for the inciting event; everything had clicked into place. I finally got it.

I call it Newton’s effect, based on Newton’s Third Law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Something happens (inciting event), the character reacts, causing other reactions or consequences(conflicts); in essence, a domino effect.

I couldn’t wait to get back to writing and tweaking the conflicts I’d introduced in my novel.

The inciting event, introduced in the first chapter, propels your main character into action and moves the story forward. The conflicts created from the event raise the stakes and create the tension, keeping the reader turning the pages.

Falling to the floor this week has taken me and my family on a hell of a ride creating all kinds of excitement; if I can create the same in my novel, I’ll be good to go.

What about you first chapter? Did you set Newton’s effect into motion? Did the event propel your character into action? Did your character’s reaction cause conflict and complication(s)? Did the dominoes begin to fall? What happens next?

Middle Of The Novel Hibbie Jibbies

August 14, 2012October 20, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 4 Comments

Besides being quite busy this summer with family obligations and a sundry of other unexpected happenings, I have also been playing dodge ball with my novel. Okay, I’ve been procrastinating. I put my novel aside and have found every excuse in the book, not to go back to it. Now, I am trying to figure out why.

I’m almost half way through. Part of me wants to force myself to finish, and the other part of me wants to tear it apart and see where the trouble lies. Is it something about the plot? The characters? Is it the opening? Or, is it simply that I’m new at this and hitting a familiar place all newbies hit? The middle of the novel, hibbie jibbies. Maybe.

Whatever is bugging me, I will figure it out, but in the meantime, I think it best to finish what I started. I’ll make notes along the way, and I’m sure once completed I’ll have plenty of opportunity for revisions and editing.

What about you? Have you experience the middle of the novel hibbie jibbes? Please share your story of triumph in the comments.

How to Map Out Your Manuscript With Microsoft Word

August 1, 2012October 21, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 3 Comments

If you do not have a writing software program such as Scrivener, you will enjoy learning about the Document Map feature in Microsoft Word. With this feature, you can navigate your manuscript or other long document with ease.

Matthew MacNish and the Middle Grade Group at Project Mayhem has a terrific tutorial on how to use this feature. They have graciously agreed to let me share it with you. Thanks team!

Matt used Microsoft Word 2007 to demonstrate this feature. I have included snap shots of the MAC version of MS Word 2011 for those using MAC’s, as the layout is slightly different.

Document Map has been a part of MS Word since 2003. Should you have a version prior to 2007, you can find information online at MS Office Support.

In WORD, click on the VIEW tab, select Print Layout and check Document Map.

For MAC users, it will be found on the sidebar. Icons are used instead of text.

To create your first heading (Title), go back to the HOME tab and select STYLE. Type your TITLE/HEADING and click Heading 1. You may want to change the default font.

The easiest way to edit color or font in Styles is by modifying them at the same time. On MAC, look for the Icon in the STYLE box. In the Modify box, select the heading you want to modify, select all and click New Style. A box will come up where you can adjust font, text and format.

You’ll need at least one subheading to create a directory. Once you have created your document it is easy to navigate. Want to find something in a particular chapter or section, simply click on that chapter or section in your map and you will go right to

Here, is Matt’s sample Document Map outline: