My head is exploding from all the information from Donald Maass' workshop. Very good stuff. If you are a writer, then you definitely need to read The Breakout Novel. Excellent. And get the workbook too. Here are just a few tidbits from his workshop:

1. The Breakout Novel is a way of story telling. It's fiction that feels BIG, as in high impact.

2. Writing is about giving to the reader.

3. If you are feeling resistance to changing something about your writing, then that could possibly be your guide to where the work lies. Get to work!

4. Inner conflict is pulling a character in two different ways.

5. Readers read for the extraordinary, special, moving and powerful.

6. Revel in your writing and in the creative process.