Rob Tourtelot

But I've learned that it doesn't matter what state others are in; it matters what state I'm in. Just as when two people are pulling taut a piece of string, it only takes one person to let go for the tension to end.

That is what the story is about. Not a step-by-step accounting of Charlie’s birth or the harrowing potential of a placental abruption, but a look into the horror and the beauty of the unexpected. A little moment hiding within a big event.

This is the trick to telling a big story: it cannot be about anything big. Instead we must find the small, relatable, comprehensible moments in our larger stories. We must find the piece of the story that people can connect to, relate to, and understand.

The success of Morning Pages hinges on our doing them as close to awakening as we can.

The audience wants characters (or storytellers) to succeed, but they don’t really want characters to succeed. It’s struggle and strife that make stories great. They want to see their characters ultimately triumph, but they want suffering first. They don’t want anything to be easy.