Reading Response--"The Events of October"

            What I learned from reading Gail Griffin’s “The Events of October” is that structure is everything. The image of Gail in her cabin with note cards lined up and a story board and all that—it’s inspiring to think that if I could organize a story idea like that I could write a novel, I could be a writer. I write a lot but when I think of writing something big, it’s intimidating. And what’s even more intimidating is to think about taking on such a dark, emotional story that many people have strong feelings toward. I think the change up in structure at the end of the book is really brilliant. The threads that Gail weaves are subtle and the first part of the book with the chronological story structure flows naturally into the discussion that begins in chapter 10 and leads us into statistics and where we take the story from here. I had a hard time reading this book, but once I made it through, I was glad I did.