By Melissa Coleman

There’s this thing that happens when you publish a first book—people suddenly assume you know what you’re doing. Truth is, after all those years of struggle and reward, you may have figured out the first one but that doesn’t make the next any easier. Herein, the tale of how a screenwriting class helped ease the pain.

About eight months following the successful publication of my first book, the new story I wanted to write was withering under attempts to bring it to life on the page

By Melissa Coleman

It was on a particularly trying day near the end of summer 2005 that I knew I had to start writing again. I’d had identical twin girls in February and my mommy patience was stretching to the limits of its elastic cord, threatening breakage. I’d been working on a novel before I got pregnant, but found that pregnancy and nursing demanded all of the creative energies I’d previously put into writing