Copper Street

And what about today?

On a side note, after some discussions with cypher and others on the comm, I wanted to recommend a few of articles by Holly Lisle that address a lot of the things I've heard you folks talk about. I don't agree with everything she ever says and have modified some of these methods over time, but I found many of her articles practical and helpful (and most importantly: successful) when I was working on my early novels.

Now that I'm coming back to writing, I also find myself gravitating toward them again.

Notecard Plotting (cypher is going to get sick of me mentioning this.)
Setting (Writing) Goals
Creating Conflict
Middles
And, finally: How to Finish a Novel

(And mind you, she's very geared toward writing for publication. Try not to get hung up on that right now.)