Hello.

Thank you to those of you who provided lovely feedback on my thoughts back in February on Mormon literary ambition. It's nice to know that I'm not shouting (or gently lobbing my voice) into the void.

While I do enjoy a rant/sermon/rousing speech/manifesto from time-to-time, I'm also a big believer in practical advice. To that end, I'd like to once again encourage you all to enter the Mormon Lit Blitz whether you were planning to or not, whether you've previously written literary work (of any form) or not. The deadline is May 31, and the word count per entry is 1,000 or less, so you have plenty of time.

I've been lucky enough to be a finalist several times, but I don't automatically enter (or get in) every year. What happens is that March arrives and either I have an idea or I don't. It has to be March because April and May are my busiest times for work (lots of events for prospective students, admitted students, alumni and donors, and, of course, graduates on a college campus in late spring), and while I'm not so busy I couldn't write 1,000 words, my mind usually is too tired and distracted to do so.

This year, when March arrived, I was coming off completing the first draft of two novellas and wasn't sure I was in the mood to switch gears to such a low word count. But then, as often happens, my brain rebelled at that, and I ended up writing and submitting two pieces.

Obviously, I can't tell you anything about them yet, but in both I try something new while they're also very much what you'd expect from me.

So I'm all set for this year.

But if you're not, can I direct you to Lincoln Michel's series on plot?

• Part 1: Why "Plot" Isn't a Four-Letter Word
• Part 2: The Principles of Plotting Part Two: Oscillation

Michel's discussion and examples are more about novel-length works, but the principles still apply to a story (or essay or play or comic or even poem) of a 1,000 words or less. I recommend his second essay, in particular, in relation to the Lit Blitz because the idea of oscillation is crucial to making things work in such a limited word count.

He writes: "Just as you walk stepping left to right and a bird flies flapping their wings up and down, stories need back and forth movement."

Oscillation—movement—is crucial to music and film and other art forms as well. When we think about story and plot, we tend to think of the one big arc, especially with works that follow western forms of plot: the three act screenplay, the hero's journey, etc.

But movement need not follow that, and short works are often best when they don't try to cram in a traditional story arc.

So I'd encourage you to not only enter the Lit Blitz this year, but also experiment with movement.

One way to find inspiration for that is to read previous Lit Blitz entries. But I'd also encourage you to think about other patterns, geometries, etc. you find in nature, life, culture, and Mormonism. Sure, that could be something like chiasmus or any of the other rhetorical forms found in scripture. But that could also be the flow of a church dance. Or what it's like to wrangle a toddler during a sacrament meeting (not necessarily a story on that subject, although that could be cool to, but a different setting/set of characters engaged in action that mimics that). Or a structure inspired by a prayer or a hymn or a conversation on a specific gospel topic.

Although I do tend to write characters who are (some form of) Mormon when I write Mormon literature, one thing I've also experimented with is using the patterns I find in Mormon life, history, and doctrine to provide form, structure, and/or movement. Or I find those structures elsewhere and bring them back and apply them to Mormon literature and the representation of the Mormon experience.

Maybe you don't have a subject yet for your Lit Blitz entry, don't have a character, or setting, or topic, or theme. Or maybe you do and aren't sure what to do with it.

If either is the case, start with this: what movements, what oscillations, what structures and forms interest you right now? What happens if you collide those (or gently play) with something else that's suitable for the Lit Blitz, which they define as work " designed to resonate in some way with a Latter-day Saint audience"?

I will be back in your in box at the end of June.

Unless I'm a finalist this year. I might break from the normal cadence and send out a quick email about that: I really like what I submitted this year.

Best of luck with your efforts, Lit Blitz-focused or not!