Writing stories is more than fantastic structure. It's character, too.

This statement is something I hope to illustrate with my thesis: a collection of short stories that focus on characters at different stages in their lives. This thesis represents seven characters (not necessarily in search of an author, but an author in search of their story) who at one time were (some of them most likely still are) trapped in a structure imposed on them by their author. Though I do think these selections are more than character sketches. Maybe a better way to phrase it is character slices. If we take these stories, the first "crush" (though Brooke would be sure to call it love), the first death of someone you really cared about, the moment when all you want to do is disappear from "it all" (or try to), they are all of our stories.