While I wait for the final pieces of wisdom from my Beta Readers (and believe me when I tell you that the advice I’ve received so far has been excellent — if you’ve never used Beta Readers before, why not? Start now. You can thank me later) I’m planning number seven.

For the first time the germ of this story comes from the title. My teen-aged son and I were double-entendre word playing and “Unprotected Sax” was yelled out. Not sure, in hindsight, if it was him or me, but it hung there for a second and I thought “Damn, that’s a great title.”

Turns out it’s been used for more than a few Jazz collections, so I guess I was right.

Anyway…

A title is not a story. We (son and I) riffed for about half an hour on location (Miami), characters and a rough story line (hint: it involves mobsters, and because it’s in Miami, characters from “Book ‘Em” and “Family Matters” will appear).

And whenever I’m planning a new story, I refer to Larry Brooks brilliant “single sheeter” with all of the questions you need to answer before you write a single word.

Check it out. It hasn’t failed me yet. “The Single Most Powerful Writing Tool You’ll Ever See That Fits On One Page“.

And he’s not overselling it.