What is the Heart of the Story?

You have all just published pieces of writing on which you worked long and hard. Please share what worked for you in your story and the steps you took to turn the entry in your Writer’s Notebook into a published piece. What is the heart of your story? What is the message, or the big idea you want your reader to understand? What did you do in your writing to pull in the readers and let them experience the same thing that meant so much to you?