I began to be impressed by what made a good book-how you needed to have a sensible story, a plot that developed, with a beginning, a middle, and an end that would tie everything together.

Grief doesn't have a plot. It isn't smooth. There is no beginning and middle and end.

I don't care how good a song is - if it holds back the storyline, stalls the plot, your audience will reject it.

If you don't have a story that will hold the audience, you won't have a successful show.

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.

... "you'd better go first or you'd better go last. No one will remember what come in the middle."
- "So what's the point of the middle than?" I asked. "If everyone only remembers the beginning and the end?"
-"Without the middle, being first or last means nothing."
The middle gave the rest its meaning.
Like life, maybe. People were born and then they died. Everyone remembers those events. But without the life in between...