Workshop: Kylie's "Love Harder"

Story Arc: Nicole is a business woman/Federal Agent who is struggling to balance her career and her family.  She finds herself stranded in an airport due to weather around Thanksgiving. While she is stranded, she meets several characters that end up making her examine her life, choices, and priorities - leading her to realize her family is the most important thing.

Compliments:  I enjoyed that this story presented the reader with a pressing problem - the storm - but that the character change was not directly related to the storm, it was Nicole having a realization about another problem in her life - the struggle to balance her life. The characterization is really strong, you definitely get a sense of who this woman is and what she notices and cares about. The interactions with other characters were pretty believable and interesting, adding a lot of depth to the piece in general.  I also really liked the detailed descriptions, especially of the storm. Also, the tone in of the piece overall is really consistent and fits with the characterization of Nicole's character.

Revisions: The concept of being stranded at the airport because of weather during the holiday season is not super original, and therefore doesn't quite do enough for me tension-wise.  I think the idea of a character being 'forced' into a self-realization via the influence of others like this could easily be done in another ramped-up setting - or maybe something else could happen at the airport to make the situation more tense, like the power going out and her cell phone dying? I also want to know more about her relationship with her family, with more specific details and example interactions. And why does she find herself so sucked into her work that it has hurt her relationship with her family (besides the commuting)? 

Such a well-written start!