Media Composer-FIRST
Avid has finally started working on a pared down version of media composer for those possible used the old Liquid intermediate version of NLE from Avid. The consumer version is Pinnacle, easy to use but always costing you to add effects and plugins. Then you go right into professional MC with the whole gamit of options, this is the direction I went, just diving right into the difficult learning curve of Avid.
Now there is an intermediate option with Media composer First. Not sure the cost but seems it will have a lot of options to create story and worry less about the editing.