(Alice) Adams sometimes followed a pattern she called ABDCE in outlining a short story, which she described to her friend Anne Lamott. "The letters stand for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw [the reader] in, make us want to know more. Background is where you ... see and know who these people are, how they've come to be together, what was going on before the opening of the story. Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about. The plot – the drama, the actions, the tension – will grow out of that. You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way. And then there is the ending: what is our sense of who these people are now, what are they left with, what happened, and what did it mean?"
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Alice Adams (August 14, 1926 - May 27, 1999)
Awarded O'Henry Lifetime Achievement Award
and Best American Short Stories Award
Careless Love
Second Chances
Almost Perfect
This week on Writing from the Peak:
* The Writer's Greatest Fear Robert Vincent
* Scene Writing Series Part XII: Polarity Jax Hunter
* Sweet Success! Ronnie Lee Graham Kathie Scrimgeour
* The Writer's Greatest Fear Robert Vincent
* Scene Writing Series Part XII: Polarity Jax Hunter
* Sweet Success! Ronnie Lee Graham Kathie Scrimgeour
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