Thursday, December 8, 2005

VARIATION ON A THEME

So I am just back from Disney World where I made an attempt at the end of each day to salvage my adult brain cells by reading Anne Lamott's really excellent book bird by bird. At the end of her chapter on Plot, Ms. Lamott credits Alice Adams with a formula for writing short stories that goes ABDCE, a very similar formula to one I quoted here (of unknown origin) on November 30. In Alice Adams' formula, the letters stand for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending, which definitely seems to work. (The one I quoted was ABCDE for Action, Background, Conflict, Development, Ending.) Could be I was mistaken OR this is just an alternate version. Who knows? Do what works for you. The point is, just do it.

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