Five Act Structure

Write a very short story - not more than 200 words - about a trip to the doctor or dentist using the ABDCE structure. Identify the structural elements in your story.

A – Action, B – Background, D – Development, C – Climax, E – Ending

183 word count

His arm was broken; he was sure of it. (A) There had been times when he wondered if the abuse from his father’s fists might have broken something in his body, but this time was different. (B) For a while, he had thought that every father slapped, punched, and hurt children. (D) One Day, when he was six, he had gone to school feeling sick and dizzy. His teacher had sent him to the school nurse who asked him if he had hit his head recently. He told her how the night before his dad had picked him up by his arms and slammed his head against the wall and how he deserved it because he hadn’t washed the dishes like he was s’posed to.(C) The nurse cried, which confused him, and told him that dads shouldn’t do that to their children. She told him he would start to feel better in a couple of days, and he should go see a doctor. He hadn’t gone to see a doctor then, but he had a feeling he would need to this time. (E)

Writing assignment

Write a scene of 250-350 words featuring a character with one concrete want (a table, a moose, a toothbrush, anything physical is fine!) and one weakness. Set up the story where every other sentence is a rising action. Use one word from the following list of twelve words in each sentence that has a rising action. In other words: Write your first sentence introducing your character. Make the next sentence a rising action using one of the following twelve words. Write your third sentence, which may introduce the weakness, then write your fourth sentence with a rising action that includes one of the remaining eleven words you haven’t used. And so on.

• trick
• memory
• aboard
• tiger
• pretend
• carrot
• appliance
• cage
• rings
• crow
• filthy
• explode

Use at least 6 of the 12 words, but challenge yourself to use as many of the words as possible while still meeting the word count.

(344 word count, I implemented all words from the list except appliance.)

I think I'm learning the value of a good outline

I've been working on a couple of story line ideas and I have a decent notion of what I want to do with them, but I have been wondering how to organize better. It's one thing to write a little essay and just let the creative muse take me along as I write, but it's another thing entirely (for me anyway) to attempt a much larger effort knowing it will take a lot longer to fill out. I haven't taken creative writing (or so help me if I have it's been so long that I don't remember a lick) so I'm trying to piece this together as I go.

I'm not concerned about all this taking time. Time to work on these projects is that one thing I have an abundance of (yes yes I know how fortunate I am, thanks). What does concern me is efficiency. If I were a super hero, my power would be organization and my kryptonite would be poor efficiency. Gah! I deplore the notion of wasting effort. So, anyway, I spend a little time each week (maybe a few hours) looking around at other blogs that write about writing and it's helped give me a little direction.

Today I'm thinking about outlines and how in some of my stuff a detailed outline is sort of naturally coming about yet in others the outline is superfluous. I'm trying not to dwell on it too much, but it distracts me.

Writing Prompt - What gives you a sense of security?

She always felt secure. Her entire life she had been loved and cared for by first her parents, then by her husband, and later her children. She was never without. She always had everything she ever needed or wanted, and she didn't give much thought to how fortunate she was to live such a charmed life. She was married to a wonderful and supportive husband, she had attended a prestigious university, she lived an exclusive island lifestyle, and she had children who loved and adored her. All of it was what she had been born expecting from life and her children now had the same expectation.

Writing prompt - finish this sentence: Life is short...

writing prompt - Have you ever written something that made you cry while writing it? What triggered that response?

I completed an Ironman triathlon once. In preparation for the race I decided to write myself a note of motivation. My reasoning was that in the middle of the marathon when I was given an opportunity to change my socks, eat some snacks, etc., I would read this note and it would, hopefully, help push me to keep going. This particular triathlon was long and I would be physically struggling by the mid point of the marathon. I knew I'd be in need of some mental stamina. So, I wrote myself a note.