Thursday, February 27, 2020

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)