JohnMcFetridge - 04 December 2006 03:37 PM
About the method - does it apply to short stories as well? Is it the same three act structure, at least for the longer short stories?
Not exactly. It’s too short a flight. Here’s what Elmore says:
“There is no beginning, middle and end that I’m aware of. It [one of his short story] comes to an end at nineteen and a half pages and that was worth 100 bucks [in the pulp western days] and that was my simple formula.”
In other words, just let ‘er rip and start applying the brakes around 4000 words and end it at about 5000. He doesn’t worry about structure in something this short. Look at Three-Ten to Yuma, when they adapted it they had to add a whole first act, somewhat to the detriment of the story.
