Part 1, Section 12, Plot Treatment Summary and Analysis

A plot treatment is a road map with directions for all the characters and action in a story. A treatment is one way of organizing all the drafts and false starts to determine what would work best for the final story. Anne's obsessive nature relating to writing leads her to discover how to develop a plot treatment.

Anne has a showdown with her editor. Preceding the meeting was several drafts and several years working on what would become one of her most successful works. Anne is too familiar with the characters and cares too much about them. In her closeness she neglects to build a connectedness between one plot point and character to the next. By defending her choices to her editor, she tore apart her story and recreated it. As a result she finds...