Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
Look At Me—I'm So Much Like You
The beginning of the diary introduces us to Alice, a strikingly familiar Everygirl. She has all the typical concerns of a young teenager: friends, boyfriends, fitting in, dealing with crippling insecurity, you know the drill. This sets us up for the rest of the book in two ways: It lets us get to know Alice before the proverbial poo hits the fan, and it also establishes a relationship between Alice and the reader, so that we will actually care when the poo starts to fly. And importantly, Alice could be just about anyone, anywhere—in other words, we know her.
Rising Action
Do Drugs, Run Away, Call Home for Rescue, Repeat
The rising action begins when Alice gets her first experience with LSD. Up until her friends decided to drug her without her knowledge, her problems were pretty minor stuff. But once she starts really hanging out with Lucy-in-the-Sky-with-Diamonds, her life begins to get much more complicated. She starts befriending less-than savory characters, she tries everything from pot to crack, she even starts selling drugs to little kids.
Then she enters a cyclical pattern of running away, hitting the bottom, and then calling home for rescue. Each time she takes off, however, the stakes get just a little higher, and her low point gets even closer to rock-bottom. The reader is left wondering: "Is this where she finally realizes that drugs aren't all they're cracked up to be?"
Climax
Peanuts are Better Without LSD
Things really come to a head when Alice overdoses on chocolate-covered peanuts. In fairness, she overdoses on the LSD that she didn't know was on the peanuts, but we've all been there, right? Chocolate is so good.
Anyway, this marks the point when Alice decides that drugs can be really scary, and not quite worth the hassle they've become in her life. It's also the most trouble she's ever been in; not only are her parents fully involved, but the court steps in and requires her to go to a mental hospital. Alice has finally gotten in so deep that she can't just call home and have her daddy pick her up—she is forced to face her addiction and what it has made her become.
Falling Action
Pull Yourself Together, Alice
The falling action of our tale begins when Alice is released from the institution. She gradually reintegrates into her old life (that is, the life she had before she started doing drugs), and she also slowly reinvents herself with a healthier self-image. Things are going so well, in fact, that readers might be compelled to roll their eyes a little bit—you know, yeah, yeah, we get it, etc. Either the book needs to end or she needs to rediscover crack, because this goody-two-shoes bit gets a little heavy-handed.
Resolution
See You Later, Alligator… Or Not.
The resolution of the book happens rather abruptly. One minute we are reading about how Alice's birthday is coming up and she's really feeling good about stuff, and the next—wham—an editor's note is stating that she overdosed and died. Bummer.