Writing Nowaday–Crashing the End

You’re writing climax of your book. Your protagonist is facing insurmountable odds or an unsolvable problem. You already know how the protagonist will win through in the end, and he’ll do it by confronting one of his basic flaws. You’re all set!

Now go back and screw it up.

Seriously. Your ending is too smooth, too easy. The climactic moment needs to be a little more complicated, a little more difficult. The original was probably something like this:

1. Final problem rushes toward protagonist. T...