The Goal Of Writing A Story Is To Finish

This is something of a continuation on the last post, since it started out about writing the ending. I have some off the wall thoughts intrude at times. Today’s were pointed. Two song snippets came to mind in relation to this – “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “There Must Be 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”. In writing endings, the first is bad, the last is obvious

How you tie up all the plot threads for the ending will depend on how you have structured you novel (or trilogy in my case). If you visualize your plot threads as a rope, it’s easy to think about the structure. Some stories start off with a strand or two and additional threads are added as it’s spun. Through the middle of the story, it grows thicker. You may lose sight of some of those strands, but they are still there, supporting the story. Some start off with a handful of seemingly unrelated strands that are woven together as the story progresses, but may not all actually come together until the end. However they are worked together, those plot threads, and the conflicts they represent, must be resolved in the end of the story.

With any type of structure, some of the threads are resolved as the story progresses. For instance, the traitor is caught, but you still don’t know who paid him to betray his fellows. This keeps you from having a tangled mess at the end and keeps the reader from losing track of the story. There was a sequence in Selarial’s Song that involved a mercenary. The segment was important to the overall story, but the mercenary really wasn’t. I did not entirely drop his thread, however. He reappeared in Dream Song for a satisfactory resolution of that plot thread that also moved that part of story along. Remember, a plot thread is a question the story poses or a problem to be solved.

Do you have plot threads that don’t go anywhere? Ask yourself if they need to be there or if the story would fall apart without them. Chances are, if you have a plot thread that’s disappeared, it probably doesn’t need to be there. If it’s important to the story you are telling, pick it up and make sure it is resolved by the end. Don’t leave it hanging. You don’t want your story to be like a rope made by a young child with ends hanging out all over the place and generally looking like a mass of tangled string.

If a plot thread takes you to an interesting side path, but isn’t important to the main story, you might just pull it out and make another story around it later.

Equally important is to stop writing when you finish telling the story you started out to tell. Once you wrap up those loose threads, put your pen down or click save and let it be. You have achieved your goal. The story is done. Smile and pat yourself on the back.

Now it’s time to revise