Dear Author: Wrap it Up with a Wow!
Endings are tough. How many writers deliver a great read through Act II but cannot tie up Act III? This is where we:
1. Pull together all the plot threads .
2. Show how the hero has changed and deserves to win.
3. Create the final, most powerful confrontation between hero and nemesis.
4. Make that scene emotionally cathartic for the reader.
5. Wind down in a satisfying and believable resolution.
I’ve had it go both ways. With Bitch Factor and many of my short stories, the perfect ending came in first draft. In Rage Factor and a few failed short stories, the ending was like walking on nails to conceive. My agent loved my screenplay, Invite the Devil, but wanted a “bigger” ending. She said to think “cinematically.” Excellent advice.
In real life, endings rarely come all at once or get tied up quickly and satisfactorily. One day’s struggle ends as the next one starts. That’s why we turn to books and movies for that feeling of completion. Our job as writers is to create fulfillment in a story’s final act. If we slack off here, the story’s lost.
Picture the last hill of a roller coaster. In the opening pages of your story you have set up the ending. The best ending, surprising yet totally appropriate to the situation, includes three beats:
1. Crisis: where the hero hits a wall and makes the hardest decision. Everything is lost or threatened. Reflecting on past errors, the hero resigns all hope.
In Silence of the Lambs, Clarice, stripped of her FBI validity, decides to continue her investigation, anyway, and follow the clue she’s found.
In Tootsie, Michael decides to sacrifice fame for love and reveal his deceit.
In Misery, Paul has been imprisoned, maimed, and is helpless to stop his nemesis, but decides to stop her anyway.
Heart Vs. Duty is most clearly defined during crisis. Clarice’s heart’s desire is to be an FBI investigator, yet she risks it all because she feels it’s right.
Michael will lose the woman he loves and his heart’s desire, acting, if he comes clean, but for the industry he respects, he belatedly tells the truth.
Paul’s will has been destroyed by drugs and torture, but his duty to life, his art, and his readers is to climb back out of his misery and fight.
2. Climax: despite failure, the hero summons a last whisper of resolve, draws on newly realized strength, and faces the nemesis in a final confrontation. One question to ask, is your hero out of options or out of time?
In Tootsie, Michael, with his demanding personality, is his own nemesis. Our of options, he conquers his negative personality traits by publicly stripping off his persona .
In Misery, Paul’s rescuer turns vicious jailor and forces him to write. Out of options, he sets fire to the finished manuscript, she tries to pull pages from the flames, giving him a chance to fight back.
In Silence of the Lambs, Starling’s darkest moment decision brings her unexpectedly face to face with her nemesis, a serial killer, where her only option is to fight. She eventually wins the battle and rescues the victim.
The Hero MUST face the Nemesis. This cannot be done off stage or delivered in summary. This is the Wow!–the payoff the reader gets for hanging in there throughout the story. As simple as this sounds, it’s amazing how many aspiring, and sometimes seasoned, writers wimp out. You must write it.
3. Resolution: win or lose, the hero’s choices should make the reader feel content with the outcome.
Leave the reader hungry for more. Your character has come to a new and better understanding of life, but not everything is perfect. Major plot threads need to be wrapped up, but other threads, especially subplots, may leave the reader will fill in the blanks. It’s like a good meal. You enjoy eating it, your hunger is appeased, yet you can’t pass up dessert or that after-dinner drink. You want just a taste more.
That’s the way to leave your reader: satisfied but eager for the next installment.
It’s Finally Here! Emissary, available December 2, 2014.
Join Us for a launch party December 4, 5-7 pm at: River Oaks Bookstore, 3270 Westheimer, Houston, Tx 77098, (713) 520-0061
Or Pre-Order now at charthousepress.com/books-emissary/
