Creative Writing
Tip:
The Perfect Ending
You've taken your readers on a journey of
hundreds of pages. Now, you want them to feel that the time they spent
with your story was worthwhile. You want to give them the perfect ending.
The perfect ending has the following attributes:
- Gives
the reader a sense of completion by resolving the primary story
question. Did Kirk and Katia fall in love? Did Agent Stoval stop the
terrorists in time? Did Jeremiah succeed in keeping his life of
isolation?
- Reflects the theme of your story and conveys the worldview that you want
the reader take away from your story. If you believe that love really does
conquer all, you would show the hero overcome his greatest
obstacle to be with the woman of his dreams. If you believe that
life is cruel and arbitrary, you can have an unfortunate mishap defeat
the hero with her goal almost in her grasp.
Keep in mind that the perfect ending isn't necessarily a happy ending.
Readers can tell when a "Hollywood" ending has been tacked on because it
doesn't fit the story as a whole. If a protagonist struggles with drug
addiction and winds up dying from it despite everyone's efforts to help
him, this ending would be appropriate because (a.) it resolves the primary
story question (will the protagonist beat his drug addiction), and (b.) it
reflects the theme of the story (drug addictions are hard to beat and can be
ultimately destructive).
Although it isn't necessary to tie up all loose ends in a story, you must
resolve the important ones. Otherwise, readers feel cheated because they are
unsure whether the story ended or not. Even if you are planning a sequel or
series, you must solve the primary question for
that particular story. The hero must defeat villain A and end the diabolical
scheme he tries to carry out in your book, even if that villain will escape to attack
again in a future
installment.
When you satisfy readers desire for resolution and make them feel that
reading your story was time well spent, they will want to read your next
work. That is a happy ending.
Related Topics
Creative Writing Tips
Offline
Writing Communication Tips Technical
Writing Tips
|
