Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Wednesday -- More on Plot - Reaching for the end

Now comes the hard part. How do you know when the end is reached? Is the ending what you really thought it would be? Th hardest part of ending may be saying goodbye to those characters who have become a great part of your imaginary life.

Endings can be circular or linear. They can be happy, sad or a mix of the two. Often the kind of ending written for a story is chosen by the genre and by the nature of the writer. If you're writing a romance the ending is usually happy. That's what readers expect. Hopefully the writer can reach this ending without having to tack on a short piece showing six months later the couple gets married or nine months later they welcome their first child. Think of the other genres and think of the usual endings. The bad guy is captured. The good wizard defeats the bad.

Another thing about endings is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. A satisfactory ending whether happy, sad or a mix leaves a reader feeling that the writer had accomplished what they set out to do. One that is unsatisfactory may not necessarily be so. If one reader hates the ending that is a matter of their taste. If many readers feel this way the writer has failed to accomplish what he set out to do.

The next few weeks endings and their pitfalls will be discussed.

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