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I’ve been cruising towards the finale of my second draft of Shadow of the Black City. Threads are coming together. The characters are poised to make decisions that cannot be undone.
It’s just that I’m not exactly sure how it all goes down. I have the big idea, just not the details that provide a satisfying ending for me.
In my first draft, I powered through the ending with the idea that I would likely rework it next time around. In doing so, I created an unsatisfying conclusion to the story and it left me at loose ends after I put the manuscript away.
I’d like to avoid that this time around. I want to feel good about the way the story wraps up. I don’t mind some loose ends, or vagueness; I’m thinking of the possibilities of subsequent novels, after all. I’d like to put this draft down for a couple of weeks knowing there is more work to do, but that the work is detail work, not reworking the whole thing.
I’m revisiting resources for their take on the essence of a satisfying ending. Here are a few excerpts that I’ve found helpful.
Here are some nuggets I like from Chapter 13, Crisis, Climax, Resolution, of Story by Robert McKee:
The protagonist’s quest has carried him through the Progressive Complications until he’s exhausted all actions to achieve his desire, save one. He now finds himself at the end of the line. His next action is his last. No tomorrow. No second chance. This moment of dangerous opportunity is the point of greatest tension in the story as both protagonist and audience sense that the question, “How will this turn out?” will be answered out of the next action. (p. 303)
The Crisis must be true dilemma–a choice between irreconcilable goods, the lesser of two evils, or the two at once that places the protagonist under the maximum pressure of his life. (p. 304)
The dilemma confronts the protagonist who, when face-to-face with the most powerful and focused forces of antagonism in his life, must make a decision to take one action or another in a last effort to achieve his Object of Desire. (p. 304)
Climax is a revolution in values from positive to negative or negative to positive with or without irony– a value swing at maximum change that’s absolute and irreversible. The meaning of that change moves the heart of the audience. (p. 309)
The action that creates this change must be pure, clear and self-evident, requiring no explanation. Dialogue or narration to spell it out is boring and redundant. (p. 309)
James Scott Bell in Plot and Structure hits on the one thing I’ve been guilty of in this second draft: Avoiding the rush. He offers three suggestions to avoid rushing your ending (p. 111):
- Dream– The most original material in our writer’s body dwells in dreamland. And the nice thing is it can happen all the time. You can dream at night involuntarily, or you can daydream at will…You can encourage daydreams by listening to music…Do some daydreaming and make notes. What you come up with may be the perfect image or scene for your ending.
- Think Big – Don’t pull your punches at the end. Pour everything you have into it. You can always scale back during the rewrite. But you need good material to work with, and that comes from being passionate and working at optimum creativity on your ending.
- Take Your Time – This requires discipline. Don’t back yourself into a tight deadline corner. If you need to take a daylong break before you begin writing your ending, have the flexibility to take it.
In this article, Crista Rucker suggests three keys to a great ending:
- Inevitability– Your reader should feel like the ending is the logical conclusion to all the scenes leading up to it.
- The character’s actions create the ending – Decisions the main character makes directly cause the ending of the book.
- Create an ending that actually ends the book – There must be resolution to the main conflict.
I’ll leave you with the Traveling Wilburys and their song The End of the Line. What I hear when I listen to this song is that it’s up to me to make things happen, just like my main character. Even though I’m reading the opinions of others as to what makes a good ending, it’s still up to me to make the ending and get it down in words. Can’t argue with that.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA]
Excellent post, Jonathan! I’m printing it and keeping it by my side as I roll through my last chapters. I like the part about taking your time and taking a day off, if necessary, because I found I’ve had to do this recently.
I especially like it because you use the Traveling Wilburys at the end. 😉 May their music live forever!
Thanks!
Teresa
So glad the post is timely for you! I think the Traveling Wilburys is THE best superstar group in the history of rock. Seriously. Blind Faith was pretty darn good, but not consistently like TW. I love the little tribute to Roy Orbison in that video.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
I feel a bit similar to you in that as I get deeper into my manuscript my writing is becoming tighter and stronger. Part of this is because I know the characters better and have more confidence in my abilities, but I am also writing slower and more conscientiously. I revised the first few chapters for a critique group and it was so painful and took so long that I am trying to add a little more of the ‘ole quality in with the quantity now.
I’m hoping there’s a threshold that we eventually cross where quality and quantity can coexist from the get go – or at least the beginnings of quality. Next time around, I plan on using summary outlines for my work before I commit to full a draft, the idea being that I can weed out more of the dead ends. So far I’ve found that preparation allows me to write deeper into the story so I can focus more on the finer points earlier rather than just story.
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Yes, it is a great post, Jonathan!
I am particularly paying attention to this one: Take Your Time – This requires discipline. Don’t back yourself into a tight deadline corner.
I am working on it…convincing myself.
Good luck, and I hope it all pulls together for you.
Thanks for the luck! I can always use extra. Glad the post could be of some use to you.
Endings spring out at me. I’m rambling away, getting bogged down in the middle of my story, and then an ending usually occurs to me out of the blue. Sometimes, it changes as I get closer to it, but I usually get a rough idea.
That’s awesome. I’m thinking that next time around I’ll develop my ending early on to give me a more concrete target. We’ll see how it goes. Probably one thing that is troubling me is writing an ending for a book that could potentially have follow ups but still be satisfying if it winds up being the only one. Ah, the joys of the learning curve!
I think it’s important not to tie up every loose-end if you want to write a sequel.
My plan is to leave some overarching story lines unresolved, but tie up the main conflict of the MC. I’ll be prompting my first readers to identify how satisfying the ending is and if they want to know more. That’s the plan, anyway. Thanks for the feedback!