|
Welcome to The Verb!
 "And
now, the end is near. And so I face the final... scene."
The ending of the story is the last
element on the list of things to consider prior to writing the Opinion.
It’s a bittersweet time. After we've spent weeks or months (depending on
the word count) with these characters, we must say goodbye. But say it,
we must. Otherwise we couldn’t move on to the next story.
Since the Climax provided the big
Wow! and resolved the main conflict, it’s now only a matter of
wrapping up loose ends and showing how that resolution has affected the
protag’s life.
What’s changed? And what's the best
way to show it?
Well, you could use the
Open approach, and leave "tomorrow and tomorrow" hanging in the air.
Especially appropriate when writing a series. Readers receive closure of
one conflict, but also feel the tug of more conflicts in the protag's
future. This suspenseful ending lingers in the mind, and stimulates the imagination to
continue the story after the book is closed. The ultimate reader
engagement!
Or you may use the Closed approach,
and leave no doubt the fate of the protag's tomorrows. No
mystery here. This answers all questions, fills in all gaps. This is who she was, what she did,
what she learned and what she became. The
final image, rich with detail, or the final conversation, rich with
wisdom, sums up the entire
transformation. Case closed.
Or you may choose to use the
Reflective approach, and wax eloquent. The topic may range from examining the character’s
life, or Life in general,
to summarizing the moral of the story. But tread lightly! This
approach can quickly drain the life out of the climax, particularly if it doesn't match
the tone of the rest of the novel.
So think as long and hard about your
ending as you have the other elements of your story.
The goal is to leave readers with something that elicits one response:
satisfaction. Surely the highest reward a storyteller can hope to
achieve is to have readers lower her book with an "Ahhhh!" on
their lips, and proclaim to the world: "Now, that was a great
story!"
Elizabeth Guy
Editor
 |
\
