Elements of Fiction (61)

Element 61: Resolution

At the end of Conflict and Tension and Suspense (and hopefully including some character Growth) comes, finally, the resolution. This is why the reader has kept at it, so you better not disappoint, or he or she will never read you again.

Keep in mind that the resolution, while surprising and perhaps even way out of left field, still must make perfect sense. The reader must be able to put down the book with an “Of course.”

The usual suspects have pondered this element as well. Ayn Rand included, “The climax is that event or development within a story where all the struggles of the characters are resolved. Naturally, it comes near the end; how near depends on the nature of the story. Sometimes the climax is the very last event; usually, however, a few closing events are needed to show the consequences of the resolution.”

And, of course, John Gardner, “The outcome, surprising or not has to follow from the story.”

“When no further event can take place.”

“A story raises expectations. The resolution meets them.”

“Any event that seems to the given reader startling, curious, or interest laden can form a climax of a possible story.”

Percy Lubbock observes, “Everybody feels the greater force of the climax that assumes its right place without an effort, when the time comes, compared to that in which a strain and an exaggerated stress are perceptible.”

William Zinsser’s great observation, “The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.”

And here are a few more thoughts from Ayn Rand, “This is the pattern of a complex plot climax — a climax in action, not merely in discussion. I had to devise an action that dramatized and resolved all of the above conflicts (and many smaller ones), showing in each case which side wins, which one loses, and why.”

“The climax is the stage at which the worst consequences of the plot-theme conflict come into the open and the characters have to make their final choice.”

“You can judge a story’s climax by asking: Has it resolved the central conflict? If not, the story is badly constructed.”

“If you know the plot-theme of your story, you will know what is the proper climax, and whether or not you are letting your story down. If the central conflict merely peters out — or if it is resolved unclearly, so that the reader does not really know what final decisions the characters have made — this is an improper ending.”

“Never resolve a smaller issue after the climax. In a story with multiple threads, the problems of lesser characters, if not involved in the climax, have to be solved before the climax.”

Percy Lubbock weighs in with, “The climax ought to complete, to add the touch that makes the book whole and organic; that is its task, and that only. It should be free to do what it must without any unnecessary distraction, and nothing need distract it that can be dealt with and dispatched at an earlier stage.”

And this famous quote from Anton Chekhov, “Never hang a gun on the wall in the first act if you don’t intend to have it go off in the third.”

Another great Gardner quote, “For the climax to be not only persuasive but interesting, it must come about in a way that seems both inevitable and surprising.”

As for Flannery O’Connor, “You should end on what is most important.”

While E.M. Forster quips, “If it was not for death and marriage, I do not know how the average novelist would conclude.” E.M.

How about this from William Sloane, “When does the novel end? It ends when it has consumed its own material, the actions terminated, the tensions resolved. Just as there must be nothing superfluous in a novel, so there must be nothing left over after it ends.”

And this from Philip Gerard, “A trap is trying too hard to force your novel to a preconceived ending. That’s the central paradox of writing the novel: You have to know where it’s going, but when it speaks to you, shows you a better direction, you have to be ready to abandon you plan and listen to the story. It’s enough to drive you crazy.”

Neil Gaiman muses, “There was some kind of ending, but once the story was underway the real ending became inevitable.”

“Sometimes the only way I would know that a story had finished was when there weren’t any more words to be written down.”

Here an important piece of advice from Cynthai Ozick, “If you’re writing a story and are confused about the end, go back to the beginning.”

And I’m going to let Anton Chekhov have the last word, “At the end of the story or novel I must artfully concentrate for the reader an impression of the entire work, and therefore must casually mention something about those whom I have already presented.”

Happy writing.

© Wolfstuff