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What?!? The Story Ended How?!?

Tuesday, March 13, 2012 10:00

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Christine Fonseca, Author

Welcome to another edition of Tip Tuesday. But before we get to that, I wanted to let you know about today’s LACRIMOSA tour stop. Angela Brown is featuring part 2 of the World Premiere of my reading of LACRIMOSA. Be sure to stop over and enter the giveaway for Nesy’s favorite things, including a copy of UNDER THE NEVER SKY. Or click here to enter it from this post.

And now, I’d like to welcome Jennifer Nielsen to the blog today for Tip Tuesday. Jennifer is the author of the forthcomingbook, THE FALSE PRINCE (Scholastic, Apr `12). It received a starred review fromPublishers Weekly, who called it “an impressive,promising story with some expertly executed twists.” Jennifer is involved in along-term love affair with old books, mountain air, and dark chocolate. Mostlythe chocolate.

Today, Jennifer is talking endings – story endings. Take it away, Jennifer:

Story Endings with a Bang

Likenearly the rest of the planet, I loved HUNGER GAMES. But what converted me wasthe amazing ending. Suzanne Collins set up a dangerous premise in which I wascertain there was no way for the book to leave me feeling satisfied for all thecharacters in the end. But everything came together perfectly for me.

Ithink of stories as a contract between the writer and the reader. The writer makescertain promises from the beginning: is the reader embarking on a fantasticaladventure, diving into a mystery, or opening their heart to the most vulnerableemotions? Whatever the promise, by the end the reader will expect the payoff.The feeling that the journey begun in the early pages was completed to hersatisfaction.

Theway to achieve this is to know the goal of your story, which is the biggestthing your protagonist wants for this story. It might be external or internalto the character, and might be positive (to get something) or negative (to getrid of something). A proper story goal should be big enough that pursuing itwill require your protagonist to change, and achieving it will impact othercharacters. If the goal is not big enough, then your conclusion will be weak.

Ifyou’ll forgive the shameless self-promotion, an example of this is with mybook, THE FALSE PRINCE. The central character, Sage, is an orphan who becomescaught up in a plot where he must either learn to impersonate the lost princeof the country, or else he will be killed. His story goal then is to survive,but hopefully to avoid treason as well.

Onceyou’ve created a strong story goal, the next step is to begin to tighten thefree space around the characters. The rising action of the story will narrowtheir choices, push them into acting, or changing, or making the hard decision.This continues until the story’s climax.

Theclimax becomes the decision point for the protagonist. The moment when theyeither will or will not achieve their goal. If it’s a strong enough goal, then thestory leads you to one of three climaxes: Recognition, where the character hasan eventual epiphany and puts all the pieces in place, like with a mystery.Decision point, where the character is finally forced to the ultimate decision,such as Frodo on Mt. Doom. Or third, a final battle, either internally orexternally, where all hope rests in a last confrontation.

Asyou plan your story endings, think of the Chinese symbol for crisis. It’sactually the combination of two words: danger and opportunity. The greater thethreat upon your character, externally or internally, physically oremotionally, the greater the opportunity for a story that ends with a bang.

Thank you for this great post Jennifer. And like you, I was left satisfied with Hunger Games too. Great advice for us today!

What do you guys think? What makes a great story ending for you?

And don’t forget to shoot over to Angela’s blog and check out the next part of LACRIMOSA.

Read more at Christine Fonseca, Author

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