Writing the End of a Story

As you write to the end, keep in mind where your character is going, what she believes she needs to confront in order to be complete or to make up for what happened at the crisis, and that one thing she’s been waiting to do her entire life. Identify the special skills and knowledge she needs to succeed at the climax.

SPECIAL NOTE:

Next month is PlotWriMo when I guide you through re"vision"ing your plot arc for a major rewrite in the new year.

While awaiting December 1st, I offer plot tips via Twitter and Facebook to ensure your success in achieving your writing goals during NaNoWriMo and thus have a rough draft to revision throughout December.

I hope to periodically extend more in-depth plot support on this blog during November, though I'm mostly saving my energy for next month when I'll blog about each new revision step everyday for the entire month.

Of course, you can always create plot while you write during NaNoWriMo with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.

Coming Soon! 
The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing. Available for pre-order now. Ships 12/12.

More Plot Tips: 

1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of

The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

2) For plot concepts and insight into the roller-coaster ride writing a novel, memoir, screenplay can be, read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

3) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

4) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

#1 Plot Problem for Writers

I am often asked what the #1 problem writers have with plot. My answer varies, depending on the most recent plot consultation or plot workshop I've just done.

Today I say as I have before, the #1 plot problem writers struggle with is the climax and resolution.

So much time and thought and writing goes into developing a compelling protagonist with a mysterious back story, deciding where is the exact right beginning of the story, how to make the action exciting and the book concept big, the details just right, the dialogue snappy, the setting exotic, the crisis disastrous.

I rarely (and I mean rarely) find a writer who has thoroughly thought out the climax and written the end quarter of the story as many times or more than the beginning.

Sure, writers bog down in the middle and thus the climax seems incredibly far away -- nearly out of reach. By the time a writer limps her way to the climax, the story is lucky to have an ending at all, much less an ending that is meaningful and different and leaves the reader satisfied and wanting more.

The end of a romance novel, even if it is for a teen, especially if it is for a teen, is so much more than... they lived happily ever after. You have been so careful not to use cliched phrases, metaphors, settings and have worked to make every element uniquely your own. Why settle for a cliched ending?

When a character rises in triumph at the climax. What does she look like, act like? In the resolution, what does the world look like now that she is new and different and transformed and has shared the gift she came to share?

Everyone is looking for answers. Stories offer a new vision to replace the old, especially now that so much of the old world order falls apart.

Take an ending you're sure has no value and turn it on its ear. See the ending from a different angle or perspective. Write that.

Strive to give the reader something new and fresh and miraculous...

To familiarize yourself with the Universal Story and the basic plot terms in the above blog post:

1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3 Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. A directory the book examples and plot elements discussed is to the left of this post.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

See the Crisis for What it is and Keep Writing

I'm trying something new today -- embedding the new video in the Plot Book Group Series in this blog post. It's a first for me. We'll see how it works.

(P.S. -- A big reason I'm talking about the Crisis today is because it's that time in November for Nanowrimo writers to be writing the Crisis.

In order to have a solid beginning, middle and end by November's end, write the Crisis today and tomorrow...)

For more support about the Crisis and highest point in the entire story so far:

1) Check out Chapter 10 of: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Available as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch:

• How to Write a Crisis scene

For more about writing the Middle of your novel, memoir, screenplay:
• Rediscovered Skills and Knowledge in the MIddle
• Cause and Effect in the Middle (using The Help by Kathryn Stockett)
• Character Emotion and Thematic Significance
• Creating Conflict & Tension in Preparation for Crisis
• Developing Threshold Scene after Crisis

For more about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Establish 4 Energetic Plot Markers First

Writer labels herself as a "plotter" during our plot consultation. Whether you call yourself the same or write more by the "seat of your pants", strive to identify the following 4 Energetic Markers in your story as early in the process as possible:

• The End of the Beginning
  
• The Halfway Point
  
• The Crisis
  
• The Climax

Since the writer has revealed to me all the defining traits of a classically left-hemisphere dominate writer, such a task of analyzation brings up no resistance from her. However, she did need help defining the four scenes for both the protagonist and the love interest, too.

Once the scenes are in place on a simple Plot Planner (my apologies for the missing marker -- the Halfway Point, it's coming in the new book) -- she is better able to see the deeper meaning and energetic flow of her story.

I'm having a tough time knowing all this info and so much more is coming in the Plot Whisperer book but... not until October. (The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of the Universal Story Structure Any Writer Can Master is now available for pre-order!) Hate to make you wait. In the middle of final, tiny edits on the galleys and don't have time to go into this further now. In the meantime, I hope the videos help.

For tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!

Thematic Significance for Writers

As corny as it sounds, I'm wild about thematic significance. I mean if the Universal Story longs to manifest, what better way than through a story's deeper themes?

There are writers who excel at writing character-driven stories and those who prefer action-driven stories. Also, though I've found rarer, are writers who lean toward theme-driven stories. 

Jodi Picoult in Change of Heart, shows the affects the dramatic action has on the characters' emotional development in order to bring to the fore themes about the life sentence, abuse, loss, redemption and love.

When the Killing's Done by T. S. Boyle is another thematic significance plot driven novel. 

Interestingly, both of the two theme-driven writers, use multiple viewpoint characters, each with their own chapters, with a clear first line for each switch in point-of-view and creates a minimum of confusion. When readers are immediately pulled into the next character’s mind and body, readers they have little reason to feel they will miss the character they just were connected to. And, each character has a very definite point of view about the issues at hand though the protagonist's change overtime to fulfill the role of the protagonist -- the character who changes the most in the story by the dramatic action

In the first quarter of When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle, two characters alternate chapters told from their own points of view. The beginning chapters of the story are Alma’s introduction told through her grandmother’s story. The third chapter focuses on Alma herself and begins by firmly grounding the reader.

"Though Alma is trying her hardest to suppress it, the noise of the freeway is getting to her. She can’t think to slice the cherry tomatoes and dice the baby carrots, can’t clear her head, can barely hear Micah Stroud riding the tide of his emotions through the big speakers in the front room."

These two sentences immediately thrust the reader into the scene. They, showing who is doing what, how the action is emotionally affecting her, and a general idea where she is. and They also offering specific details that define herAlma: living near a noisy freeway, knowing how to cook, listening to music that rides the tide of the singer’s emotions, and a love ofloving music that is strong enough that she owns big speakers.

The next chapter switches to the male character’s point of view. 

"If there is one thing he hates, it’s a runny yolk."

That’s about all the reader needs to read in order to know the main character in this chapter. He’s opinionated and narrow-minded.

By including a reference to the stereo speakers in the female point of view ties these two major viewpoint characters together long before the reader is given any other clues of other connections, one of which Alma prefers stay a secret.

The speakers also foreshadow both character's propensity to want to broadcast, get on a soap box to proclaim their point of view about the right of eradicating invasive species to bring an island back to the balance of the past versus the right of animals to life.

Though the themes that drive you to write play out more subtly in your stories, still the search for the meaning beneath our actions and into a universal truth serves the Universal Story well.

For tips about the Universal Story and writing a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. Enjoy!