Work for Week 7: resolution

The end of a story – and again remember I’m using the term ‘story’ in a very general sense to mean the narrative element that we find, not just in fiction, but also autobiography, jokes, anecdotes, poems, plays -  must in some way be unexpected.   

Ends can be unexpected in different ways.

To do with the plot:                           somebody does or reveals something changes the                                                                                              resolves the whole situation

To do with character:           The main character has some sort of ‘epiphany’

                                                   which makes them see the situation differently

Ends can be treated in different ways

     Explicitly:                           The final twist or thought is directly described

     Implicitly:                          The final twist or thought is suggested so that it                                                                                                slowly dawns on the reader

Some ends can be left hanging, as when the reader is left with a further dilemma an ‘out of the frying pan’ kind of conclusion

           

Write the (a possible) resolution (not more than a page) of the text you’re working on

Be prepared to ‘talk around it’  a little to explain what sort of an end it is, and how it provides an element of the unexpected.    This of course will spoil the full impact of it, but the point of the exercise is to do with thinking about the overall wholeness of the piece for yourself.  Obviously you’ll need to think through the form of the piece as a whole, and make sure that all the loose ends get tied up  (if not, should they be there?)