I’m about to write the climax, ending, and denouement of my story. Any suggestions for keeping the tension high, and creating a satisfying ending (even if it’s not a “happy” one)?—Lyn South
YES.
It took me three chapters to cover everything I know about this in the Art & Craft of Fiction, but I’ll summarize the main points here.
First: know why you wrote this story. What was your point? Because that’s your Climax. And if you’ve planned something else, now is the time to find out.
Second: make sure you’ve written a nice, comfy, satisfying Faux Resolution right before your Climax, after your last big Conflict that looked like it was going to take your characters down but good. They’re safe! They’re sweet! They’re happy! Awww.
Third: write your Climax as SIMPLY and DIRECTLY and HONESTLY as you know how. Do not attempt pyrotechnics. Do not try to work on your reader’s sympathies. (They don’t have any.) Do not fall into exposition. Just the facts, ma’am. Be chilling in your focus—be a laser of words.
Remember that this scene right here is the Whole Point of this story. THIS IS THE ONLY SCENE THAT MATTERS.
Last: Forget the denouement. We always think we have more to say about this than we really do. Last week I was working with a student writing a scene in which he’d planned a bunch more stuff to happen, and I told him to go home and write the rest, and he sent it to me a few days later with just one sentence added. The last sentence. It turned out he wasn’t interested in all that other stuff.
You don’t know what’s going to be in your denouement right now. You know why? Because you’re writing this story to find out. And you haven’t finished writing it yet.
It is interesting to think what paper and pencil and the wriggling words are. They are nothing but the trigger into joy—the shout of beauty—the cacajada of the pure bliss of creation.
—John Steinbeck, Journal of a Novel