Secrets of Writings: Resolutions and Endings

RESOLUTION

Now your story is basically over and in this final scene you finish up the tale.

This is not a good place to wrap up plot threads. It looks clumsy if you do. Except if there is some kind of twist that your planning with one of the plot threads.

By and large, all questions raised by the story should have been answered by the time you reach this scene. Notice I don’t say scenes. The Resolution should not be a sequence. Long resolutions make for boring ends to stories. How many movies have you seen where there was this long drawn out sequence at the end, after the Climax that bored you silly? WYATT EARP has such a resolution. When I saw the film it drove me crazy.

As we discussed earlier, the Climax isn’t called the climax for nothing. After a climax, people either want to kick your story out of bed or roll over and stare at the wall. The only kind of long resolution that people like is one that serves as a small, quiet mini story that brings an emotional sense of closure to the tale.

The Resolution can also be used to set up a sequel. You could use a twist ending that’s a weaker punch than the end of the Climax, but which tells us that there’s bound to be another. Examples of this kind of ending is where the Villain appears to have been killed, the Hero walks away, and the last shot is the Villain’s hand moving or his eyes opening suddenly.

Many writers use these endings to say: “What you just saw was nothing. The best is yet to come.” There is a problem with that kind of statement, obviously. You want people to like the story they just experienced and it may be really tough to out do what you just did. So be careful with your resolutions.

REMEMBER: Keep your resolutions short.

ENDINGS

Resolutions are the ending of the story, even though the end of the Climax determines the outcome for the hero. The Resolution can put a spin on it that changes everything, however.

There are only three possible endings: Up, Down, and Ironic.

Up (also known has “Happy”) endings are when the Hero wins and everything ends up well and good. These are the most popular endings, and thus are the most used. STAR WARS has the perfect happy ending.

Down (also known as “Sad”) endings are when the Hero loses the Villain wins. But the Premise is still validated. It just means it’s validated at the Hero’s expense. These endings are rare nowadays. But in the deconstructionist 70s, you saw them a lot in movies. They are also common in horror films. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID has a good example of the down ending. The Villain in this movie was authority. Authority (the law) won.

Ironic endings are where both the Hero and the Villain win and lose, thus canceling each other out. Examples of this are movies where the hero is a thief, he steals the million dollars, but as he escapes from the law, the money bag gets blown open and all the dollars fly off in the wind. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE has one of the best ironic endings ever written. So does THE KILLING.

It’s possible to not end a story. There have been stories that just stop as if they ran out of pages or something. These endings are very unsatisfying and are not recommended. The creators of these stories often do that to show that life continues on. It doesn’t just neatly wrap up like it does in fiction. The problem is, as we discussed, people want stories to make sense and have meaning. Stories are almost a substitute for religion. They create meaning out of meaninglessness.

Choose your ending wisely. Because it will be the last thing the Audience experiences before they leave the story. All stories don’t need a happy ending. Negative endings are good for some stories. If you need to make a powerful statement, they are often the best endings to use. Ironic endings are great because most people see life as Ironic. They see the glass as both half full and half empty. People relate to seeing things evening out, because in most people’s lives, they don’t win the big game, but they don’t lose it either. They just plod along with some high and low points in between.

The emotional highs a successful happy ending create is something most people want from a story, only because many of us use fiction as a drug. We try to get high from reading. A good story kicks in the serotonin in the brain and we’re off.

This is why classic story structure is important to understand. If you want to be a successful writer, you must learn how to make people high.

REMEMBER: Endings leave the reader with their last feeling and thought. 

Hud, I always wanted to share another example of an overdone resolution/ending besides WYATT EARP; The final episode of the anime series OUTLAW STAR had an ending that drove me bananas!  The episode *ends* halfway through (that is, the ending credits come 15 minutes into the episode), and what follows is another 15 minutes of the heroes’ resolutions and such.  It’s as if the creators were having a hard time saying goodbye!  Kind of like when you want the bell to ring on the last day of school before summer vacation, but the teacher makes you stay for just another 15 minutes!  I’ve seen some other anime series that do this (it’s supposed to be an overblown fanservice), but it only gets more annoying than anything else.

Posted by John Cassidy  on  01/27  at  10:30 PM
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