Surprising But Inevitable

You may have noticed there’s been much talk, not to mention outrage, over the final episodes of Game of Thrones. There’s even a petition going around, requesting that HBO rewrite and reshoot the final season.

Moral: it’s important to give your stories a great ending; it doesn’t matter so much if it’s upbeat or tragic as long as it feels just right for that particular tale.
Continue reading “Surprising But Inevitable”

On Endings

Lately I’ve been trying to wrap up a story—without success—and every time I take another run at it, I think of something I read recently about endings, that good ones “shine a point of light on the writer’s best attempt at truth.”

I love that, because it’s how I envision endings. You direct a shiny, narrow beam of  light, or aim a long, sturdy arrow, at a pinpoint of a target. Summations, surprise twists, sudden epiphanies—these are not arrows or beams of light. Their scopes are too wide.  Continue reading “On Endings”