  Mystery
This week: The Grand Finale Edited by: Jeff  
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THE GRAND FINALE
Last week, I talked a little about red herrings, and how a good mystery will misdirect the reader with potential alternatives to what really happened. The more the audience is kept guessing, the bigger the surprise the real ending is going to be. Assuming, of course, that the ending is worth the wait. In a follow-up to last week's newsletter, let's discuss how to end your mystery. 
A mystery, or any story for that matter, needs to have a great ending. If your audience has been following your story for the two-hour running time of a movie, or the hundreds of pages of a book, they're not going to be happy if the way it ends doesn't leave them satisfied. Which is not to say it has to be a happy, but it does have to be a satisfying ending.
Terry Rossio, one of my favorite screenwriters (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean), publishes a column and has addressed this very issue. His absolute rule for how a story should end involves four parts:
A good ending must be decisive, set up, inevitable ... and also unexpected.
In other (or at least more) words, what he's essentially saying is that a good ending is one that truly and without any ambiguity resolves the central conflict of the story. That resolution must be properly set up so the audience doesn't think it comes out of left field, and it must be inevitable ... the story couldn't have ended any other way. But, despite all that, it has to be something the audience doesn't see coming.
Gee, is that all? 
Let's look at the four components in a little greater detail. NOTE: For the purposes of examples, we're going to use Lord of the Rings. So if by some mysterious circumstances you haven't read it or seen it and don't want the ending spoiled, don't read any further.
 Decisive. A true "ending" resolves the issues and conflicts in the story once and for all. Yes, there are ambiguous type endings in some stories ... but if you think about it, even though that's where those stories conclude, it's really not an ending in the true sense of the word, since the characters' storyline continues after the last page of the book or final frames of the movie. The best endings are ones that resolve the central conflict in the story once and for all, for better or worse. In Lord of the Rings, the One Ring is cast back into the fiery pits of Mount Doom, the Ring is unmade, and Sauron is defeated as a result. That's pretty decisive, but can you imagine if the storyline following the Ring wasn't resolved? This epic story follows the Fellowship's quest to destroy the Ring, pitted against the evil Sauron's quest to reacquire it. Imagine if neither of those objectives were achieved; if the Ring were lost along the way, or Frodo decided to keep the Ring for himself and ran off with it. It wouldn't be a truly decisive ending, because the Ring didn't reach a decisive end that the audience could say, "That's what happened to it." When you're writing your own endings, make sure that your ending is decisive. Whether it's a happy ending or a sad ending, make sure your readers are 100% clear on how the central conflict is resolved, and what happened.
Set Up. An ending must also be properly set up. It can't come out of nowhere, and it's not going to be satisfying if the audience never had a chance to see it coming. This is particularly true of mysteries, the success of which is largely based upon a reader's ability to follow along with the narrative and try to figure out what's going on. In Lord of the Rings, the quest to destroy the Ring is set up all the way back in The Fellowship of the Ring when the Council of Elrond decides the Ring is too dangerous and must be destroyed. From that point on, we know exactly what has to happen, the ending (the ultimate fate of the Ring) is constantly at the forefront of the audience's mind, and everything from that point on develops and advances that conflict. They have to travel into Mordor, the heart of Sauron's power, to destroy it. They lose members of their party along the way. As Sauron's power increases, the many characters in the book begin taking sides, allying themselves either for or against the Fellowship and their mission of destroying the Ring. On a smaller level, when Frodo is unable to resist the power of the Ring and intends on keeping it, then Gollum, in a bid to get it from Frodo, ends up causing his own death and the destruction of the Ring ... all of that is perfectly set up earlier in the story by showing Gollum's obsession with the Ring, and Frodo's struggle to resist its power. Without that set up, the ending wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as it was, because we as an audience wouldn't understand the significance of the decisions that were made by these two characters, or fully appreciate the irony of how that conflict is resolved. When you're writing your own endings, make sure that you set them up properly so that your readers are fully engaged in the conflict and understand how the resolution came about.
Inevitable. This is the tough one. Along with being decisive and set up, your ending has to be inevitable; the story has to seem as if it couldn't (or at least shouldn't) have ended any other way. This is particularly important because it's the most important aspect related to audience satisfaction. If the ending isn't inevitable, you run the risk of having your audience not only feel like it could have ended better, but perhaps even thinking of a better ending themselves.  In Lord of the Rings, the larger ending with Sauron's armies versus essentially everyone else is inevitable; as Sauron grew in power, it created the unavoidable situation where he was going to clash with the people attempted to save Middle Earth. And in the smaller ending with Frodo and Gollum, it was an inevitability that Gollum, someone corrupted and warped by desire for the Ring, would make a play for it and try to claim it as his own. And that Frodo would be tempted to keep the Ring for himself, since he'd been struggling with its influence for the entire journey. When you look at the way Frodo decided to keep the Ring, Gollum attempted to wrest it from him, and in the struggle, Gollum became the architect of his own fate, you realize that the ending really wouldn't have been as satisfying if it had happened any other way. If Frodo had just thrown the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom, Gollum's character wouldn't have naturally concluded his story arc. If Gollum had attained and kept the Ring, it would have ruined the Ring's story arc of either being destroyed or reacquired by Sauron. And if Frodo had killed Gollum, it would have been less poetic than his own greed and lust for the Ring destroying him. When you're writing your own endings, make sure that those endings are the inevitable conclusion of all the moving parts and stories that play into it. Find the best possible resolution for every story arc and make sure your audience realizes your story shouldn't have ended any other way.
Unexpected. As if a decisive, set up, inevitable ending weren't hard enough, it also needs to be unexpected. Particularly in mysteries, having a reader able to expect or guess the ending is just about the worst thing that can happen. Your audience should think they know how it's going to end ... and then you should serve them up something completely different. It can't come out of left field (see "Set Up"), but it shouldn't be something you can see coming from miles down the road either. In Lord of the Rings we think we know what's going to happen. We think Frodo's going to get to Mount Doom and throw the Ring into the fires, complete his quest, and that'll be the end. But he doesn't. The power of the Ring corrupts him and he decides to keep the Ring. He's going to throw away everything they Fellowship has worked for! He's failed ... but then Gollum shows up and fights him for the Ring! And, perhaps most unexpectedly of all, the Ring (along with Gollum) falls into the fires when the twisted hobbit is so consumed by his own desire for the Ring that he impulsively bites off Frodo's finger - Ring and all - which seals his own fate and causes both him and the Ring to tumble into the fires. Make sure your stories have an unexpected ending that the audience doesn't see coming. It should be one that they can appreciate, in a, "Wow, why didn't I think of that?" kind of way.
By giving your reader something unexpected ... that has been properly set up and decisively concludes the story's journey as inevitably as possible, you're going to have an ending that readers can appreciate and admire long after they've finished the tale. If your ending is missing any one of these elements, there's a chance your audience will feel unfulfilled and unsatisfied because they either saw your ending coming, thought it could end better, wasn't definitive enough, or played unfairly and surprised them with something they had no way of knowing as they read.
Make sure your ending properly rewards your reader for all the time they invested in reading your story. Good endings make for happy readers. And happy readers usually mean happy writers.
Until next time,
- Jeff
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This week, I would encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
"Joe was jerked rudely out of his reverie by the sound of laughter. He turned around and stared through the door at the men who were placing Francine's casket on the table. But no one was laughing. The sound came again. Joe knitted his brows together and looked out onto the streets. It was empty. But just as Joe started to turn his attention back to the funeral parlour, a car came speeding around the corner, leaving black marks on the bitumen. Joe watched as it sped towards him. Suddenly, Joe gasped and held his breath tightly in his chest as he saw the person sitting in the backseat."
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#790630 by Not Available. |
"She leaned forward, crossed her hands on the table, "And what would you do with your last 30 minutes on earth?" Her demeanor changed from uncertainty to as-a-matter-of-fact. What did she know that I didn't? I felt somehow that she had set me up for this question and knew what I would say before the words were even emitted. I felt that it did not matter what I said, that the end result would be the same. I felt a slight sense of unease and somewhat weak before the calmness of her gaze, though not knowing why."
"The incident was the lead story on the local seven o'clock news. A few days later, she received a call from a lawyer who wanted to represent her. He tried to assure her that she had every right to compensation. After all, the panhandler had attacked her inside the building. At first, Janice refused. She didn't need that kind of money; she always earned her money, she said, but the lawyer kept insisting. "
"The message read: Good evening Ray, I hope this finds you well. Today you were handed a one-dollar bill with our website address and a password that has been set up with a personal account for you. This is not a hoax, and this is not a scam. Within seventy-two hours you must to go to the website and enter your password. If you do not comply with these instructions and with the instructions you will receive there will be consequences."
"I keep having these dreams about money. Maybe it's like a starving person dreaming about food. There are different dreams, but the money is always the same, eight and a half million dollars. The source of this bounty is mysterious; the cash just magically turns up."
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1466938 by Not Available. |
""Can't be what, grandma?" Tammy asked, puzzled over her grandmother's intense interest in this piece of jewelry. "Well, I thought it might be the same necklace my mother used to have before my father died. But I'm sure it's not, so nothing to worry about." Why would we need to 'worry' about a necklace? Tammy thought to herself. She quickly dismissed the idea, joining her family for cake and ice cream."
|  | Burned (13+)
She was hot on the trail of the arsonsist, but was she getting too close....?
#678732 by Scott Joseph  |
" The man stepped out of an alley onto Claymont and headed north towards the business district at a fast pace. The sky flashed white and low rumbles of thunder sounded in the distance as rain began to fall. The man slowed to pull the hood of his gray jogging suit over his head and adjust his black duffel bag on his shoulder, continuing towards his destination. Two blocks ahead on the opposite side of the same street stood the old Oakdale apartment building. A dark window on the second floor twinkled briefly with a small light."
"The cafe was crowded and bustling with people, but one girl sat alone in the corner, sipping her coffee and watching the people around her. She'd been sitting there for hours, it seemed, and the waitress just kept bringing her more coffee and refilling the creamer with milk. The girl in the corner was a nondescript little thing, perhaps early twenties with longish hair somewhere between dirty blond and muddy brown. Her hair was constantly in her eyes, which were, when someone actually noticed, a brilliant, cobalt blue."
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1003618 by Not Available. |
"The lady's husband snorted, "You're afraid of that little dog, aren't you?" He started laughing, a loud, almost braying sound. "I can't believe someone would be afraid of that runt of a dog.""
"Empty? Her victorious smile faded. All she saw inside was a thin layer of fine grey dust on the bottom. Leaning in closer, Meg's breath disturbed some of it and her gaze followed the particles. On the box lid scratched into the wood were two names, one on top of the other. Her eyes widened as the name underneath began to shimmer."
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Feedback already! Woohoo! 
Shannon  writes: "Whoa, congrats on your promotion, Jeff! You deserve it, and you did GREAT on this, your very first official NL. (((hugs)))"
Thanks, Shannon! I'm glad you liked it!
Joy  writes: "A wonderful first, SoCal, and thanks for the red herring. It isn't easy to cook or savor, but your preparation of it will make it a lot more palatable. "
I totally agree, Joy. Not so tasty to eat, but very useful in mystery writing. 
DB Cooper writes: "This is an OUTSTANDING newsletter. I wrote a story 'Vancouver Nightmares' that includes some red herrings."
Thanks for the feedback, DB! I'll have to stop by your port and check out your item.
NaNoNette  writes: "Well, with the example you have set, I will now go and sit quietly in the dunce corner and never again attempt a Mystery newsletter.  Awesome letter, SoCal."
Glad you liked it... but I hope I didn't really send you running for the hills. I love your newsletters.
Tornado Dodger  writes: "Excellent first newsletter SoCalScribe! My very first attempt at writing a coherent storyline was actually a mystery and the genre holds a special place in my heart. You chose an interesting and well-researched topic for your first. Great job Jeff!  "
I'd like to read that mystery... and thanks for reading!
THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  } writes: "Great topic! Enjoyed the NL! - Sonali "
Thank you, Sonali!
Adriana Noir writes: "Great newsletter, SoCal, full of excellent tips! I knew you would do a wonderful job. Congrats on getting your feet wet!"
And I didn't even burn the place down or jam up the printing presses. Off to a good start so far.
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Mystery: April 28, 2010 Issue [#3702]
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