 Drama: July 25, 2018 Issue [#9006] |
  Drama
This week: When Endings Fall Short Edited by: Joy  
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“I always had this idea that you should never give up a happy middle in the hopes of a happy ending, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Do you know what I mean? There is so much to lose. “
John Green
“And will I tell you that these three lived happily ever after? I will not, for no one ever does. But there was happiness. And they did live.”
Stephen King
“The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending–the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the unsatisfying ending.”
Orson Scott Card
“The beginning is the promise of the end.”
Henry Ward Beecher
“Then starting home, he walked toward the trees, and under them, leaving behind him the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat.”
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
“Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. The strains of the piano and violin rose up weakly from below.”
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is on what makes endings succeed or fall short.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to the third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
As a reader, I sometimes feel shortchanged because the ending of a book has turned out to be less than satisfactory. After all, I have invested my time and some emotional energy on that story. It is especially annoying to feel that the writer became tired of writing the story and wrapped it up to get rid of the burden.
Yet, why does this happen? Why do some endings fail while others live in our memories for a long time?
Endings may fail because:
 The writer has promised a different or a wrong thing in the beginning.
The writer may misunderstand his own narrative or doesn’t take into account that it could be misunderstood by the reader.
The writer has promised too much in the beginning and has failed to deliver so deep or so many aspects of the story, leaving untied strings.
The ending is rushed or abrupt possibly due to accelerated pacing at some point which had difficulty easing into a favorable stop.
Too little has been delivered as the stakes proved to be lesser than originally planned.
Main character’s arc and the plot’s arc do not agree.
The writer has explained too much or delivered everything early on, and nothing is left for a good ending.
After the first flash of inspiration, the writer may have had difficulty following through, which this might have been remedied by a good outline.
At one point, readers’ expectations, word count limits, or the lack of time has made the writer manipulate the ending instead of letting the story tell itself.
That a story will be successful or not will depend on how faithful it is to its own setup. Right after presenting the first scene, the first chapter, or the main characters, it is very important for us writers to figure out what we are offering or promising the readers. If we offer an Antarctica like setting with an explorer carrying a sword and the story suddenly twists at the end to show that same setting as the freezer portion of the fridge and the explorer an ice-scraper, no wonder the readers will feel cheated.
Also, we have to be careful with the happily-ever-after Hollywood-type endings. We should always keep in mind that the characters are changed as well as many other aspects of the story. If the happy ending can support the changes, fine. If not, then it is logical to give the story another type of an ending that agrees with the changes in it.
Some questions to ask ourselves, after we write the first draft of an ending, could be:
Have I made things too easy for my characters?
Has the closure been too wishy washy or too small?
Is the closure just right?
Did I stop too soon?
Did I go too far after the proper ending?
Do my beginning and ending harmonize with and complement each other?
Have I left anything unexplained that the reader can find disturbing or murky?
Did I spend too much time and energy in getting the beginning right to have little to nothing left for the ending?
I suspect most of the answers to these questions will point the finger more to the middle sections or scenes of the story. Then, in top quality stories, those unexpected twists at the end can still be traced to the beginning or the earlier parts without the reader feeling cheated.
May all our endings turn out perfectly and on a well-deserved, high note!
Until next time! 
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Koda gets silenced after getting entangled in his boyfriend's investigation
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This Issue's Tip: A character's choices are best dramatized (shown not told) by his actions, emotional indicators reflecting through his body language, and dialogue. Getting into his head or examining his thoughts is good, too, but should be done with care. A good writer doesn't depend only on what the character thinks.
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Feedback for "Film, Books, and Cinematic Fiction"
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Quick-Quill 
I agree with you. I feel the inundation of flash movies made to keep people coming to the theater and buy refreshments has sullied the industry. In some ways people have gone back to reading to enjoy the "story." While the younger generation is satisfied to be spoon fed the pablum the industry puts out. There are great and unique movies that can draw you into the story and amaze you. I have a number of favorites that rest on the quality of the storyline. The proper plot points that hook the viewer and keep them glued to the seat, popcorn and drink gripped in hand until the end. There have been movies I cannot watch again because the emotional pull was too much. K-19 is one. I sobbed through most of the movie. I sat in the middle with my husband and couldn't leave. I didn't watch most of the ending I heard it. That was too much too. It was the subject matter. My empathy had been over stimulated.
Yes, some movies are unique and very successful. Usually, those are the ones made directly from a movie-script and not adapted from a novel.
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Quick-Quill
Just a note. I saw somewhere that WATTPAD is a place where directors and movie makers are looking for their next movie plot. Caution! when a movie says "BASED" on a book, that means they've taken liberties and possibly the movie uses the characters, plot and setting, but that's it. It may have an entirely different ending than the book.
To the best of my knowledge, directors and movie makers look everywhere. WATTPAD may be misleading writers by throwing about and or boosting such ideas as an attention-getting campaign since that site has big business behind it. I don't believe in WATTPAD at all.
I agree with you in that very few movies made from novels really succeed or are loyal to their sources. Even if the movie may be good to watch on its own, if you read the book, you usually find out where they went wrong.
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