NOTES: Beginnings, Middles, & Ends (1992) 2/3

Notes on Beginnings, Middles, & Ends (1992) by Nancy Kress, part two of three.

THE CLIMAX

Forces have gathered, collision imminent, something has to give = CLIMAX

1. Satisfy the view of life implied in the story
2. Deliver an APPROPRIATE level of emotion
3. Follow logical to plot/story
4. Be proportionate to story length (novel=chapter, short story=depends)

Litmus Test (for protagonist) Ask yourself: If my protagonist were a radically different person, would this story still end the same way? The answer should be a “no”. If the answer is “yes”, your ending is unconvincing.

Post-Climax -> Denouement (Closure, Brevity, Dramatized) = Mild, don’t let it compete with climax. Use epilogue -> If in totally different time/place

Unless you’re writing Sequels or a Series

Three Types of Series How to Keep Going

1. Same Protagonist (who doesn’t grow or change) but runs into a different problem each book. (IE Detective Series) HOW TO KEEP GOING: Create a new problem per book. Plot over character. Main character can’t change so much that he/she will give up her profession, or go through an emotional crux. It’s about the plot, and he/she solving it, not about him/her.
2. Same setting or family or universe. Freedom to switch from one viewpoint to another. People change, die or exit the story, but the major framework stays. HOW TO KEEP GOING: Keep a series of unresolved plots that these characters, or their relatives, or colleagues have a stake in. Character can pick up where others left it.
3. Characters change, but no matter what happens, the initial protagonists are a mainstay. Both circumstances and character evolve and grow and cannot “go back to the way it was”. HOW TO KEEP GOING: Leave unsettled personal issues. Characters age, but they react to new circumstances with old psychological equipment, unless than change significantly.

Despite this continuation however, you don’t create complexity near the end of the book.

ENDING CHECKLIST

1. Does the climax grow logically out of the specific experiences that this character had in the middle of the story?
2. Has the character change (if there is one) been prepared for by the events of the middle of the story, or is it come-to-suddenly-realize change?
3. Are all the various forces present at the climax also present in the middle of the story – no dues ex machina late arrivals?
4. Is the fate of each secondary character in the climax or the denouement consistent with how these people were portrayed in the middle?
5. Does the ending deliver on the promise implicit in the middle of the story – that is, does it fulfill reader expectations you developed by the events, tone and world view of the middle?
6. Is your climax in proportion to the middle of the story – neither too different from it in level of drama nor too short in terms of total page count?

If the answer to all these questions is “yes,” you’ve got a viable ending – and a good middle.

LAST SCENE/ PARAGRAPH/ SENTENCE

(Nothing new, startling or highly emotional)

• In a short story, the climax may be the ending.
• The last paragraph and sentence are both power positions. Effective final paragraphs use action, symbol or a character’s thoughts to seamlessly comment on the story’s meaning while also bring the plot to a close.
• An effective device: deliberately echoing the opening paragraph. Or even using the same words.

THE FINAL STRETCH: REVISION!

The first draft is the melody, the revision is the harmony, arrangement and mixing: now that you know your characters and plot better, it’s time to sharpen some aspects, excise others, add background and secondary variations

SIX STEPS for REVISION

1. Becoming the Reader

1. Don’t do it right away. Put it away for a few days/weeks until your postpartum emotions of “it sucks” or “it’s genius” fades away. You want to be dispassionate.
2. Mark up the Margins! Assess the strengths and weaknesses as a whole.

• Where does it drag (is your attention wandering)?
• What might be unclear if you didn’t know the ending (set stronger expectations)?
• Are your characters “sketchy” or generic (write “char. sketchy”)?
• Do any scenes go by too quickly?
• Are there parts where you’re telling important information that ought to be dramatized (mark “dramatize!”)?
• Write anything in the margin that comes to mind as you read it.

3. Mark up the Margins! Assess the strengths and weaknesses as a whole.

• Where does it drag (is your attention wandering)?
• What might be unclear if you didn’t know the ending (set stronger expectations)?
• Are your characters “sketchy” or generic (write “char. sketchy”)?
• Do any scenes go by too quickly?
• Are there parts where you’re telling important information that ought to be dramatized (mark “dramatize!”)?
• Write anything in the margin that comes to mind as you read it.

Creating a wise-reader (from Orson Scott Card). Get them to ask these questions as they read:

• Were you ever bored? Did your mind wander? Where was this happening? (as they read)
• What did you think of the character X? Did you like him? Hate him? Keep forgetting who he is? (like/hate for the right reasons?)
• Was there anything you didn’t understand? Is there a section you had to read twice? Is there any place where you got confused? (bad exposition/ confusing action)
• Was there anything you didn’t believe? Any time where you said, “Oh, come on!” (clichés or needs more detail or thought)
• What do you think will happen next? What are you still wondering about? (if fragment, then tells you how well you have created tension, if whole, then you have unresolved tension)

2. Tracing the Promise (as reader)

• Re-read the story a second time now, looking at all three parts: beginning, middle and end. Trace the implicit promise. Promise, developing forces, delivery.
• Re-read the first two pages/ two scenes. What kind of experience do you promise the reader? Characters he can identify with? A glimpse into a different world? Thrills and excitement? An intellectual puzzle to solve? Insights into human nature? People he will love to hate?
• Try to formulate a sentence or two that accurately describe what your story promises.
• Re-read the middle: Does it seem to develop those forces promised at the beginning? Do these various forces move into opposition with each other so that your middle promises an interesting confrontation at the climax?
• Re-read the end: Does it fulfill the promise. Specifically, do the forces come into satisfying clash at the climax? Does the denouement, if there is one, account for everything that needs to be accounted for? Are the expectations raised in the beginning of the story satisfied by the time the reader reaches the end?

3. Scene Analysis (as editor)

• Make a list of scenes by location and event

• Are there any that can be cut? Are there any that you can combine? Are there any that drag (turn into exposition?
• A scene should BOTH advance the plot and deepen our understanding of character.
• Try to see which scenes will need major rewriting to fulfill your implicit promise, flesh out characters, or develop the forces that will collide at the climax.

4. Major Re-Write (as writer again)

• You may be overwhelmed by your analysis, reactions and ideas.
• Start from the beginning. Revise in order. Consult notes.
• If you start to feel stale, reluctant to work it, feeling that nothing you’re doing is actually improving the story, put it away for a few days.
• If you still feel stale, put it away again. Third time feeling stale? Maybe it’s done.

5. Image Patterns

• Only to be done after major rewrite. Get your scenes down and solid, and then add flair.
• Imagery is like seasoning. It brings out what’s already there. If you graft it on afterwards, it will feel artificial.
• Choose a prop/setting/symbol. Consider how it was first used. Can it show up again, but with a slightly different meaning?
• Imagery should be natural and unobtrusive, it adds to the meaningfulness of characters’ actions, not substitute for it.

6. Polishing the Prose

• Re-read the story one last time, but on a sentence-by-sentence level.
• Is your diction sharp enough?
• Are there any awkward or convoluted sentences?
• Spelling/grammar/punctuation?
• TRIM EXCESS WORDS!!!