Start with a Bang, End with a Bigger Bang

Sechin Tower

@SechinTower

Sometimes my writing students ask how to end their stories. I give them my best piece of writing advice: start with an explosion and end with a bigger explosion.

I know it sounds a bit facetious, especially because the “explosion” part only works with certain genres (although, in my humble opinion, many romance novels could only be improved by the addition of a fireball or two). Even so, there’s a kernel of truth in the “explosion sandwich” writing model, because it shows that the ending (whether it contains an actual “kablooey” or not) should be connected to the beginning.

The key is to set up some kind of question in the beginning so that you can resolve it at the end. For example: how will we stop the mad bomber? Does anyone know where he’ll strike next? And why is this unmarked package ticking?

If (for some strange reason) you prefer literature with less collateral damage, you could do the same thing without explosions. Will your main character ever learn to love? How much will the mother sacrifice for her family? Where will this average Joe draw the line? Once you have the question, you know the answer is the end, and the end is the answer.

Nobody knows this better than Disney. Watch any of their classic animated movies and within the first five minutes or so you’ll see the princess singing about her heart’s true desire. To find love. To explore an unknown land. To use home-made robots to save the world from an evil scientist’s doomsday machine. Okay, maybe that last one is less Disney and more Mad Science Institute, but the basic pattern is the same, and the audience is always left asking whether— and how— the princess will ever achieve her dream.

If you know how you want your story to end, set it up that way from the beginning. If you know how you want your story to begin, think about what question you’re asking and what difficult decisions it will force your characters to make. The key is not just to ask a question, but to ask a question with no clear answer. That’s a Kobayshi Maru, to you Trekkers. Whatever you call it, your readers will keep turning those pages as long as they can’t see how things can possibly be resolved.

Of course, you shouldn’t give your characters an easy path from the beginning of the story to the end. If it’s the story about falling into a hole, don’t throw a ladder in there with them. Make them claw their way out, inch by inch. Make them fall back in, break an ankle, and end up worse off than when they started. In order to get out, they’re going to have to sacrifice something important to them, or grow in some way, or learn to live in the hole. Their choice shows character, and character is what drives the story.

If it were one of my characters in that hole, they would most likely concoct some kind of improvised explosive and launch themselves, rocket like, into the sky… before landing in an even deeper hole. Hey, look at that—another story that starts and ends with an explosion. Maybe I need a psychiatrist.

Be good, and dream crazy dreams.

Sechin Tower is a teacher, a table-top game designer, and the author of Mad Science Institute. You can read more about him and his books on SechinTower.com, Facebook, or Twitter.

A Few Thoughts on Storytelling

By Dan Haring

I'm lucky enough to work in animation and make movies for a living. It's a fantastic job and for the most part I love it. But one downfall about the part of the production I'm in is that by the time the shots reach my department, the story is more or less set in stone. I do lighting and compositing, which is basically the last step of the animation pipeline. So shots go through screenwriters and storyboard artists and animators and the director by the time they come to me, and my main two goals are 1: Make it look awesome and, 2: Make sure the storytelling comes through clearly. So I have an important part to play in the storytelling process, but I don't actually have any say in what's happening in the story. And that's fine. I'm not trying to complain. But I have to admit it's frustrating sometimes to be working on a shot that contains a joke or story elements that to me just don't work. But again, I'm not trying to complain. I will make that fart joke scene look as beautiful as possible, and I'll do it happily.

But that's one of the reasons I write and make my own stories. Not that I'm better than the professional screenwriters and storyboard artists that work on these movies, but because I can have the freedom to craft the story and lead it in the direction I want to go. When I was working at Disney, from time to time they would showcase different departments and what part they played in the film-making process. Being someone who loves writing and loves story, I was always really interested when it was the Story Department's turn to be highlighted. One time they gave out a packet of "Story Flashcards". I've kept them with me and once in awhile will read through them as a refresher to what some of the important elements of story are. It's interesting that these are universal ideas, not just meant for one form of storytelling or another. So I thought I'd share a few of them here.

I think most of the time the audience/reader is right there with the main character and what he/she thinks and wants. As we throw wrenches in those plans, the character is going to react a certain way, and hopefully the reader is able to feel at least a small part of that same emotion.

Your characters' true selves will be revealed by the choices they make. It's not about the game they talk, it's about what they do when they're up against a wall. And, as we know from Batman, this is true in real life too. (Batman is totally real life)


And finally,

This one goes hand in hand with the last one, and I know you've probably heard it a million times. But it's still relevant. Don't tell me that this character is smart/funny/good/bad/whatever, SHOW me. It, along with my love/hate relationship with adverbs, is something I struggle with. But it's always more effective to show what you want to say instead of just saying it. It's not going to be easier, but it will be better.

I hope these help a little. I know they have for me, and I'll keep revisiting them until I get them right.