2019-10-01_Writer_s_Digest

60 I WRITER’S DIGEST I October 2019

WRITER’S WORKBOOK

her breast not as a gesture of reverence or sorrow, but, I
think, breathless delight.
Th ere is little action in this scene. Despite being in a cem-
etery, Faye seems optimistic. You can feel her grief lift ing
in the way she describes the angel on her sister’s marker
as being “stealthily alive” and clutching her breast with
“breathless delight.” Th is scene points toward positive
change, as Faye is freed from her grief.
Setting details are powerful when you want to slow the
pace and convey mood. Ask yourself how you can direct
the reader’s focus onto small details in a way that also hits
the right note. For example, if your story were about a
criminal who fi nds redemption, you could use images that
convey freedom and forgiveness—like a bird fl ying across
the Grand Canyon. Th e focus on these images will help
you slow your pace to refl ect the tone of your narrative.
You can also slow your pacing in the fi nal scene by
dropping into the realm of metaphors. In Margaret
Atwood’s novel Th e Robber Bride, three women—Tony,
Roz, and Charis—have been injured by another woman,
Zenia. Zenia is a master manipulator who has always put
herself before others. She wreaks injustice on the three
friends until the women stop her for good.
In the fi nal scene, Tony refl ects on what has happened
and who Zenia was in a series of metaphoric refl ections
that slow the pace and aim for an emotional fi nish:
No fl owers grow in the furrows of the lake, none in the
fi elds of asphalt. Tony needs a fl ower, however. A com-
mon weed, because wherever else Zenia had been in her
life, she had also been at war. An unoffi cial war, a gue-
rilla war, a war she may not have known she was waging,
but a war nevertheless.
Who was the enemy? What past wrong was she seek-
ing to avenge? Where was her battlefi eld? Not in any
one place. It was in the air all around, it was in the tex-
ture of the world itself; or it was nowhere visible, it was
in among the neurons, the tiny incandescent fi res of
the brain that fl ash up and burn out. An electric fl ower
would be the right kind for Zenia, a bright, lethal fl ower
like a short circuit, a thistle of molten steel going to
seed in a burst of sparks.
Th ere are images of war and of fl owers, which contrast each
other and sum up the novel’s themes. Metaphors oft en show
up in fi nal scenes because they say so much in few words.

THE FINAL SENTENCES

Th e last two to three sentences (especially the last one)

carry some piece of the entire novel with them, even

beyond your narrative. Th ey should leave an emotional

fl avor that speaks to your protagonist’s journey.

Final Actions

Actions continue the motion of characters’ lives aft er the

story is over. You may decide to end your fi nal scene

with your protagonist taking a symbolic action. I stress

symbolic. If you end on an action, it should suggest

something larger than the mundane—conjuring a sense

of the trajectory the protagonist is taking in her life.

In Th e Robber Bride, the action comes in the fi nal sen-

tence. In much of the fi nal scene Tony is outside refl ect-

ing on Zenia’s damage. Th e scene could end at the fi nish

of these refl ective paragraphs:

Tony picks her up and turns her over, probes and ques-

tions, but the woman with her glazed pottery face does

nothing but smile.

From the kitchen she hears laughter, and the clatter of

dishes. Charis is setting out the food, Roz is telling a

story. That’s what they will do, increasingly in their lives:

tell stories. Tonight their stories will be about Zenia.

Was she in any way like us? thinks Tony. Or, to put it

another way around: Are we in any way like her?

But Atwood has Tony make one last, symbolic action:

Then she opens the door, and goes in to join the others.

Tony rejoining her friends suggests that she is ready to

re-open herself to friendship. It crystallizes all of Tony’s

thoughts and says that she has healed.

Final actions should speak to how your protagonist

is going to behave diff erently now that he has survived

the narrative’s trials. Ask yourself how a small action can

convey a larger meaning. Symbolic actions give readers a

feeling that there is more to come for your protagonist.

Final Refl ections and Thoughts

By the end of the narrative, the reader should be able

to tell how the protagonist has changed, but it may be

unclear how the protagonist feels about his changes or

something that took place. In this case, a direct expres-

sion of feelings is needed.