Writing Great Fiction

Lecture 14: Happily Ever After—How to End a Plot

z Plots with binary endings are often dismissed as mechanical and contrived,

and many of them are. We could even argue that the ending of some

simple binary narratives

is the least important

thing about them; the real

reason we enjoy them is

that we enjoy the setting

or characters. This is often

the case with well-written

genre narratives: The

journey is interesting, even

if the destination turns out

to be unmemorable.

z But it’s also true that

many binary endings

are both immensely

satisfying and unforgettable, perhaps even the high point of the story.

o John le Carré’s novel 7LQNHU7DLORU6ROGLHU6S\ is the story of a

veteran British spy named George Smiley who is asked by the

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o Le Carré complicates the ending of the novel by making

the mole an upper-class Englishman and a former lover of

Smiley’s wife. It’s a binary ending with layers, because the

mole’s betrayal is at once political, social, and personal.

z Many literary novels also have binary endings. Perhaps the most

satisfying binary ending of a literary story can be found in Henry

James’s 7KH$VSHUQ3DSHUV. Here, James not only imagines a binary

situation that generates suspense, but he peoples the plot with three

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Logical Exhaustion

z Gardner’s “logical exhaustion” is the point at which a narrative has

reached its deepest understanding of a character or a situation, beyond

which it would just be repeating itself. This sort of ending does not rely

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bestselling novels and popular movies

and television shows: Who committed the

crime? Will the star-crossed lovers get

together?

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