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

Happily Ever After—How to End a Plot ............................................

Lecture 14

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f starting a narrative is daunting, bringing one to an end can be tricky.

What readers think of the end of a plot often colors their opinions of the

entire narrative. A plot that has a successful or, at least, a vivid ending can

make a mediocre narrative seem better than it is, while a weak ending can

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because what people consider a good ending depends on individual taste and

because what writers and readers consider a good ending has changed over

time. In this lecture, however, we’ll look at two fundamental qualities that

nearly everyone agrees an ending should have: believability and satisfaction.

Believability and Satisfaction

z In part, believability depends on what we as readers bring to a story,

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works and what real people are like.

o This doesn’t mean that the rules of the real world can’t be bent:

Your readers are willing to accept that the laws of nature can

be altered, broken, or ignored in fantasy, horror, and science

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o Readers of any genre, however, are less likely to buy into

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human psychology. Different readers have different ideas and

expectations about how human beings think and behave or how

they ought to think or behave. An ending that strikes one reader

as completely plausible and even admirable may strike another

as preposterous and even offensive.

z Consider the ending of -DQH(\UH. The brooding, sexually magnetic Mr.

Rochester persuades Jane to fall in love with him without bothering to

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