Mystery "Week" Wrap-Up
If I had music on right now, I'd be playing Jimmy Buffett's Pencil Thin Mustache. You know the one, "Oh, I wish I had a pencil-thin mustache, so I could solve some mysteries too…." Of course, many detectives through the years have managed to solve crimes with no facial hair at all…or an abundance of it. Would Poirot have been the same without his pride and joy? Would Magnum P.I. have looked nearly as tough solving crimes without his lip-warmer? Of course, I'm not sure he did solve mysteries so much as poke around until someone pointed a gun at him. Well, maybe a few, but in the end, however the conclusions are reached, what matters is that someone is found out in the end.
Which brings me to a fitting end to mystery week: conclusions. A plot is not merely problem, conflict, resolution, and denouement. There's a very important thing that comes between conflict and resolution and that's escalation. I talked on day one about keeping tension and raising stakes. Now, here, I'm talking about pay-off. Resolution seems like such a passive word, so let's switch it to climax, which implies all the action, tension and satisfaction that the ending should deliver. You want an ending where:
A) The reader believes that things could go horribly wrong at any time and someone might die, be emotionally shattered or forever have their life altered in some way,
B) You can't have this kind of edge-of-your-seat feeling at the end without action! The killer, thief, whatever, should not go quietly. There should be a fantabulous chase, a big fight, a stand-off even…some chance that the perp will escape justice. Here's something film and television gets right…providing awesome action. Want to study up on some larger than life fight scenes? Does anyone do it better than Indiana Jones? Jackie Chan? Bond, James Bond?
C) All the major questions have been answered. The denouement, epilogue, final chapter, whatever you want to call it, is often for wrapping up those details that didn't come out or just weren't fitting to slow down the climax with, but the final confrontation should solve most of the who, how and whys. The who certainly. That's crucial.
The best books I've read are those with endings that have me holding my breath and not even realizing it until I gasp for air.
Which brings me to a fitting end to mystery week: conclusions. A plot is not merely problem, conflict, resolution, and denouement. There's a very important thing that comes between conflict and resolution and that's escalation. I talked on day one about keeping tension and raising stakes. Now, here, I'm talking about pay-off. Resolution seems like such a passive word, so let's switch it to climax, which implies all the action, tension and satisfaction that the ending should deliver. You want an ending where:
A) The reader believes that things could go horribly wrong at any time and someone might die, be emotionally shattered or forever have their life altered in some way,
B) You can't have this kind of edge-of-your-seat feeling at the end without action! The killer, thief, whatever, should not go quietly. There should be a fantabulous chase, a big fight, a stand-off even…some chance that the perp will escape justice. Here's something film and television gets right…providing awesome action. Want to study up on some larger than life fight scenes? Does anyone do it better than Indiana Jones? Jackie Chan? Bond, James Bond?
C) All the major questions have been answered. The denouement, epilogue, final chapter, whatever you want to call it, is often for wrapping up those details that didn't come out or just weren't fitting to slow down the climax with, but the final confrontation should solve most of the who, how and whys. The who certainly. That's crucial.
The best books I've read are those with endings that have me holding my breath and not even realizing it until I gasp for air.