Now that we are familiar with the concepts, let's see
some examples of the Beginning, Ending, and Change worksheets in action.
If any of the explanation was unclear, this is the easiest way to understand
how this process works.
For our examples, we will be using a story I first sold to an online
magazine several years ago, called Bad Water. The great thing
about Bad Water is that it is flash fiction, so it's very short,
short enough you can read through it to understand the examples that follow.
In the interest of space, I'm going to just link to the story elsewhere on
my site, rather than copy it all here. It should open in a new window,
so that you can just close it to return here.
Bad
Water
Welcome back! Ready to go? Let's dive in.
First, let's look at Bad Water through the lens of the information we
discussed way back on the first
Endings page.
- Change
Bad Water is flash fiction. It should still be a complete story.
Is there change? You bet, when we get to the ending, things are
different. If we fill out our Beginning and Ending worksheet, and they
both look the same--that is a problem. That is a story problem that
goes well beyond the scope of Endings. No change, no story.
- Beginning
Back to the beginning. What promises did I make to the reader with my
opening lines? The opening line of Bad Water focuses in great detail
on the pond--you see the sun reflecting on it, see waves moving on it, hear Kirah curse it, and learn what trouble she has been through to get there.
I just promised you that this pond is important. Does the ending
deliver on that promise? I think that it does.
- Characters
Look at our characters here. For an ending to satisfy us, we would like
to see the protagonist get what they want. We would like to see
villains get what they deserve. You don't always have to do this,
but in this story, I chose to work for that type of ending.
This story has three characters, listed below in the order we care about
them.
- Kirah--is our story's protagonist. We sympathize with her in her
poor treatment from her master. We would like to see her free of this
mistreatment.
- Mistress Eleny--is our story's antagonist. We dislike her for her
poor treatment of Kirah, and for the way we hear her thinking about her
later on. We would like to see this one get her come-uppance.
- Jeran--is a minor character, even in this super short story.
Still, he looks sad and he is stuck in a pond. Having no reason to
dislike him, we would like to see him freed.
This ending delivers on all of those.
- Mood
Mood can be a tricky one. Was I going for a happy ending here?
Not in your typical sense. This bit of flash fiction was based more
around a gimmick than the characters--in this case the gimmick was the
cursed pond that traps whoever last touched it. The ending I wanted in
this story was more a sense of
"dreading anticipation"--we know what's about to happen, even though we
don't see it. Whether succeeds is up to the individual reader, but
from my perspective, I think I have gotten as close to it as I can.
So
at this point we move on to our worksheets. Even for this short work,
we'll use all three.
| Beginning
Kirah fetching water; unhappy
Jeran stuck in pond
|
Ending
Kirah stuck in pond
Mistress Eleny soon to be
stuck in pond
Jeran gone
|
Change
Kirah needs to touch the water
Jeran needs to be freed
and leave
Mistress Eleny needs to
come to the pond
|
This works out well--all of the necessary changes happen in the story--thus,
the ending makes sense from the story as it's given. We would expect
that, though, from a story that has been published.
What if we change the scenario? Say I re-envisioned my ending:
| Beginning
Kirah fetching water; unhappy
Jeran stuck in pond
|
Ending
Kirah married to Jeran
Mistress Eleny soon to be
stuck in pond
Kirah and Jeran inherit
Mistress Eleny's estate
|
Change
Kirah needs to touch the water
Jeran needs to be freed
Kirah and Jeran need to
establish a relationship
Mistress Eleny needs to
come to the pond
Estate needs to be
legally awarded to Kirah and Jeran in some
sort of proceeding
|
Now you can see we have some problems. The ending envisioned here is
not what is written, for one thing. We could probably tack on an extra
paragraph showing Kirah and Jeran living in the estate, regarding the
sparkling they can see from the cursed pond.
We would still have problems. You can see that, of the five changes
necessary to reach this ending, only two of them actually happened. If
you read a paragraph at the end of this story like we describe above, it
would come completely out of the blue. How could Kirah and Jeran be
married when he left while she was stuck in the pond? How could they
legally inherit an estate while the owner was missing?
For our re-envisioned ending to make sense, the story would need significant
change. If I tacked on that ending and asked you to read the story,
you would probably tell me you didn't like it much. These exercises
give me an opportunity to find and fix those problems before anyone else
ever has to read it.
This has been a significant amount of material, but it's a pretty simple
exercise. If you do this with a larger story, you'll notice that
you've only actually verified a small amount of your actual story--the
events of the ending and the tiny parts of the plot that are necessary to
reach it.
If you're ready to advance to serious story mechanics, making sure your
entire plot and every scene in it works with your overall story, making sure
you follow through on every promise you make to your reader, even the ones
you don't know you are making--
 |
This is "the one" from Holly Lisle--"The One"
that's going to get that vague story
idea out of your head and into finished
form better than anything else. She's
going to teach you more than just
writing this story though--she's going
to teach you systems to help you write,
anything, always, from now on.
How do I know? I've taken the course
:) And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some
of the things you learn you will use
over and over again, some you will try
once and set aside. And you'll have a
whole toolbox full of things to use when
you need them. |
 |
Okay, so
what if you already have a
first draft? Well,
here's "The One" that's
going to make that first
draft into something more
awesome than you thought you
could do.
Most writers think of
"revising" as cleaning up
grammar, spelling--prettying
things up.
But this course will teach
you revision that will make
meaningful change for the
better in what you've
written.
How do I know? I've taken this one too
:) And it really brought things into focus for me.
I bet it can for you, too. |
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to Fiction Writing Tips
|
