Writing the Ending: Tying Up All the Loose Ends

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Before we dive in today, just a heads up that I’m over at Anne R. Allen’s blog sharing thoughts on The Lure of the Writing Template: Why Filling in the Blanks Doesn’t Work. Come on over and say hello.

The ending of a novel is seldom just one moment. It takes a bit of juggling to get all the storylines tied up without stealing attention from the climax.

Even when we know our novel’s ending, there are usually multiple storylines in that story that also need to be wrapped up. Major subplots, secondary character arcs, small side plots that need resolving or readers will wonder about them. Everything needs to come together at the end in ways that support the story—not send it in six different directions.

Plotting With Layers: 4 Steps to a Stronger Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy 


Plots are like houses. When built on a strong foundation, with good flow and an well-thought out floor plan, readers want to move in and stay awhile. Just as we build in layers, we can also plot in layers. This helps us make sure all the right pieces are in place to hold up our story and allow our characters to live within them.

Layering your plot can create more interesting stories, but it's easy to go overboard and end up with a convoluted mess. How many layers are good? How many are too many? And mostly, how do you craft a well-constructed story that builds on itself and keeps readers interested?

I've talked about writing in layers before, and plotting in layers is similar. It helps to look at each layer individually and try not to build the whole thing at once.

Pushing the Plot Forward—Tying (and Trimming) Loose Ends for a Tidy Finish

By Aly Brown, @AlyConnerBrown

Part of the How They Do It Series

Tying up all the loose ends in a plot requires the right balance between too loose (where the ending isn't satisfying) and too pat (where the ending feels too contrived). Alythia Brown joins us in the lecture hall today to share some tips on keeping our plot threads neat and tidy.

Aly Brown is a newspaper editor and author represented by BookEnds LLC. She recently inked a deal with Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan for a nonfiction middle grade book on Alvin Submersible called The Last Unexplored Place on Earth. Release date 2023.

Website | Twitter | Grammar Chicken

Take it away Aly...

5 Ways to Tell if a Subplot is Leading You Astray

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Subplots have a way of taking over some stories. They steal all the action, distract the protagonist, or in the worst cases, shine brighter than the actual plot. Good subplots enhance the story, support the theme, and brighten what's already there. A bad subplot tries to smother it in its sleep with a pillow.

The annoying part is, we can't always tell which is which.

Some of the best-looking subplots I ever had were the literary equivalent of will-o-the-wisps. Bright, shiny, heading off with purpose. It wasn't until I was deep in the weeds that I realized I'd been led astray.

Diving in the Deep End: Strengthening Your Plots

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got was from my agent:

"Don't go wider, go deeper."

When we're working on a story, it's easy to add more "stuff" to make it exciting. More subplots, more characters, more details.

We start off with a story about a guy trying to survive a zombie attack who finds love, and end up with a guy trying to survive an zombie attack, win the heart of his true love, find a cure for zombification, uncover the truth that the government was behind it all along, a woman who discovers her husband is cheating on her, that her company is the one responsible for the plague getting out, how dodging responsibility had always been an issue for her ever since she quit her job at the CDC, which in turn caused her parents to disown her because they always wanted her to be a doctor, a girl who gets thrust into the middle of it all and is trying desperately to find herself after her lover abandoned her to save a total stranger, dealing with the secret that she once had an affair with the man who created the zombie virus, and gave their love child up for adoption, all while exploring the deeper themes about what it means to be human in an ever-increasing world of anonymity.

Um...what was the story about again?

Arc Enemy: Defining Story Arcs

Do your story arcs end in gold?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

There are all kinds of story arcs to keep track of during a revision. Plot arcs, character arcs, theme arcs, time line arcs. Keeping track of them can drive us nuts, but if we don't, they could all unravel and leave us with a huge mess.

I've found that taking them one at a time helps me keep them in order. I like to create a new file (or use a new sheet of paper if you prefer) and make lists, so it's easy to see the progression and when things happen.

Here's what I look for:

Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave: Crafting Subplots

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

We spend a lot of time focusing on our core conflict, and rightly so since that's what driving our novels. But what about the subplots? We hope those pesky side stories will deepen our novels, but sometimes they drag them to dark alleys to bang them over the head.When folks are having plot problems, it's not uncommon for those problems to be with the subplots.

Subplots Rule!
With my first novel, the subplots ruled. Every time I got a cool idea for a character, no matter how important they were, I ran with it. That's probably why I had eleven POVs and couldn't tell you what the dang book was about.

The next novel, I kept a tight leash on the subplots. The book was pretty flat, because nothing beyond the main story ever happened to shake things up.