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Cathartic Endings in Fiction: How (and When) You Need Them

May 1, 2023

creativity, ending, fiction, literature, writing

The ending is perhaps the most crucial part of a novel. The reason is of course its role in tying narratively loose threads and overall rendering the narrative sense-making. Moreover, the narrative ending is what the author leaves the reader with as a last impression. And one of the attributes of this last impression is whether it offers catharsis or not. Inevitably, cathartic endings are an important topic in fiction.

Very generally, catharsis in psychology refers to an experience that allows us to express, face, and understand strong emotions – particularly emotions that are repressed.

With this in mind, then, cathartic endings are endings that release the pent-up pressure the narrative has generated – for affective reasons, of course. For example, imagine a narrative where two people have feelings for each other which they keep a secret, because of social or other reasons, but which they reveal to each other in the finale.

So, ultimately, understanding cathartic endings – their dynamics, how you can structure them, how you can use them – allows you to have maximum control of your narrative endings and thus narrative at large.

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Multiple Endings: a How-to Guide

April 18, 2022

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, creativity, ending, fiction, literature, writing

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Remember my post on narrative endings? I there argued that narrative endings and physical endings are not necessarily one and the same. In reality, there are more than one ways to end a novel. And having multiple endings is a great way to increase the affective impact of your narrative.

So, what do we I mean by “multiple endings”? Let’s start by what I don’t mean: A Clue-like style set of actual different endings (in the form of, say, different chapters). I’m not interested in that, and though I wouldn’t want to deter anyone from trying different things, I’m not entirely sure whether it’d work.

What I mean by multiple endings in a narrative is the presence of interpretatively more than one alternatives; open-endedness; allowing the possibility that things aren’t quite what they seem. Think of the ending of Inception, with the spinning top, and you’d have a simple, masterful example of how a single, mundane object can throw the entire narrative in disarray.

So let’s take a look at multiple endings: what’s their effect, how to gauge whether you need them, and how it all comes together.

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Inevitable Narrative: How to Detect what Is Necessary in Your Fiction

December 7, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

characters, ending, narrative, plot, writing

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Learning how to detect what is necessary in your fiction allows you to write an inevitable narrative. A narrative that is inevitable is structurally solid and leads to a sense-making ending.

Therefore, it should be fairly obvious that learning to see what’s necessary and what’s not when writing is very important. To put it simply, without having an inevitable narrative you will likely have problems with narrative pace as well as a problematic ending.

Moreover, a non inevitable narrative… inevitably creates problems with over-explaining and exposition. The reason? If something that shouldn’t be there actually is, you tend to (sometimes subconsciously) rationalize it with superfluous content.

In this post we’ll take a closer look at inevitable narratives. I’ll show you how to decide what is narratively inevitable and what isn’t, as well as how to structure your narrative in a way that precisely favors its inevitability.

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