: Re: How can I make sure a major twist is not disappointing? I've been having some trouble with the ending of my current story, and I've decided that the best way to deal with those issues is

I'm not going to answer the question you've asked but instead address an implicit assumption in your question that you may have assessed incorrectly.

You state that because you have two separate goals for your protagonist to resolve that cannot be resolved at the same time, when he returns to the second, "the climax will have already happened, leaving everything back on the home planet as feeling like extra."

Yet, this is a structure that can work. A couple of examples include Lord of the Rings (the novel -- the films were restructured and removed this aspect of the structure) and the TV series Babylon 5 -- in both, the protagonists first face a large, worlds-in-balance threat, then return to their home to face a smaller but more personal threat. In both cases this works because they apply the lessons they learned in the first test while dealing with the second. When they left home, they wouldn't have been able to solve the problem they return to. When they return, they're changed by their experiences and are able to solve the problem.

If you can rework your second resolution so that it works in these terms, it could be a satisfying conclusion even though the stakes are smaller. It certainly seems that the key ingredient -- that even though the stakes are smaller they're more personal -- is there, which is a good start.

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: Re: How can I make sure a major twist is not disappointing? I've been having some trouble with the ending of my current story, and I've decided that the best way to deal with those issues is

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