: Re: Writing an Ending: how to prune away the Wrong ones? My protagonist introduced herself to me through a sequence of set-pieces. She has a very specific altruistic goal, and the conflicts she

Your question seems to be primarily about how to integrate plot and characterization. This is an issue I've been working hard on in my recent writing, so I'm going to make an unearthly effort to keep this answer short and to the point.

My writing philosophy is this: every character is a question that needs answering. Every character starts the story with a gap or wound in their lives, that needs filling or healing. Your job as a writer is to make that gap or wound a central part of your narrative. It doesn't necessarily need to be the central axis of the plot. If your character is an orphan who feels like they have no place in the world, they might defeat an evil dragon and then find out that they are the long-lost heirs to the kingdom. And that ending might look cheap to you, but it's satisfying to the reader.

So ask yourself, for each of your characters, what is the question that drives them? Common types of questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? How can I be the best? Characters may not know what their question is, and then it's your role as writer to give them an ending of what they need as opposed to what they want. Example: Disney's The Princess and the Frog has an entire song about this very subject.

In conclusion: to find your plot's most satisfying conclusion, find the question that your protagonist most needs to answer.

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: As to establishing an alternative universe or setting an alt-historical theme I'm a big believer in the Nineteen Eighty Four slap-in-the-face method: It was a bright cold day in April,

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: How do you mention the same character with two very different descriptions? In a screenplay, if you have a single character whose appearance and significance changes at some point - how do you

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: Word Clouds and Phrase Clouds I'm familiar with word clouds (or tag clouds) as used on blogs or on sites like Delicious. It seems to me that a tool similar to that could be of use to writers

: Re: Writing an Ending: how to prune away the Wrong ones? My protagonist introduced herself to me through a sequence of set-pieces. She has a very specific altruistic goal, and the conflicts she

More posts by @Sent2472441

: As to establishing an alternative universe or setting an alt-historical theme I'm a big believer in the Nineteen Eighty Four slap-in-the-face method: It was a bright cold day in April,

: Needing to Believe the Story Is Real I am writing a series of interconnected metafiction stories revolving around epic fantasy tropes. The basic premise involves gradually building up an epic

: How do you mention the same character with two very different descriptions? In a screenplay, if you have a single character whose appearance and significance changes at some point - how do you

: Word Clouds and Phrase Clouds I'm familiar with word clouds (or tag clouds) as used on blogs or on sites like Delicious. It seems to me that a tool similar to that could be of use to writers

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