Though your story may have reached its climax, the tale isn’t over yet. The author also should briefly detail the effects that the climax has on the characters. This section of the story is known as the falling action. It’s what happens to the main character as he descends the mountain that he has spent the entire story climbing.
Suppose your story was about putting out a fire in a skyscraper that the President of the United States is in. When the fire is put out and the president is safe thanks to the heroism of one firefighter, his colleagues and the police officers and EMTs on site upon seeing him suddenly cheer and lift him onto their shoulders in celebration. The falling action begins with the cheer.
Though the story’s central problem is solved in the climax, without the falling action the tale feels incomplete. The author typically needs to show that there is some payoff for the main character that underwent the change allowing him to emerge victorious during the climax. This payoff needs to be larger than simply defeating the antagonist. Restoration of order and some reward for the main character often needs to be described.
After the story’s falling action comes another brief section that wraps up the story. This conclusion is known as the denouement (pronounced day-noo-mon).
During the denouement – which usually is only a few paragraphs and sometimes as short as a single sentence long – the loose ends of the story are tied up. Usually there are minor questions, often not directly involving the main character, that need to be solved. In addition, this part of the story can serve as a catharsis for readers, relieving tension created in the story by offering humor or revealing the story’s theme.
In our firefighter story above, the denouement may involve a brief discussion of what our hero plans to do now that he has accomplished such a newsworthy feat. Maybe his girlfriend – who earlier in the story said she wouldn’t marry him unless he quit the fire department because she didn’t want to be a fireman’s widow – realizes that she was wrong and rushing into his arm tells him “she he can “Yes!” she’ll be his bride.
Sometimes the denouement is known as the resolution. It also is casually referred to as the conclusion or the ending.
Genre stories often have expected endings, called ritual endings. Mysteries, for example, include the main character reciting how he made the connections that that led him to solve the crime. Romances often show the heroine and her beau living happily ever after. Part of the fun of such stories is seeing how the characters reach this ritual ending.
When writing the conclusion of your story, be sure to follow a few simple guidelines:
• The conclusion must complete the action of the story – At this point in the story, the main character clearly has either overcome the central problem or has so failed that there is no hope of him ever overcoming it. If the conclusion isn’t connected to the story’s action, it will appear tacked on.
• Reaching the ritual ending must always be in doubt – If you do use a ritual ending, generate enough dramatic tension that the reader remains uncertain if the crime will be solved or that order will be restored so that such an ending is possible. Simply following a plot structure without dramatic tension is akin to creating a “cookie-cutter” story. The story would be the same as any other and lack an unique shape.
• Your ending must surprise and delight – Often what is most memorable about a story is its conclusion. The conclusion does mark the last words that are read, after all. Make them count.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
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