Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 11:32:40 EST From: TipToe on the Keyboard Subject: EXERCISE: The coda Comments: To: le grand plie [Avec moi! Feet together, back straight, head up...and bend those knees, bend them, until your taut little buttocks bounce on the ground...le grand plie, if you please! and up, up, up again, slowly and gracefully, that's it, now down again! and two two three four...that, my dear one, is ballet!] The ending. The question--posed from the very beginning--elaborated, swollen in importance, with the highest stakes possible hanging on it--diligently explored, extended and enlarged, perhaps even eviscerated through the actions and reactions of the ensemble of characters--comes now to the climax. The blade is poised overhead, the sun glints on that sharpened edge, and the reader holds their breath... The protagonist, pushed to the edge of the cliff, hanging on by the merest sore hangnail, twisting in the breeze of the impending hurricane, down to her last nickel or dime--will she tumble down to the depths or make an incredible effort of the soul and shaking muscles to rise up and confound the cursed cat that is biting (oh, well, this was out of control a few lines ago, so let's let the nonsense be nonsense and skip right on...) Okay, here's one approach. For this, you can use a story you haven't finished or one that already has an ending. 1. Write out the question (the goal, the problem, the point!) of the tale. 2. Now make a list of at least five different climaxes (conclusions, ways for the protagonist to win or lose, realizations/satori, etc.) Five is good, ten is better. 3. Pick one of the less obvious ones. For example, suppose the protagonist simply pulls Snidely Whiplash over the cliff and tumbles to their mutual destruction, secure in the knowledge that her beloved horse will be safe from his whip from now on... 4. Write up that scene. You want to make this scene really work for your reader--they've been following along, wondering, waiting, and now comes the point of the whole story. Don't disappoint them, make this the key to the whole story. 5. Polish it. You want to make the reader really enjoy this. Make them sweat over whether Nell can pull herself up that cliff, or whatever the climax you have picked, and give them solid, well-paced writing that makes the scene come alive for them. That's it. Just a reminder to work on the end, and keep it in shape. [Now, for something completely different...a man with three...oh, you've heard that before? well... here are five words for you to use in a tale if you like... esteem bulwark mettle garland libertine and for the one line beginning folk: The tantamount, on mistletoe and foggitheel, did drift a fine hoboken dance that New Year's night before us all. a toughie, but I'll bet someone feels that itch, that sniffle of words about to sneeze out on the screen or paper, that glorious grinding of mental gears that heralds the best of fairydust in blinking eyes... WRITE! and back to the barre...hand up, arm bent, gracefully bow, forehead to knee, and curtsy with courtesy. thank you, and good night...] tink