"The Exit Plan"

                                                  

                     Why Plotting the Perfect Ending for Your Story is Important

When we think of an exit plan, it is usually associated with a sign that directs us out of a building, a door, war, and in this case story development.

An exit plan is crucial to any story and sometimes more important than what comes before, and in the middle. I know, that we don’t always think of the conclusion before the first chapter is written.  But we should.

How a story ends is vital to the plotline of any book. Before you write a paragraph, should have some idea of how you want the story to conclude.

Sure, most have happy endings, and then there are continuations.  Nevertheless, no matter how many sequels develop over time, the ending is inevitable.

There are many ways to achieve this, and we all love plot twist. Something unexpected.  Regardless, an exit plan must exist.

I read a book yesterday, invested six hours into the story and was left devastated because of how the story ended.  The story started out very good, toward the end the writer used a plot twist. One that didn’t really make sense to me at all.

The entire premise of the story was misleading after this happened. Listed under fantasy/romance.  They got the romance part right but everything else went south after that.  One guess, is that the writer did not show a great exit plan that could have possibly won over more readers.  Needless to say, I was disappointed.

I know there are many type of plot lines such as the most popular one’s, Resolved, Unresolved, Implied, and Twist. Some of my favorites.  However, if we fail to engage the readers by having a riveting plotline then we’ve wasted valuable time, writing, and reading.

One way to look at exit plans in story creation, is to think of it as you would your house during an emergency.  A way out is necessary to survival.  We layout a planned escape route, on a just in case bases.

 In case of fire don’t use elevators, we’ve all seen that one in most buildings. The way out is visible and marked clearly so no confusion will exist in time of trouble.

So, if an exit plan is essential to real life situations, how much more important is it to the life of a great writer. 

You can usually tell when a writer doesn’t know how to end a story.  It goes on indefinitely.  A deluge of in’s and out’s, twist and turns to finally, you stop reading because the story has lost direction.

Exit Plans are essential to the daily lives of every individual, as much as it is to a writer. Plan carefully, know the ending from the beginning and I promise everything will turn out perfectly.