The Element of Surprise

Confession: This is not the confession that was originally posted here. I forgot to do it yesterday, and now I'm revising it.

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Hitches a Ride" - 1,520 words (Estimated completion 17%)
• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 100%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
  
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

Still no word from the Tea lady. Maybe she suddenly decided that tea wasn't worth dedicating her life to, and she ran off to join the circus.

Today I started considering what it meant for there to be a "surprise" ending. The obvious starting place is the literal meaning of the words, for there to be a climax which the reader does not expect.

The natural opposite would be the cliched ending, often called the "Hollywood" ending. Of course the hero is going to survive, because he has to survive. Of course he's going to get the girl, because he has to get the girl. Not only is there no surprise, but the ending fits a mold. It's more of a ceremony than a plot.

I think that there can be good surprise endings and good Hollywood endings, if each is done correctly. I also think that most stories, including the great stories, fall somewhere in between.

Let's take The Lord of the Rings for instance. The Hollywood ending is for Frodo to achieve his journey and, after a great struggle, throw in the ring, then return home and live happily ever after.

The surprise ending, on the other hand, would be for Frodo to declare that his allegiance was to Sauron all along, to bend down on one knee, and present it to the dark lord. Or maybe he and Gollum were working together. Or maybe Sam had been given instructions by Gandalf to push Frodo in.

What a twist! But none of it would be genuine. Perhaps that's the word I'm looking for. A genuine ending is one that the reader cannot fully predict, but remains fully justified in retrospect.

Frodo could not throw in the ring, and it was only by chance, the same type of random chance by which the ring was found, that it could be destroyed. And when Frodo returned home, he found not the idyllic land he had left, but a place to which war had come nonetheless. And even when it was restored to some semblance of its former nature, he could find no rest there, and accepted exile, a type of death, in place of long life and happiness. It's a genuine ending, and truly, the only one that worked, because it was truly justified by everything that came before it.

Movies are a type of short story. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes, the pictures take longer to show. I think only movies and short stories can get away with the Hollywood ending or the surprise ending. There is not a lot of time to establish good characterization in either, and as a result, neither the surprise nor the cliche feel like a cheat.

On the other hand, novels are long and (should) have more than adequate characterization. They need a genuine ending.

Of course, if you can write a short story with a genuine ending, well, then you've done something special.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1.25?
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 1.75?