Resolution

“Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will. ~ Jonathan Edwards
***

Yesterday we spoke of the conflict in a story. Some folks think that is the height of the story but really you find solace in the resolution more than the conflict, don’t you? When you’re reading a story and your heroine is tossed into a conflict, do you not find yourself rooting for her and anticipating a resolution as the story ends?

Take for example, a young woman who has decided to get out of a troubled relationship, where conflict is heightened, where her child and her are endangered. You see her on a dusty road heading off to the sunset with a small child's hand in hers and a backpack on her back. Leaving behind everything precious; ornaments, nic-nacs, photographs, even her very first Teddy bear.

You watched the conflict build in this relationship and you pulled for her and as she is walking down the road, sun in front of her, shadows of her past behind her; you read the conclusion. Or did you?

Picked up on the road to nowhere the child and her are tossed into another relationship. Thinking it was for the best but then it happened, the same old circle of the past came running around; the relationship grew, the same resentment and pain that was left behind brewed and here she was back in the mirrored image of the life that she left behind.

Once again, you felt the joy in her resolution only to find she was smack dab in the middle of conflict once again. In writing, this is the crux of the story that you’re writing. We like to call it the inverted check mark. The conflict rises, rises, peaks, then resolves. Whew! But then it confronts the heroine again and the vicious cycle comes back and before the final chapter, either your heroine dies, or she succeeds in finding a way out of the circle that has haunted her life and held her captive for so many years.

This is the premise of so many novels so I don’t believe I’m releasing anything new to the reader and this is why my life story has been put on hold for a spell. It seems ‘done before’ even though it is unique to me, to readers, they might not find it interesting enough to pick up and scale through thirty or forty chapters of this same thing happening over and over. Maybe the title should be Karma- What goes around-comes around.

Now remember, it is all in the resolution where the reader finds reward. So as you embark on learning the ropes of conflict, no matter where they may be in your story, resolution is what the reader is REALLY looking for! 

Congratulations to me on my 700th post!