Cody Rhodes and Finishing Your Story
Some tips on plotting the ending of your story
If you've been tuned in to pro wrestling, you'd have witnessed the rise of WWE champion Cody Rhodes, and his mantra of "finishing the story." For those that don't know, Cody's father, the iconic wrestler "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was robbed of the then WWF world championship on a technicality, and it ended up being the only major championship that eluded him in his legendary career. Cody vowed to win the championship his late father couldn't, and that was the story that he wanted to finish. He faced a number of obstacles, setbacks and "hard times," but in the end he found a way to win, in a way that resolved a number of other plot and character threads that had been developing.
In an older article, I wrote about how writers can plot the ending to their stories. and I wrote two more articles about writing the final battle between you main protagonist and main antagonist. But I think there is more to finishing your story than just the ending. How your story will end should really be something you are thinking about throughout the writing process of your entire story. All of the plot, setting and character elements you place in your story, even at the very beginning, should be building and leading towards the story's end. But if you haven't given your ending much thought as you wrote your story and find yourself wondering how to stick the landing, here are some tips to help plot your climax and end in a way that is consistent with the rest of your story.
What is the problem?
I have often stated (and will continue to state) that your story is the process of solving a problem. Your story may actually have multiple problems that need to be solved, but there is almost always one main driving problem that the other problems branch out of. So to get an understanding of how your story should end, you need to first figure out what the biggest problem is in your story. This problem usually presents itself by the end of your first chapter and is usually the thing that kickstarts your central characters on their respective journeys throughout the plot. Remove it, and the entire narrative falls apart or has no clearcut direction. That is the problem that will factor the most into how your story ends.
To solve or not to solve
Once you've figured out what the central problem of the story is, then you need ask yourself if the problem will get solved at all. There is narrative merit in the protagonist's ultimate failure, and I addressed that at length in a previous post. Take an objective look at the overall plot of your story and think of the overall message you are trying to send to your reader. What is your story trying to say about life, the world and the human condition? Because I contend that every story has a message it is trying to send. Now ask yourself how the problem being resolved fits that message. There are many other factors that can help determine whether the problem needs to be solved. You can factor in how you want the reader to feel once the story is completed, or whether you want to leave the door open for a follow-up book. And your protagonist can still end the story on a positive note without the problem actually getting solved.
Figuring out How and Who
Regardless of whether you think it's best for the problem to get solved, you need to know exactly how the problem would be solved if it's possible. This will be your frame of reference for how the climactic moments of your story will play out. What is the objectively the best outcome for the dilemma that set the story into motion? And this solution should probably be in a vacuum, and not influenced by your characters' decisions. That comes later. Try outlining each step of the process in the solution. what has to happen in what order to most effectively resolve the situation, and what elements need to be involved?
Now that you have the solution in hand, the next step is figuring how that solution would play out with your characters and setting. Your characters have their own approaches, decision-making processes and agendas that will affect and maybe even alter your objective solution. Character flaws and distractions can affect how things play out, as well as if the characters involved have conflicting approaches to the problem. You want to map out how these factors complement or change your objective solution and note complications that you can add to your story's climax. Setting and Environment matter, too. Once you take your solution out of the vacuum and put it in an actual environment with moving parts, it changes how the solution can be implemented and creates obstacles for your characters to navigate. Beating the bad guy in a knock-down, drag-out fight sounds optimal until you put them in the middle of a crowded area with populated building and innocent bystanders nearby. now the hero has to worry about keeping them safe or at the very least keeping them out of the way.
Bumps in the road
Finally, now that you have the parameters of how the problem can be solved and how your characters in particular can handle that solution, you need to think about how the execution of said solution can go horribly wrong. This is important regardless of whether your protagonist succeeds in solving that problem. The drama of your climax is your character's dealing with these setbacks and either overcoming or being defeated by them. Make a list of literally every way you can think of for things to go sideways, regardless of how great or small. Now pick the two or three that you think you can milk for the most drama and tension, and try to figure out a way your protagonist can overcome them (even if You've decided they won't). Working out beforehand how your protagonist can overcome these obstacles will help you in plotting out the progression of the climax and give you a useful tool in figuring out "what happens next," which is a problem that has plagued many a writer.
Don't be afraid to pivot
When you start writing your story, its development may force you to reevaluate your end-of-story scenario. Maybe your characters started behaving in a way you hadn't planned for, or a new plot wrinkle has sent your narrative in an entirely new direction. When these things happen, you may need to take a second look at your planned ending and see if your new developments have forced any aspects of you planned ending - or even the entire ending itself - to change. Your old ending might not fit the story with the new parameters in play, and you'll need to pivot and adapt to fit your new information.
Cody's storyline was thrown off course when Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson returned as a WWE executive to interject himself into the main event at WrestleMania where Cody's endgame was slotted to play out. Fan backlash forced WWE's writers to recommit to Cody's storyline, but the Rock's involvement now created a new dynamic that brought in new possibilities for story development, new opportunities to resolve more ongoing and longstanding plot points, and new directions the overall narrative could go in in the wake of Cody finishing his story. If handled correctly, a change in your ending scenario can yield an even better, more robust ending than you had originally intended.
Conclusion
Figuring out your story's endgame does not have to be an intimidating process. Once you look at your tory as a problem that needs to be solved, you can generate solutions that can evolve into your story's ending. Give it a try.
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