Help on writing the end of a short story..writer's block?

Question

I have just about everything perfect, except that I have "This sounds like a plot. How does the progatonist change? Be specific." written on my paper.

My story is about a woman, who has a wonderfully perfect life up to her personality disorder. Her other personality is nervous, paranoid, depressed..just about everything that she normally isn't. I was going to end it with her being sent away by her concerned friends and husband to get her disorder under control, but now that i think about it, that is a plot. The protagonist doesn't change.

Can anyone give me some ideas on how to end it? I'm drawing a blank here.
Thankies. :D

Answer 1

You don't have writer's block at all. And if you did, I assure you getting fresh air and taking a walk around the block isn't the way to cure writer's block. That is a very naive answer.

You are just looking at your story from the wrong perspective. Shift your focus .. the woman isn't your protagonist - the person in her family who sends her away is. Specifically her husband. The woman is actually your antagonist. Her personality disorder is what is causing the problem for the protagonist - the husband.

Think about how it would change you if you had to make the decision to send your wife away to a mental institution.

Your story is really about what the man is going through. His life is the one that is altered forever. Shift your focus and write through the eyes of the man. Now, you have what you need.

Try a story curve. Draw a rainbow arc. Start on the left side with the beginning. I call it "Ground Zero". That is life as it is before the conflict. They are a happy, loving couple. The man goes to work, supports his family, mows his lawn on Saturday, has friends, whatever.

Then moving up the left side, add your conflict. His wife has a breakdown and her personality splits into two. His life is now altered. Things start to happen. The other personality does things that mess up his life. He becomes her caretaker.

He goes through a series of attempts to resolve the conflict. He tries to help her. He takes her to a doctor. He covers for her when she does bad things as the other personality. You add the details.

Then you need a climax. That goes at the top of the rainbow. Something has to happen in a dramatic fashion to force his hand. Like she gets into a terrible car wreck and kills another driver while she is in her altered state. Again, you choose the situation. This forces his hand. He now has to make a final decision.

Then heading down the right side of the rainbow you have your descending actions. He finally has to gather the family together and tell them she needs more care than he can give her. He deals with their feelings. He helps them to understand and accept.

At the bottom of the rainbow on the right side, you have your conclusion. I call it "Ground Zero Plus". Your protagonist's life now returns to normal - only it has changed. It will never be the same.

In Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon books, he used a similar scenario. Gabriel Allon is a spy and assassin for Israel whose cover is that he is a world class art restorer in Vienna. He has a happy life with his family. One day, his wife and son get into a bomb rigged car meant for him. His son is killed. His wife is badly injured - physically and mentally and is in a mental hospital. He visits her often and most of the time she doesn't remember him. As life goes on, he meets another woman and falls in love. She wants to get married, but he has to decide to divorce a woman who doesn't really deserve to be hurt. In the end, he makes a decision and his life is changed forever. See the arc in that situation?

One simple shift and you suddenly have a story, kiddo. You were just looking at it from the wrong angle. You already have your ending. You don't need any help with that at all. You have a very dramatic scenario already established. Run with it. Pax - C

Answer 2

my record is utilising the lavatory status up in a shifting bus the place the mild wasn't working in a foreign places us of a. i could no longer take any possibilities. in any different case, do i in my opinion appear as if my call is Connie and that i stay in a mall off the turnpike in Newark, NJ? (the only place i've got been the place it extremely appeared like the ladies could write their names in the snow).

Answer 3

how about they put her on a bus bound for this "mental home" to help her with her problems. they tell her it is a vacation getaway so she goes.

but on the way she meets someone that actually makes her feel better about herself. he/she is on their way to a real vacation home miles from where she is suppose to go.

she leaves with this new person setting up a new life back to her old self finding that it was everyone else's changes she could not handle because she used them as a crutch for her own insecurities. however, after she meets this person she realizes that she can do this herself and this new person is now her new life.

no one ever finds her again until years later her husband receives a card with only one inscription.

I love you, but I found I love me more.

Answer 4

go somewhere else, take a bike ride, get fresh air