Over the years, I’ve changed how I think about an author’s responsibilities to their audience.
Initially my objective was simply to entertain. After all, the publishing industry is considered part of the entertainment industry. Books are the genesis of TV Shows, movies, plays, audiobooks and other narrative forms. Why does the public watch or read fiction? Generally, it’s for entertainment. Therefore, I paid particular attention to writing mysteries that engaged the reader’s attention with hooks, explanations, surprises and twists. Yeah, the nuts and bolts of our craft.
Crafting a satisfying ending, however, is tricky. It must surprise, yet feel inevitable, or at least logical. To achieve this balance, I realized, an inventive resolution can only work if it is based on some form of truth. Does it need to be a universal truth, something generally accepted? Boy wins girl, girl persuades boy, the crook is caught, the villain dies…experimenting with such endings, I found them somewhat trite. So the ‘truth’ elicited at the end must be a subtler form.
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Nev March: Award Winning Author of Historical Mysteries 