A Paradigm Shift Ending

When I teach plot, I like to begin with the Triumphant Climax. I emphasize the end early-on because endings don’t usually receive the time and attention they deserve. Yes, beginnings hook readers. Endings create fans. They also have the potential to emotionally impact a reader’s life.

Some people believe there are no new stories. I revise that to say no new plots. Today, stories revolve around conflict between the protagonist and antagonists intent on keeping her from her goal. New and thrilling to me are to consider the same old plots with entirely new endings. I challenge you to write an ending to your story in a fresh and new way. Create a paradigm shift ending.

Plot Twist Ending

The muse sends inspiration like a dream. A first draft challenges you to stay open and write what comes. After that, you’re expected to craft your story into a pleasing form for your reader. You begin with a universal conflict, struggle, question. To end with a paradigm shift demands that you fundamentally twist basic concepts, familiar models, or how people normally view and perceive events. The reader closes the book or leaves the theater feeling the same old story in an entirely different way. — breakout. I write in Plot Whisperer Workbook not to settle for the first idea that comes to you. Writing in drafts allows you to dig deep into every plot and story element for a unique plot twist and a paradigm shift ending.

Collective Consciousness

Your first ideas come as images and lines and notions. These often arise out of the collective consciousness. In other words, your initial thoughts are made up of the shared beliefs and ideas and moral attitudes that unify you with those around you. Ideas you’ve learned from your family and community and have grown up believing have only in the past few decades started to include women’s voices truly reflecting women’s inner lives.

Patriarchal Point Of View

For the past 6,000 years, ideas that unify us within society come primarily from a patriarchal point of view. This means that, be they male or female, all our teachers, textbook writers, newspaper columnists, historians, directors, producers, publishers, editors, politicians, religious leaders, advertisers, public servants and elected officials perpetuate a mind-set where men hold the primary power.

You have been so careful not to use clichéd phrases, metaphors, and settings and have worked to make every element uniquely your own. Why settle for an ending steeped in a culture that demeans and marginalizes women? Finding your authentic truth means peeling away the beliefs you’ve developed based on the stories you’ve been told. Creative, intuitive, and imaginative, more and more women are writing women’s stories through women’s hearts and voices. As women shed what no longer serves the greatest good, more novels, memoirs, and screenplays will have a paradigm shift ending. Women writing their truth help bring balance to our culture and our world.

A Woman Triumphant?

When a character rises in triumph at the climax, what does she look like, act like? In the resolution, what does the world look like now that she is new and different and transformed and has shared the gift she came to share? Everyone is searching for answers. Stories offer a new vision to replace the old, especially now that so much of the old world order falls apart. Writers today are asked to reach, think differently, and stretch when it comes to writing the climax of a story.