Play Writing in Depth (Part 3: Ending)

Welcome to part 3 of 7 on play writing in depth, and no just because the title says end does not mean it is the end of the series. So in this part of the series I mainly going to talk about how to get to the end of your play and how to fully wrap it up.

Now that you have just finished your climax you need to start wrapping up the entire book as a whole. Now you do have a few options on how you want to do this. You can start telling us what happens after the climax, either directly after the climax or you can even do a flash forward to a couple of years later to see what effects the climax had on the world you have created. Another option that you can do is build the end of your play into a cliff hanger, but I will get into more of that in a little bit. Finally you can just end the play. Once you get to the climax just find a way to wrap it up there. Now this is a very lazy way of making an ending, but for some plays it does work.

Now I am going to go back to cliff hanger endings for a little bit. See cliff hanger endings are good and are a very easy way for an author to make a sequel to the series, but it only really works in books. You can’t really make a sequel to a play. Now I know in some plays the author will decide to end the play during the climax or directly after the climax to allow the viewer to make the own assumption of what happens at the end, or after the climax. You make the audience think did the hero win, or what actually happens to character after the climax, kind of like those make your own adventure books. And when play writers do this correctly it can actually be really cool and really thought provoking. But do be careful with this idea, if done incorrectly it can make your play look unfinished, or just rushed, with no real ending to speak about.

So there is the major three beginning, middle, and end. Now you must be thinking, “wait this is a seven part series what is left to cover?” Well in the oncoming weeks I will be talking about, character development, stage direction, and how to set your stage and props. So I will see you then.