Monday 9 April 2018

Repeating Yourself: The Art of Bookending

We all like a cohesive story, don't we?

There's something incredibly satisfying about a story that has a cohesive feel, where it ends with a tight plot and a nice little bow on top. Ambiguity is nice, too, but there's just something wonderful about a perfectly tied together ending.

Of course, there are many, MANY ways to do this. Everyone has a different answer as to how to make a satisfying and cohesive conclusion for a story, and it's just not a subject that can really be tied down.

One way, though, is the Bookending Technique.

Odds are, you may have heard of it before. If not, you may be able to assume what it is.

(If you are lost, don't worry. I will explain it shortly.)

This is a technique I see more in film than in books (unless I'm just reading the wrong books for it. I don't know) and it's a technique/subject that was brought to my attention by a friend of mine, who I asked for ideas for topics to write on. (He's really into film, so I wanted to see what topics he thought would be interesting to talk about.)

This is what he requested, so let's get started.