dios4vida wrote:I understand that everything can be done well with a skilled enough hand in control. But do you think this particular scenario would make a difference, polymath? If the dramatic action has been resolved, does having the protaganist lose consciousness still separate the reader too much?
Frankly, I see a loss of consciousness in an ending after the finale of the main dramatic complication as a Dischism, and possibly superfluous when a more artful ending takes advantage of setups and transitions which restore emotional equilibrium. I'm thinking there of the ending celebrations for the heroes in the Star Wars saga, which might be an overused, outworn ending. Algis Budrys, one time coordinating judge of the Writers of the Future contest, notes an ending must recognize and validate an outcome's circumstances in order to satisfy readers with an emotionally complete payoff. I agree. Artfully how though, is another matter.
A Dischism is where a writer's writing setting artlessly makes its way into a narrative. Openings, waking up or regaining consciousness, writing after waking in the morning. Endings, going to sleep or losing consciousness, end of day stuff. Because writers' subconsciousnesses influence writing, and waking and sleeping are daily activities not given much conscious thought, waking and sleeping are pretty common Dischisms and prone to overuse, outworn, and trite. Maybe cliché in the sense that extended metaphors can be outworn and trite, though cliché in a denotative sense applies to short phrases like, All in a day's work.
Anyway, a screening reader who encounters a significant fraction of narratives with waking-up openings and/or losing consciousness endings is more likely to say no thank you. I'm sure they see many that they associate with emotionally flat or lackluster vigor narratives. If there is waking or sleeping openings or endings, though, and artfully handled, there is going to be a struggle in a screening reader's mind to accept or reject the scenario, for many readers too. That can be counted on and potentially taken advantage of by slipping in context that works and allows for prepositioning circumstances for foreshadowing and the like; in other words, subliminally inserting circumstances in readers' minds for later relevance and raising curiosity. On the other hand, one more shortcoming in short order increases the possibility of rejection, like untimely backstory or an unsatisfying ending.
Again, in another alternative, a conventional ending might result in a nobel sacrifice of the hero and consequently death. Some critics consider death endings, the ultimate loss of consciousness, as outworn and trite as well. Another outworn ending they remark upon is a marriage ending. Once upon a time there was a fairy tale and they married and live happily ever after stuff.
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