Inneresting 42
issue 42
March 6, 2021
Let’s start talking about endings
No two great endings are exactly alike, but it’s worth looking at some examples to see the different ways storytellers can wrap up their narrative and leave audiences feeling satisfied.
Two good places to start are Vulture’s recently released list of “The 101 Best Movie Endings of All Time, Ranked” (with clips), and AMC’s list “The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time.”
Twist Endings: You could see them coming, but didn’t
Alec Worley wrote an explanation of “The Five Types of Twist Ending” that was referenced in Scriptnotes episode 170.
It’s a great breakdown of the different types of information you can twist, the importance of deciding what the audience and the protagonist know (and when), and the groundwork a writer needs to put down before deploying a satisfying surprise.
Thoughts about endings from around the Quote-Unquote Universe
Flash back to Scriptnotes episode 44 – “Endings for beginners” – to hear John and Craig talk about the difference between a happy ending and a satisfying one.
The Writer Emergency Pack blog looks at how the end of one story is often the beginning of another (that we may not get to see).
John blogged about author John Gardner’s stance on how there are two types of endings.
Highland How-To: Centering Text
Whether it’s an act break or literally THE END, screenplay convention has these elements centered on the page.
For Highland 2, that’s as simple as choosing “Center” from the Format menu. And as with all things Highland, you can enter the enter the codes by hand: It’s a greater-than symbol followed by a less-than symbol.
> Find your center. <
Other Cool Things
Late night show writer, comedian, and author Laurie Kilmartin tweeted a list of helpful transition phrases for comedy writers to use when delivering punchlines.
Kate Hagen, writing for The Black List Blog, shares some love for video stores that are still up and running, including a crowd-sourced spreadsheet of the best video stores still in business.
Speaking at TEDxPenn, Mark Rober presents his theory of what Super Mario Bros. can teach us about learning and perseverance.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
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