Writing a Publishable Novel – The Art of Tying up Story Threads

 

Story Threads can be a Huge Problem if Not Resolved, and even Some of the Most Respected Writers are Not Sacrosanct

A thread is a plot element, nothing more, nothing less, but a problem for authors if they do not reconcile their threads for the reader.  The obvious rationale for an exception is to purposely leave the plot point unresolved to engender interest in reading a sequel to the story.  But when the aforementioned is not relevant, the problem can be excruciating for the reader.  And some of the most respected writers in literary history have been derelict by not tying up their threads acceptably.

One of the Most Flagrant Examples of Not Tying up a Thread is in INDEPENDENCE DAY

In Richard Ford’s INDEPENDENCE DAY, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996, he provides great detail in describing the circumstances surrounding the brutal murder of a real estate agent.  Then, later in the novel, he brings up her death once more, heightening the reader’s enthusiasm for an answer to who did it.  But the thread is never developed and the culprit not identified.  The murder therefore has no relevance to the story line, and by not providing a “reveal,” an awkward hole is left, although apparently not egregious enough for the Pulitzer committee to find fault.

WAR AND PEACE and THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE were also Not Immune to Dangling Threads

I call this lack of resolution a dangling thread, and a wonderful bad example (ugh, I know) can be read in the two novels cited in this subtitle.

Anatol is a profound early character in WAR AND PEACE (he’s the guy who ties Pierre to the bear, should anyone have forgotten).  Tolstoy relates much later in the tale that Anatol lost a leg in battle, but there is not one single mention of him in any other section of the book.

In THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, Captain Vye is a fabulous character for which a rich fabric is knitted by Hardy.  But after Eustacia meets her end, there is no further reference to Vye–and his feelings–thus leaving the story and the reader with a huge void.

Can there be a Happy Medium?

Perhaps an expedient way to view threads is via Dos Passos’ USA.  Eventually he had to leave some threads to their own devices or he’d have been writing ad infinitum because of the type of historical chronicle the story happened to be.  However, USA demonstrates in abundant terms how threads can be expanded to reach a satisfactory conclusion in the mind of the reader–yet sans “finality” in each  and every scenario.

Shouldn’t the Writer be Cut some Slack

Some can argue, and most justifiably, that it’s not a literary transgression to defer providing a detailed chronology for the life of every character in a book the size of WAR AND PEACE.  This is certainly not disputable, but it does beg reconciliation by the author when, in my opinion, a character is prominent enough to drive a significant segment of a story.  This is my contention in the Tolstoy example, and for me it’s even more acute in Hardy’s work because the captain is such a viable character in so much of the narrative.

It could be nothing more than an issue of degree, but if readers were to parse stories they didn’t enjoy, there might be a legitimate question as to how often their disappointment was due to dangling threads.


Robert L. Bacon, Founder

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