I keep hearing this term “denouement” pop up in some of the writing
materials I’ve been reading. What exactly is a denouement?
Denouement is a hard word to pronounce (and a harder word to
spell for some of us, especially me—it’s one of my Achilles’ heels for some
reason). But the role of the denouement in literature is not hard to comprehend
and, once you understand it’s definition, you’ll be to spot it quite easily in
most novels.
The denouement is the
final outcome of the story, generally occurring after the climax of the plot.
Often it’s where all the secrets (if there are any) are revealed and loose ends
are tied up. For example, the denouement of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet comes just after the Romeo and Juliet take their own lives. When the
families find their dead bodies, Escalus explains that their deaths are a
result of the family feud, leaving members of both sides to feel guilty. That
is the denouement.
As a writer, it’s important to keep this in
mind when crafting your own story. While you want to give away bits of
information about your plot (and subplots) throughout, you want to save the
juiciest revelations for the end, rewarding readers for staying the course.
That’s the ultimate goal of any good denouement
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