Day 22: The Power of False Closure

Writing

Photo by konrad dobosz on Unsplash

Hello! We’re so close to being done with this month of writing tools and prompts and exercises and places to submit! Thank you for hanging in here with me.

I hope you’re learning a lot—or remembering a lot and having some epiphanies!

Today, I want to talk about something that’s a bit more obscure and that’s false closures.

These babies are powerful.

What are they?

Well, basically it’s like this: a scene or chapter may feel like it’s wrapped up, but is it truly resolved?

If it isn’t, boom! You’ve got false closure

False closure can be used strategically to create page-turning tension or mislead the reader in a mystery.

False closure is a cool (and sometimes controversial) narrative technique where a story or a scene or chapter appears to reach a resolution, but underlying conflicts or tensions remain unresolved.

It’s deliberate.

It’s sexy.

It’s a strategy.

This deliberate and sexy strategy creates a sense of completion on the surface, while subtly maintaining suspense or setting the stage for future developments.

We’ll talk about how to use it under the paywall, okay?