Writer's Workshop #9: Bookends! · 6:17pm Jan 14th, 2015
In this lesson, I'll get to teach you a fun little game that you can use to annoy your friends and family every time you watch TV! It's one of those things where, once you see it, it'll never leave your brain. What I'm talking about, of course, are bookends.
It's a simple concept, pretty similar to the equity thing I was talking about last week. However, where equity and inequity are about the central conflict of the story, bookends are more important with regards to the main character's personal conflict. In a strong, meaningful story, we not only see a conflict take place in the overall world, we also see a conflict within the main character as well. The final resolution to the conflict rides on the main character's personal growth. Basically, there are two options: either the main character discovers some new way of thinking to finally solve the problem, or they hold strong to their beliefs and convince the world around them to change, solving the problem.
So how do we know which way the story's gone? Well, that's where bookends come in. Bookends are two similar scenes at the beginning and end of the story which show which of those two examples have occurred. Change stories (where the main character changes) are much more common than steadfast stories (where the main character stays the same and the world changes instead), so most examples you'll notice will focus on this change within the character. For example, suppose we want our main character to learn the value of confiding in his family. What we can do is start the story by having him talk to a family member, say his sister, but when she tries to get him to open up, have him angrily refuse to share his feelings. This establishes our starting condition, our equity, basically. At the end of the story, we have the sister come to him again, only this time, the main character is willing to talk to her about his troubles. See what that's done? We know for a fact that the character has changed because he was faced with the same thing, but he responded differently.
So what was that game I was talking about? Well, funny story. That example I just gave wasn't made up on the spot. It's actually from one of the episodes of the CW TV show "Arrow." I personally really like the show, but it can be a bit... heavy-handed, shall we say, with its morals. Other shows do it, too, but more than likely more subtly. So here's your game. When you're watching a marathon of a TV show you like and you catch an obvious bookend at the end of an episode, hold your hands out like they're holding something between them, say, "Bookends!", and show it to everyone else watching. See how many times you can do it before they yell at you and tell you to knock it off. :P Bonus points if there are multiple arcs in one episode, meaning that the episode has two sets of bookends.
You can try it with ponies, too! "Putting Your Hoof Down" is a perfect example of this. The very beginning of the episode starts with Fluttershy trying to serve Angel Bunny a meal, but he refuses to eat it without the cherry. When Fluttershy is unable to stand up to him, we understand that this is what she needs to overcome. At the end of the episode, we see the exact same scene. Fluttershy is trying to convince Angel once more to eat, and once more he refuses. This time, however, she does stand up to him, so we understand what she's achieved.
This is a great little trick for writers to have, since it clearly underscores the thematic questions you want to pose in your story. However, like I said, it's so common these days that most people will come to expect it, and they'll find it formulaic or cliché. If you do want to use a bookend-style argument but don't want to be too obvious, there are some things you can do to mitigate it. One thing you can do is have the two bookend situations not be exactly the same. For example, in "Dragonshy," Fluttershy's confrontation with the dragon is the bookend to Fluttershy's confrontation with Angel at the beginning of the episode. Another thing you can do is not draw attention to the two scenes in question. For example, think of something like "Fall Weather Friends." What is the bookend to the early scene where Rainbow Dash and Applejack are playing horseshoes? To answer that question, we need to break down the scene in question. The point of the horseshoe scene is to show that Applejack is a good sport, and Rainbow Dash, while more competitive than Applejack, is still able to lose more-or-less gracefully. The bookend, then, is the scene at the finish line, where, after they've crossed the finish line, they angrily spit at each other, "I won!" "No, I won!" We can see that these are not the same Applejack and Rainbow Dash from before because now they don't treat each other with respect once a game is over. (Bookends! *does the gesture*) But because this scene is wedged in between their earlier fighting and the reveal that Twilight medaled, it's not as obvious as the other examples I've given. It also works so effectively because the change has been so gradual that this final scene is very similar to the previous ones. So that's my last tip: if you make the change very gradual, then the bookends won't be so blatant, since they'll blend in with the rest of the story. The most blatant bookends of all are when the stuff in the middle of them don't naturally lead from the first to the last.
So there you go. Think about some of your favorite TV shows, movies, or books. Which ones use really blatant bookends? Which ones use more subtle ones? Which ones use some other method of contrast or narrative emphasis? (Another one that's like bookends would be "milestones," where there are multiple check-ins that show how progress is going. Think like "Applebuck Season," where Big Mac's scene is the first milestone, then each of Twilight's subsequent visits is also a milestone.) Happy writing!
I didn't talk about bookends for steadfast stories, so let's quickly go over some of those as well. In "Keep Calm and Flutter On," the first bookend is her mediation between Applejack and Mr. Beaverton. In it, she reveals that she will always try to do what is best for both sides, never giving up on one or the other. This parallels with her mediation with Discord and the others during the ice skating scene, the other bookend. She refuses to ignore either her friends' needs or Discord's, standing by her promise to Discord while also not giving in to Discord's bad behavior so long as it impedes his fixing the orchard. These show that Fluttershy hasn't changed. In the end, her decision not to change brings Discord to change. I think we can see a pretty clear contrast between his first scene, where he mocks and plays, versus the ice skating scene, where he finally becomes contrite and fixes the orchard.
"Look Before You Sleep" is even more blatant, as they both revolve around fallen tree branches. In the first scene, Applejack demonstrates that she is focused on what's important over silly little fringe benefits. In the second scene, Applejack faces the exact same problem, and she responds to it the same way. Granted, she has grown a bit from there, she's learned a bit of humility, but in the end, Applejack stays the same. She apologizes to Rarity, but insists that what's important must still take place of housecleaning. Applejack's overall steadfast nature brings Rarity to "stop sweating the small stuff" and work in the mud and leaves, even if it gets her unconscionably dirty.
"The Last Roundup" has a really interesting subtle one. In the first scene, we see Applejack training, and it ends with her lauding over her blue ribbons and Apple Bloom cheering her on. The bookend for this scene is the one where Applejack sits forlornly in the desert surrounded by the non-blue ribbons. However, the other ponies are still cheering her on. This is how we know they haven't changed. On the flip side, this strength of character is what helps Applejack to change from somepony who has to defend her pride to somepony who can accept the love her friends have for even if she isn't a champion. Contrast is key.
Hope those get you thinking. Like I said, steadfast stories are a little more rare, but maybe you can think of some good examples.
Hey, wow. This was pretty good.
I feel like I understand bookends much better now and how they work.
I'm going to go through your other Writer Workshop posts, too. I feel like I could learn a lot that will improve the story I'm working on.
This post made me stop to think with the direction my main character is going, and now I believe I see a good pair of bookends, with some gradual progression milestones to indicate the change.
Thanks so much for writing this. I wish I could thumbs-up or favorite blog posts.