Tension unresolved

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Jane Yolen, Jonathan Carroll, Mary Pipher and Neil Gaiman are among the contributors to the 2007 edition of ‘The New Writer’s Handbook: A Practical Anthology of Best Advice for Your Craft and Career’ (Scarletta Press: 280 pp., $16.95 paper), a series aimed at helping writers with the entire process: pitching a proposal, drafting a manuscript, marketing, you name it.

And yet, on this weary Monday morning, the only piece of interest was thriller writer Ridley Pearson’s on ‘The Three-Act Structure.’ The third act, Pearson explains, is all about resolution: ‘The end often shows the reuniting with someone from whom the protagonist separated at the start of the story: This could be an idea, a belief system, or a person. The protagonist, and the reader along with him, is made whole. Ordinary life can continue again.’

‘Name a film or book you think rises above others,’ Pearson concludes, ‘and chances are...the story line will fit into this form.’

Hold it, now, what about last night’s final episode of ‘The Sopranos’? The show’s final minutes: the antithesis of wholeness.

Nick Owchar