Young Writers Society

Hey guys!

I've been working on my book for a while now, and on the way, I made something happen, and I'm a little conflicted about it. There's this trouble that occurred many years ago, and three people were involved in it. But by attack/suicide/murder, they are now all dead. So that means that the trouble would never be resolved and have a solution. Should I leave it at that? Wouldn't people want the conflict to see its end?

It depends. One of my favourite books is 'The Road' which does the same thing. It's pretty much a really long journey that's part of a conflict. We don't know how it started or where it is resolved, these are just two characters who happen to be a part of it.

Personally, I love that. My friends hated it.

The thing with unresolved conflicts is that it's kind of like the daily grind, we work hard and struggle through day to day in hope to reach an end point, and when we don't, we fall into a constant state of exhaustion. A lot of people read books to escape that- to be swallowed up in a story that has a resolution and an ending.

If you wanted to successfully pull off a story with an unresolved conflict then you'd have to tie up the sub-conflicts sufficient enough to leave your reader satisfied with the story.

In your case, you'd have to have quite a spectacular ending, even if it's just a matter of making their deaths meaningful towards the overall cause.

Not all conflicts have to have an end, but it depends on the type of conflict you've introduced.

When you tie things up too nicely, people can feel that you're being unrealistic because there was no way to tie up those ends. This is probably one of those cases. Backstory events are just that, backstory, and you don't always need to have a neat little bow on everything.

Now, leaving the main conflict unresolved is a whole other ballgame, and I'd not recommend it because that is when the readers throw the book against the wall. The main plot is what you're supposed to resolve neatly enough that there's a winner and a loser, so that readers feel satisfied.

But if it's backstory, then no, there's no need to make everything wrap up.

Not ending conflicts can be used for dramatic effect. Like the book mentioned in TFIOS (i forgot the name) how it stops mid sentence. Some people will get pissed and some will love it. Do whatever you feel is natural.