Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of the Gilmore Girls.
I’m watching the series for the fourth or fifth time.
So, all due respect! It’s a fine, quirky show with stellar dialog.
But toward the end, things aren’t as satisfying.
The writers gave Luke a surprise daughter and made him confused about his relationship with her.
So much so, he and Lorelai called of their engagement.
We spend the next season and a half waiting for them to get back together.
And they do! (Yay!) But on the very last show!
We were denied the wedding! The full circle of their relationship.
Same with Rory and Logan.
We endure all of their ups and downs, cheer for them, yell at them, cry with them, then when Logan proposes, Rory turns him down!
Rory, who likes things planned and figured out, who knew she was going to Harvard when she was three, turned down the man she loved for three years.
The one who put her through so much! She actually turned him down.
What? We are denied, again, the cumulation of a Gilmore Girl relationship.
The final scene mirrors the final scene of the pilot:
Lorelai and Rory sitting in Luke’s diner, talking, drinking coffee, dreaming of the future.
I get it. Bookends. Ending the way the story began.
I recommend writing with bookends. Ending the book the way it began only showing the advancement of the protagonist(s).
In my book Sweet Caroline, the heroine enters the story driving a broken down ’67 Mustang toward a broken future.
She leaves the story on a jet airplane toward a bright future.
What if Caroline turned down the jet airplane opportunity and drove out of the story in her ’67 Mustang? Even if she had a promise of a somewhat better future than she did in the beginning?
I think the reader would’ve felt “blah” about the story. “Nothing changed. Nothing really happened. We just went through a series of events!”
In essence, Gilmore Girls ended the way it began. In a broken down ’67 Mustang.
What if the show ended with Luke and Logan sitting at the table with Lorelai and Rory?
What if Rory said yes and Luke and Lorelai were married?
Would it change anything about the “Gilmore Girls?”
Not at all. Those “Gilmore Girls” hooked the men of their dreams. They won! They matured, advanced and achieved.
Instead, we’re back to where they started only 7 years older.
Darn it, I want to go to Luke and Lorelai’s wedding! I want to see Rory sporting a honking big Logan diamond.
So, how does this apply to your novels?
Easy! Your characters have to mature and advance.
If they story opens with your hero and heroine fighting and not getting along, in the end, they have to get along!
I know it seems simple, of course the hero and heroine get together.
But how have you advanced their personality.
Have they had the epiphany?
Did they learn the lie was indeed a lie and embraced truth.
We’ve all read novels before where it doesn’t seem the characters changed at all. Or very little.
So let them change! Let them breathe and grow.
Even if your story is about two sisters, how does their sisterly relationship change so that the bond is deeper and broader?
The end of Gilmore Girls we see and feel they are exactly where they were in the beginning. Boring!
So, your characters have to embrace more of truth and life by the end of the story.
This is what we call “What Can They Do In The End That They Can’t Do In The Beginning?”
As you’re planning your story, even if you’re a pantser, consider, what will my character be able to do in the end he can’t do in the beginning?
In Sweet Caroline, Caroline was able to let go of the man she loved while he dumped on her and take a chance at doing something she wants instead of doing something everyone else wants her to do.
In Once Upon A Prince, King Nathaniel can face his parliament and tell them they need to reverse an old marriage law impacting only royals. He can admit he loves Susanna.
In Princess Ever After, Tanner can admit he messed up concerning his girls and bring them into his life. And heal his relationship with his dad.
See where I’m going with this?
You’ve got to deepen and broaden you character to yes, look like your character but embracing more than life. Your characters must mature.
How do you do this?
1. Figure out the character’s problem. What do he fear? What’s the lie he believe?
2. Consider what the epiphany might be related to breaking the fear and turning the lie to truth. Like, God does really forgive. Or his father never abandoned him.
3. Then give a physical action to the epiphany. Make sense? Some how you have to “show” how they “do” in the end what they couldn’t do in the beginning. Admit something, do something, accept something.
Homework:
Consider your story. What can your protagonist not do in the beginning that he’ll be able to do in the end.
Happy Writing!
Comments 5
LOL Okay I have to comment because a) I love Gilmore Girls and may have the early seasons memorized and b) I love the parallels you drew to the show and our stories. Although I have to say, (tangent alert!) I was completely happy that Rory turned down Logan because I actually felt like she finally was being true to her character. And…I can’t stand Logan. 🙂 I never liked their relationship. I’m all for character change, but I feel like Rory’s character got progressively dumber as the seasons went by…but that may just be me. I was just telling a friend two days ago I think a person could teach an entire writing course based off Gilmore Girls because it has everything–what TO do, what NEVER to do, how to write layered characters versus caricatures, how to develop storyworld so fully it becomes a major character…
But back to the whole point of the post. I love the question of: What can my character do at the end that she couldn’t at the beginning. Love it. It actually helped me finally break through on my last book…I just felt so stuck and couldn’t figure out if my character was even changing by the end of the story. Finally realized, there is this HUGE thing she can finally do at the end…something for years she’s been telling herself she can’t do. It changed everything.
Awesome post, Rachel!
Author
Melissa, I expected no less than a comment from you, my fellow Gilmore Girls fan!
I could go with you that Rory finally stepped into herself but they never demonstrated that! She was the lauded “star” but actually made a lot of stupid decisions.
I love Logan. Because he was actually the most true character on the show. We knew who he was and he acted in character yet changed and matured.
I get that maybe Rory finally grew up in the end and turned Logan down but I still feel we’re denied the romance of their relationship.
But yes, what can they don in the end they couldn’t do in the beginning is KEY to the character change.
XO,
Rachel
Haha, I looove the show so much and I love to talk about it. And I LOVE the way it makes for such great writing discussions.
I think partially my happiness with Rory’s ending was that I loved seeing her take off on her own since the whole show, even when she was in college, had her pretty tied to Lorelai’s side. I liked seeing her on the brink of her dream and going off on her own. But too, I can’t help it, I just don’t like Logan. I do appreciate that he changes and he has some great moments, but he never loses that smarmy, whiney factor for me…but I know a lot of girls who love him. I’m more of a Jess girl myself. He changed too…but it mostly all happened off screen. We just get a little glimpse when he comes back in latter episodes.
You’re so right though…Rory made so many stupid decisions! And I can handle a character doing something stupid if there’s enough motivation behind it or if they’ve been built up as someone who does that kind of stuff. But with Rory, it all just happens out of the blue (quitting Yale because of one comment from one man?!)…drives me crazy and is the main reason I don’t much like the latter seasons. I suppose the thing she can do that she can’t really in the beginning is leave her mom. And maybe the one thing Lorelai can do is truly let her go…??
Author
Tagg, you’re right, we could teach a workshop on writing based off this show. 😉
Rory’s ending does show she’s making her own decisions and coming into her own, but she is STILL tied to Lorelai in the end. Sitting in Luke’s! It’s the two of them buying all the stuff she needs for the road. It’s the two of them planning her future, again! it’s not Rory really going off on her own to be with the man she loves, and taking on a career. It’s doing it with Lorelai.
They can still be the Gilmore Girls and be in love! But the show didn’t take that direction.
I liked Jess in the beginning but the more I’ve watched reruns they never really did much with their relationship. He was a jerk and she was hurt and end of story. LOL.
Well, the one thing they could do in the end they couldn’t do in the beginning was be in healthy relationships with people other than each other. BUT they weren’t. She was fixing things with Luke but we don’t know how much. She didn’t stay with Logan. The relationship with Emily and Richard is still the same.
AND they didn’t let each other go. Not really. They planned her future together then sealed it in the diner as I mentioned.
They circled BACK to the beginning. Maybe the writers didn’t know “what can they do in the end they couldn’t do in the beginning?” LOL
Good discussion!
Rachel
I do like how he changed in the end! And I’m glad they weren’t together.
See, Rory did choose Logan over other guys. Dean, Marty. Jess, even over her mother. But in the end, she did an about face. Just didn’t work for me. Though, I can get Rory’s tale a bit more than Lorelai’s.
Why did she break up with Luke? Why did she sleep with and marry Chris? What???!!!
Or, okay. at least let us see them get married in the end.
But the GG is a vast study in characterization.
a) This is possibly the best discussion that has ever happened at MBT. LOL!
b) You raise really good points. I guess the nostalgia factor, for me, made me love the ending. I loathed the bulk of Season 7 but that ending in Luke’s Diner, it reminded me why I loved the show. It was always a mother-daughter show and while every male-female relationship had pretty massive issues (I mean, I love Luke, but in Season 6, the guy did this massive character turn and became such a flake…seriously…), that mother-daughter relationship was the heart. So I liked seeing the return to that at the end.
I do think Lorelai’s character changed. The Lorelai we saw, especially in those last few episodes, was a much calmer Lorelai than the earlier seasons. Early Lorelai would’ve tried to intervene, I think, when Logan wanted to propose to Rory. She would’ve moved faster on the Luke thing. I think she even would’ve dropped Christopher much earlier. (GAH don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of THAT!) The Lorelai we see in the end really is different–more even-keeled, running her own inn and living out that dream (whereas in early seasons, we see her wanting her own inn but too scared to make the leap), making a conscious effort in her relationship with her parents (versus the obligatory one of the early seasons–we see her actually trying in Season 7), getting ready to send off Rory for real this time (versus college just 30 minutes away).
Rory, however, I feel like did a 360, completely agree with you there…she started the series as smart and level-headed and admirable…then slowly got dumber and dumber…and finally returned to the intelligence she started out with. So, I agree there…not much in the way of real growth for her. More of a, “Wait, we ruined this character! We tried to give her flaws to make her seem more real but waaaaay overshot and yikes, better to just go back to the roots of this character.”
Agree…the Lorelai storyline in that last season was just a wreck. It made NO sense at all. I read somewhere that ASP (original writer) purposely wrote her storyline into a corner in Season 6 because she was mad about negotiations and not coming back for Season 7. So I get that the S7 writers inherited a wreck of a storyline. BUT they could’ve soooo easily turned it around…instead they let the Lorelai-Chris storyline drag on and that was just blah. Seriously, that whole season has a blah feeling for me until the last episode.
I think I may love this show too much. LOL! Weird how I can love it so much and also not like so much about it, too. 🙂