A plot must have a dinottement

A plot must have a dinottement—literally, as we have seen,' an untying of the knot. Of course, the knot is to be tied solely that it may be untied—therefore it is well not to tie it too tight! You must interest your readers in the complication, but the greater the crisis the greater the disappointment if you fail to provide a satisfying outcome. A tantalizing tangle is good fictional art only if you can untwist the yarnswiftly, deftly, and with just the right ftnount of surprise. Do not let your plot peter out— March may without dispute come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but not so a short-story plot. The denouement of the plot must be a natural, inevitable, plausible, satisfying, and—usually—a, surprising climax to the whole story. "Novelty and interest in the situations throughout the story, with an increasing interest in the denouement, are the essential demands of a plot." When the interest rises to its apex, toward or at the dose, the climax—the high-tide—is reached. A story without a climax is a mountain view without a mountain. Cherish your climax as a small boy does his circus ticket, for else there will be no "grand finale."