A story is, essentially, character plus action. Its atomic unit is the sentence — subject plus predicate. Predication brings the story into time. It powers the forward motion or, more accurately, it characterizes the forward motion. Story is a microcosm. Its ending is not necessarily culmination. In fact, the nature of the ending, the measure of its character’s success, is not so dependent on the general structure as it is on the specific timing. There are stories where the character’s death is the tale’s terminus. But outcomes outlast particular characters. Endings bound meaning. In my own story, it is either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, depending on where you position the climax.
