Reader Question: Is it better to end a scene as dramatically or logically as possible?

From Brandon:

I have two totally unrelated questions that I would love to get some insight on:

1. Is it better to end a scene/sequence as dramatically as possible or as logically as possible? Obviously both would be ideal, but what if you could only choose one of them, do you think an audience will forgive you if your scene was exhilarating yet maybe not entirely logical?

Case in point: I have a scene in my latest script where my protagonist is being pursued on foot and is racing to meet up with her team waiting in a getaway car nearby. She has to run up onto a footbridge and cross over to meet them parked on an upper level parking structure on the other side. But she gets trapped on the bridge by her pursuers on both sides of the bridge and the scene ends dramatically.

So the argument becomes: Why didn’t the getaway car just wait in the street below the footbridge, which means she wouldn’t have to cross the bridge? But I love that scene on the bride because it’s more exciting. Do I lose the exciting bridge scene or go for the logical way out?

Actually Teddy Pasternak handled this quite nicely in comments:

Brandon, if I may give you my two cents on your first question. Why not both? How about you create a reason why the getaway car can’t get to the meeting place? Add an obstacle for it: the pursuers block its path, the cops show up, one of the guys screw up and takes the wrong turn, etc. That way it can end logically and dramatically. It might add more urgency to the scene as well.

Think of the bank robbery scene in Bonnie & Clyde where the getaway driver waits nervously outside the bank. Not only are we excited about what’s going on inside the bank, we are engaged in the getaway driver’s story as well: he spots an empty parking spot and decides to park, making it much more difficult and time consuming to get out of there when B&C come storming out with the loot. It makes us go “No, you idiot! Don’t park!” The entire scene is more thrilling because of that extra bit of business.

As you noted, you should strive for both: drama and logic. Dramatics should go without saying as that’s where the entertainment comes in. But if you lose me logically, something doesn’t make sense, or a character acts in a decidedly illogical fashion, then I will resent that. Moreover that will take me out of the story universe.

One caveat: Characters do have the right to act illogically, just as human beings sometimes do. But there is a key distinction: If the character acts illogically in order for the writer to maneuver the plot, in other words, if I see the hands of the writer at work causing the character to act in an uncharacteristic way, that’s a problem. If you envision a character acting illogically, you have to make that choice arise from the character him/herself. Otherwise the moment can smack of writer’s convenience.

But circling back to your question, as Teddy suggests, brainstorm solutions. There’s a saying I learned years ago about writing: “Make the problem the solution.” If you’re stuck, oftentimes you can use that to source a solution that is even more dramatic [and entertaining], as well as logical.

I’ll take up your second question on Monday.