Remember the gun we hung on the wall last time? Let's talk about that gun going off. This is the pay-off.

As per the rule, if you set something up, it must pay off.

This isn't up for artistic liberty or interpretation. Everyone knows how frustrating it is to reach the end of a story with things unresolved. We're not necessarily talking about sequels. We're talking about vanishing plotlines or odd misdirects.

Those times when you say, "Wait... what happened to that mystical sword?" or "How come that roommate never showed up again?"

They're frustrating and can ruin your enjoyment of an otherwise great story. This means you have to be very careful with your promises. If you bring something up at the start, you have to see it through to the end. And, most importantly, this means you can't introduce a random secondary conflict halfway through and resolve it instead of resolving your original premise.

In this sense, be very careful with or misdirects. This is a clue or a piece of information which is intended to be misleading or distracting. A well-executed red herring can facilitate a twist ending. That said, all red herrings should be explained or realized by the end of the story.

Yes, even red herrings need to have a pay-off.

Sudden twists can be exciting, sure, but sometimes they don't solve the original question set up in the beginning. Through these twists, the reader should still be wondering and making connections in their head in order to get proper closure - Was this hinted at earlier? How is this going to affect the characters who are already troubled with other things?

Our brains do not like things they can't connect and will go out of their way to try and find them.

So, don't introduce things that go nowhere. Don't focus on things that never pay off. And make sure you always deliver on the answer to what you promised.

Today, make a deep dive into your story and review what you have. Check whether all those plots are coming to a close by the end or not. Check if there are any set-ups that don't get resolved. Spend some time with your story.

And most importantly, look at it from a reader's perspective.

Happy learning :)