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Q&A How do I spot an unintentional promise in my story?

It's commonly said, mainly here on Writing SE and mainly by Mark Baker's answers, that "a story is a promise". The beginning of the story sets the promise and the ending fulfills it. A story that d...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Yuuza‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question fiction
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:56:45Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/33235
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Yuuza‭ · 2019-12-08T07:56:45Z (almost 5 years ago)
It's commonly said, mainly here on Writing SE and mainly by Mark Baker's answers, that "a story is a promise". The beginning of the story sets the promise and the ending fulfills it. A story that doesn't fulfills its promise is unsatisfying.

I understand this when I _intentionally_ make a "promise" in the beginning. However, how can I know whether I made an _unintentional_ promise, i.e. a promise that I made without even noticing it?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-02-13T20:03:07Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 33