Oh Crap! The Ending!
How do you pick the right (write) ending for a story? Usually, there seems to be one that has been there the whole time. That makes it easy.
Right now I have 4 kicking around in my head for what I am working on, and have wrote out 2 of them. A different day makes me like one over the others, or I will wake up in the middle of the night and have another one that I like as well.
Bad thing is, you can only have one.
A friend of mine said: its too bad a book can’t have bonus features with alternative endings like with DVD’s.
That would be awesome, and confusing…and a way out of this dilema!
Any suggestions on how you arrive at your conclusions?
~ by Nathan H. on June 25, 2009.
Posted in Random
Tags: author, book, ending, fiction, novel, story, suspense, write, writing
well sure you can offer multiple endings–why the hell not?
and…otherwise, pick the most ’surprising’ ending–one that ‘works’ of course, but the one that makes you–and hopefully readers go ‘oh’, “ah ha!” –the ending that will follow them around long after they’ve closed your book…
no doubt…I remember those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a kid. Have something like:
1. If you want a happy ending go to page 354
2. If you want a sad ending go to page 382
3. If you want all the characters to die in horrible ways, go to page 400.
What a great problem to have.
I guess you have already looked at your possibilities, and they all flow naturally from the characters and situations. That means that somewhere earlier in the story you failed to make a decision that would make a single outcome inevitable (if not in billboard-high fashion). Could be there is a possibility you haven’t thought of yet.
@B…inevitability and predictability (lack of) is what brought me here I think. I have brought the characters up to a brink, riding a particular theme, and some days I want to pull them back from the ridge, and some days I want to push them all over….ha! Human nature I guess. thanks for the comment
kill them all off…especially if its a romance…hahaha
I usually write the ending (over and over again) the entire time I’m writing the book. Then I go back and look, and one usually fits. Or else I write an entirely new one, and it works. Same thing with the beginning, although that gets me in trouble sometimes!
You could always ‘eeny-meeny-miney-moe’ the ending of course…
thanks JG…I guess that is what makes this fun.
I blame Cormac McCarthy right now!!! Do I want to have a sense of redemption, or let them wallow in misery.
I loved how McCarthy explained evil and violence in No Country for Old Men…he didn’t. He said, “It just exists, and there is no explanation”
Maybe my inner nihilist is coming out where I don’t want an explanation for the character’s circumstances…then I’m sure readers would be saying “uhhh…alright, I feel like crap now, thanks!”
Someone usually slips off the metaphorical ridge and someone else dies.
I have a novel sitting in a drawer with an ending I hate. Some day it will come out and find a more satisfying conclusion.
No Country for Old Men is in my stack, I really need to move it up in the queue, thanks for reminding me.
btw, great title for today’s post.
Hmmm, if there is one thing to date in my writing that I have known, it is the ending. The road along the way, though is usually out of sight, except for glimmers here and there.
no doubt…I remember those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a kid.
Hah! I was going to bring those up, but you beat me to it.
so, have you decided how ‘to end’ it all?
@47WB…I think so…at least today! Tomorrow I will have another one I am sure.
Is this true indecision or just creative perversity???
hahaha…indecision I would say. Redeem the characters or not.
ha—redeem the characters or not—get closure and move on, boyo–to your next adventure—unless you’ve become ‘addicted’ to these characters and hence your indecision is really an effort to NOT depart from the pleasures of their company…hhmmmm–only YOU trulyy know. LOL