Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Pick an ending

This is topic Pick an ending in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :

Here's the problem I'm running into: I've got a novel that I'm working on, and I'm now finished with the first draft. The problem is, I can't decide on an ending. I've got three different endings written now, and possibilities for more bouncing around in my head. There are things I like about all the endings, and I can't figure out which one I like best.

Ending A: Is the easiest to swallow of the ending. The world gets saved and the hero gets the girl, etc. etc. etc. This one strikes me as the most boring ending, but it's the ending that won't leave everybody depressed. It definitely doesn't satisfy me, the sadistic writer, though.

Ending B: This one feels the strongest to me out of all the endings I have, but it's an ending that has been done many times before (the whole world ends except for one man and woman who then go on to "restart" the human race). I think my way is a new twist on the theme, but I don't know if everybody would just say, "Oh, another one of those endings," or not.

Ending C: The whole world ends, including the hero and the girl, and nobody is left. The world actually ends all the way. I like this one because not many books have the balls to actually end the world all the way (at least, not that I know of), but how depressing is that?

I know you can't really tell me which one is a better ending without reading the book, but does anybody have any advice on how to pick one? I'm seriously having trouble with this one.

Posted by cvgurau (Member # 1345) on :

The most obvious answer, to me, is to pick the ending you'd want to see. You said that Ending A doesn't satisfy you, so toss it. The choice, then, is between B (the strongest) and C (the ballsiest). Pick the one that most appeals to your sadistic nature, if you'd like. B has the two leftover humans, and so the faint glimmer of hope for the future is there, but in C, everyone is dead, the world is over, mankind's reign has ended. Bam. That's it. So long mankind. Twenty million years later, a new species emerges, and mother nature starts again. Maybe she won't be as screwed over this time around.

Hope I helped (tho I probably didn't ),

Cristian V. Gurau

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

I totally agree, you have to go with the one YOU like best. And I have to say, the hero gets the girl and saves the world IS overdone. Out of the three you mentioned, the second one is the one I like the best. Yes, it's been done too, but there are still many ways of doing it because it sure hasn't been done as much as option A. I bet you could find a new twist. As for option C, there is only one good reason I could think of for completely destroying everything....to drive home a point. Option C is the incredibly thematic ending, the one in which you are warning people not to make this mistake or it could be the end of everything. It's dark, it's depressing, and whether or not I liked it would have purely to do with the point you were driving home. If you had no point other than gutsiness, I wouldn't recommend it.

There are other possibilities as well, including some that would spawn sequels. A small handful of people who survive and start over would actually seem more realistic than Plan B, but with much of the same force of emotion. It would also provide more hope, because brothers and sisters don't have to start interbreeding in the first new generation. So you get more hope than B, but with far less cheesiness than A. Plus you don't just have an ending, you have a beginning that could spawn a new world and a new series of tales.

Posted by Lord Darkstorm (Member # 1610) on :

Just my little personal vote: C.

Now A can work, as long as you make it look the whole time like they haven't a chance of actually pulling it off.

B, well, it is your choice, but it sounds a bit lame to me. (Remember, just my opinion). I have read books where the world ends and only a few survive. It worked to the extent the book was published, but I'm not overjoyed by that concept.

C, I like that one. Why? Unless you were planning on a series, that gives it a definite end. If you work up the struggle all the way to the end, everything looks bleak, then...it's over. The shock value alone would make it memorable to me. Everyone will be expecting A, and then they get C.

It is your story, and if you do it well then you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Just out of curiosity, where have you read these books where the world ends and only a few survive? I've only seen a handful. Heimlein did it a few times, I'm sure I've read a couple others, but I just haven't seen it OVERdone yet. And actually, books usually start with that ending, they don't end with it.

I hope this isn't off topic but I'm wondering...when someone does something like Plan B does it only work once or twice and then it's done and no one else should do it?

Posted by Nexus Capacitor (Member # 1694) on :

Hmmm... how about exactly 1/2 of the world's population die. The rest survive.

I don't know how or why that should happen, but it would be unusual.

[This message has been edited by Nexus Capacitor (edited December 10, 2003).]

Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :

Ending B has been done so many times (in short stories, at least) that it's probably a cliche -- especially if your characters names are reminiscent of Adam and Eve. I think this ending can really only be done for humorous effect now.

When you think about it, the likelihood or exactly one man and one woman surviving the destruction of the rest of the human race is pretty slim. Much more realistic would be a larger group of survivors. That's also been done many times, but because it is more realistic it is not a cliche.

Ending C has been done several times. I suspect there are a lot of unpublished books where the author decided to end it this way, but publishers may decide it's not as publishable as a book with a less depressing ending.

Ending A is a standard ending, but there are ways in which you can satisfy your sadistic authorial tendencies with variations on A. World gets saved but girl dies. World gets saved but hero dies. World is saved but girl must marry horrible alien, etc.

Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :

Look at the tone of the rest of your book. Look at what happens in your beginning and middle sections. You’ve made implicit story promises from the very beginning of your story, which should have been built upon by everything leading up to the ending. The ending should have a certain inevitability to it based on everything that has happened before. A Plan A ending is going to be the result of a very different sort of story than a Plan C ending.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Why not do all three? The world is saved and the hero gets the girl, then it turns out that everyone else dies, then the girl kills the hero, and then dies herself.

By the way, EJS is right about B being considered cliche. If you go with B, then make sure to progress to C by having either the hero or the girl die (preferably, one should kill the other ).

Posted by Phanto (Member # 1619) on :

I'd prefer something subtler still, something like the man gives everything up to reach the goal of saving the world, being hero, and saving the girl. Then, bam, the girl kills him and runs off with all the credit/gold, whatever.

Make your POV char. suffer.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Ever read Nevil Shute's ON THE BEACH?

Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :

Nope, never heard of it. Why?

So, some like ending A, some like B, and some like C. Interesting.

In all honesty, I've never read a story with ending B, but everybody always says it's been done too many times before on writer's forums. That's the only reason I say it's been done. Well, the anime "Neon Genesis: Evangelion" had a similar ending, which I guess still counts even though it was a show and not a book. (By the way, if any of you dig anime and haven't seen this one, it's a must see.)

Christine, what you said about ending C being basically a dark moral is 100% true. In fact, just before I posted my original question here, I had said exactly that to my buddy. That's the main reason I dislike ending C, and the reason I'm almost certain not to use it. I usually don't like stories with a very obvious moral at the end. I just want to write a good story; the last thing I want to do is get preachy. (Especially since that ending would involve me preaching about something with which I don't even agree).

As for the option of having a small group of people survive, that unfortunately isn't an option in this book, but nobody could have known that without having read it.

Personally, I think I'm leaning towards the "cliche" ending B. Maybe it's been done, but it just feels the strongest to me. And it satisfies my writer's sadism. Who knows, maybe there's actually another ending hiding in my head somewhere.

At least the two survivors aren't named Adam and Eve (they're Simon and Amanda).

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

ON THE BEACH is a book you might want to read to see how a C ending is done.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

I know this thread has been dead for a little while but I just rewatched a movie that made me think about it. Deep Impact is one of my favorite movies, and one of the reasons for it is that the movie does not disappoint at the end. (If you have not seen it a spoiler is coming so stop reading.)

All this looming death and destruction does come to a climax, with some of our heroes dying, some living, and millions of people dead. Still, all is not lost. Yet it is not an unhappy ending. It leaves you with a sense of satisfaction, and hope for the future of the movie world. Anyway, since your ending question seems a little like that movie so I thought I'd share.

Posted by Enders Star (Member # 1578) on :

I think B is your best choice. Though all idea, except for C I think, have been over used you can still do it. Gary Disher says it best, but I can't remember exactly. He says that so many things in literature are used over and over and over you can still make your's original. It's how you write it, not what you write.