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Author Topic: Ending
Brendan
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I grew up reading more anthologies than magazines, so I wonder if that tended to pick the best out. However, recently on vacation I found a secondhand bookstore with a number of ten-year-old magazines (top professional ones, that I don't need to name here). With the learning I have done over the last couple of years from this site, I found I was reading them with a new understanding - and expectation. What surprised me was this - many stories had great beginnings and middles, but fell far short in their endings than I expected of these magazines. And there were several _big_ name authors among them.

There were short stories that ended limply. There were others that ended the tension and then went and did 5 pages of denouement. Or ones that tried to end by resonating on a minor tone within the overall story.

So what elements are needed for a good ending? Especially for shorts and novellas. What resources on the web have you found to help you create good endings?


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Natej11
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To me a story is a series of events, and after the final event there's a brief wrap up that ties up all the random elements, then it's done.

Good stories end well, but for me the best stories are the ones that close on that series of events while at the same time making it clear that the world continues after the story ends, if that makes any sense. Like every ending is also a beginning, but that particular tale is done.

I can't think of any good resources off the top of my head, but I agree that a lot of stories have a weak ending and it's a major thing to be aware of. In a way the ending is even more important than the beginning: you want the beginning to be strong so they keep reading, but you want the ending to be spectacular so they never forget the story.


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axeminister
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Brendan,
I've had a similar experience(s) with my own reading of short stories. A good many of them end leaving me frustrated that I spent the time reading them in the first place.

I always swore to properly finish the stories that I write. So far I think I'm doing well, but nagging me in the back of my mind is, "Should this end abstractly? Is that what makes a "good" short story? Is mine too tidy?"

I mean, who wouldn't think that given what is (was) predominantly published in the biggest of magazines?

Axe


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Wordcaster
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I see bad endings all the time -- in short stories, novels, tv. I think some of it is a result of discovery writing -- that the story progresses toward a general thematic ending, but as the narration leads itself on its own path, you get what you get at the end. I say that only as a general trend and suspicion, not as a fact.
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Robert Nowall
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To a certain extent, I think it's a matter of building up tension in a story, then releasing it---and the releasing of it is difficult. (Think "Joke," then "Punchline," though humor isn't necessarily the intent.) You could build up a terrific story, but if it doesn't have the right kind of ending, it'll just lay there.

We 'round here spend a lot of time on the First Thirteen...but, like I've said, I, in my "Reader" hat, never bought anything on that basis. And magazine stories come whether you will them or not. But if a story, and its ending, didn't satisfy me, I wouldn't go and seek out more work by the writer...


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tchernabyelo
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But until the recent ability to self-publish, writers weren't selling direct to readers; they were selling to editors whose time is very limited, and competing with hundreds of other writers - hence the concentration on openings.

It is nevertheless true to say that endings are important (it's often said that that start of a novel is what sells that book, but the end of the novel is what sells the next one).

Of course, not everyone will necessarily like the same endings, because people are looking for different things out of a story. Some readers love the "twist" ending, some hate them (partly down to whether people like to re-read stories or not - twist ending lovers tend to read a story once and never again and so find the twist a satisfying moment of completion, twist ending haters tend to be re-readers, for whom the value and interest of the story is spoiled by the foreknowledge of the twist - in general I am in the latter camp, though more because twist endings are overdone, and often handled badly). Some readers want things tied up nice and neatly while others like more ambiguous or open endings that they can think about, or take in different directions. And of course many books these days don't even have endings, they just cut off, with the story to be continued in the next book. I'm no great fan of that, either (it's fine in, say, comics, with a monthly schedule; less attractive in books that come out every few years).


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Reziac
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Maybe we should be posting our last 13 lines instead of our first.

I tend to agree, most shorts I see today are weak at the ending, and I don't think it's due to "discovery writing" but rather to having a notion that the story didn't sufficiently support, so it falls short of where it intended to be, or sometimes the author believes the story-driving notion (the ending's goal) is more than it really is. I could live with that for entertainment reading, except they also tend to come off as extended vignettes, rather than stories that actually went somewhere, and I'm long since bored with vignettes (blame fanfic for that, where the problem is endemic).

As to twists... I'm a rereader, and the better the work, the less I remember of it later, which happily lends itself to rereading. The trouble with twists today is that it tends to be just at the ending, rather than being built up throughout the short. So rather than watching it unwind and being able to smile and nod as you note those subtle details on a second pass, it's like a whole bunch of nothing happens then it smacks you upside the head. That's barely fun once, and never twice.

[This message has been edited by Reziac (edited June 08, 2011).]


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micmcd
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What's needed for a good ending? Of course it all depends on the taste of the reader, but if I had to give it a stab, I'd say you need at least some of the following:

  1. The unexpected - note that this is not the same as a twist.
  2. A sense of accomplishment (or total loss or at least change) for the characters of importance
  3. A paucity of loose threads
  4. Extreme care in continuation

Some people love twist endings, but I'm more in the camp where I just don't want to see the ending coming. I don't want to know that the protagonist and antagonist are going to fight up on the rooftop, that same place where they first met, and it's going to be close, but the protagonist will win and throw the antagonist crashing down to the street below, in full view of the watching crowds, and that the protagonist will then get to be the new king. Something unexpected should happen, or else I'll feel like you wasted my time. Why bother reading a whole story if the ending is obvious from the first page?

A sense of accomplishment/loss/change is obvious enough...

The last two items go together. A paucity of loose threads is just to avoid driving your readers nuts. Don't introduce a big plot point and forget it, and think through the consequences of your actions. Of course, sometimes writers get away with it. The best example I can think of is the original Star Wars trilogy. The rebels blow up the death star with the emperor on board, and then they are peacefully building a new government and the world is safe... that's how it works, right? If you blow up Rome, then you get to be the new emperor of Rome and run the whole thing justly. They didn't just plunge the galaxy into a massive civil war, with interplanetary fiefdoms sparring over resources and power. Peaceful transition always follows a coup, am I right?

As for extreme care in continuation - I've never been a fan of series who "convince" the reader to buy the next book by leaving a giant cliffhanger. Each book should end with a major accomplishment, a victory or loss of some sort for the heroes. It's fine for there to be an over-arching narrative, like returning the one true ring of power to Mordor, but I'm always disappointed to see writers just using the unknown and interesting as a reason to go on.


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MartinV
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I think an ending must be rewarding to the reader, considering they managed to read the whole book. Therefore I believe a novel needs a much more gratifying ending than a short story. I like those stories best that end in a positive manner but it makes me sad that I've reached the end of the book.
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shimiqua
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quote:
I'm more in the camp where I just don't want to see the ending coming. I don't want to know that the protagonist and antagonist are going to fight up on the rooftop, that same place where they first met, and it's going to be close, but the protagonist will win and throw the antagonist crashing down to the street below, in full view of the watching crowds, and that the protagonist will then get to be the new king. Something unexpected should happen, or else I'll feel like you wasted my time. Why bother reading a whole story if the ending is obvious from the first page?

I agree a hundred percent with the statement, however I think there needs to be a balance. I think a good short story should start the ending with the first sentence. I like a story that feels complete, not one that wanders around for a little while and then surprises you with the ending, (although that is generally the kind of story I write).

I think the book The Hunger Games is a good example of striking the kind of balance that I'm talking about. The story starts at the reckoning, the beginning of the Games, and then ends when the games are over. It's obvious that the story will not be over until the games are, but unexpected things happen all along the way.

It's kind of like that quote from Chekov, that if there are dueling pistols on the fireplace at the start of act one, then they must be fired in act three.

I think, and this is just my opinion, that some people (and editors) want the same story's that they fell in love with as a teenager. I think there is familiarity in the expected, which is why there are so many retellings of fairy tales. But, at the same exact time, they want to read something original and surprising.

I think that is the line you have to walk while writing a good satisfying ending. I think you should be original, just in a familiar kind of way.

I recently finished reading My Sister's Keeper which has a satisfying twist ending that still satisfies. It's because, at the beginning the author promises that a child will die, and at the end a child dies. The twist is what child dies at the end.

This works because at the beginning of a story you make a promise with your readers about the stakes and the rules of the story. If you fail to meet that promise, then readers won't be satisfied, and if you fail to make that promise, then you lose the power of a story.

I think a good ending also depends on the genre you write, and the specific market you are writing toward. Some genres expect a happy ending, and if the heroes don't survive, and the villains don't get punished, then the readers aren't happy. Some genres want to see the ending coming from the first page, but want to be surprised along the way.

~Sheena


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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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quote:
Maybe we should be posting our last 13 lines instead of our first.

We could try that, if people want feedback on their endings instead of their beginnings. They just need to say that's what they've posted.


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LDWriter2
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I pretty much agree with tchernabyelo's take on not everyone liking the same type of ending.

Personally I haven't noticed that many. I've read half a dozen or so anthologies the past 12 months and half way through another one.

But I think there are various reason for bad endings. Some of the ones I did notice felt like they were rushed. Like there was a word count the writer had to meet and he/she/it was close to it.

Some, by established writers, might be laziness. Or if the stories are old enough, a change in the way stories are written. Story types have changed, like the narrative style stories used to be written in. So the way a story ends could change.


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