Endings....

[giaaddison]

I am on another draft of my novel.
Taken away all the horrible bad bits, but now I'm stuck on the ending.

I know what isn't going to happen at the end. No one will be pregnant - my muses didn't like that idea.

Maybe I just need to think more.

Any help would be loved.

[Bartholomew]

Bid hard mate, seeing as how I've never read it.

That said, endings are always hardest for me. We always want closure with our conflict. This closure is often the biggest fantasy of any novel. Put yourself in the MC's shoes. What closure does he want? Now put yourself in the MA's shoes. What closure does he want?

Now look at their actions. Which is more likely to get what they want? One of them won't--perhaps neither. Why? Why not? What in their actions helped them succeed, or actively prevented them from getting the closure they strove for?

[Ms Hollands]

I too have struggled with the end of my novel: some friends want a happy ending, but I don't. The ending I've chosen is the opposite of any Hollywood movie, and that, according to some of my friends, is a bad thing. I disagree: a Hollywood ending would ruin the book for me and make it as disappointing as the end of Jane Eyre was for me (I don't care that whatshisname suffered by temporarily losing his sight and being maimed, the whole 'reader, I married him thing' made me want to scream from that point forward).

So, what sort of ending do YOU want?

[Deccydiva]

I don't start writing until I have a beginning and an end. Then it's a case of getting from A to B which is where the fun starts.

[Ashleigh-Bridie]

Write down all the ways you wouldn't want it to end, and work your way backwards from there.

Personally I hate 'Happily Ever After' endings. It makes me want to throw the book into the pits of hell.:rant:

Good luck :D

[Rae22]

My favourite kind of endings are those where the MC achieves his goal, but not in the way he expects to, or loses something in the process. Those "bittersweet" endings. For example, in one of my favourite books, the MC saves her homeland from the bad guys, but loses the love of her life because of it. That scene stayed vividly in my head for days after I finished it. Those are the endings that really stick with me, that I'll always remember.

[Debs]

I have just finished a book that explained who did it, but did not explain a sub plot. Three children playing in the woods, two were ?abducted the third grew up and became the main character, having flashbacks to the event from his childhood.
How I wanted to know what had happened that day in the woods.
I did not feel satisfied at all.

[Alpha Echo]

My favourite kind of endings are those where the MC achieves his goal, but not in the way he expects to, or loses something in the process. Those "bittersweet" endings. For example, in one of my favourite books, the MC saves her homeland from the bad guys, but loses the love of her life because of it. That scene stayed vividly in my head for days after I finished it. Those are the endings that really stick with me, that I'll always remember.

I agree totally. This is how, so far, I've ended each of my books. The reader is satisified that the ending worked, but the MC didn't necessarily get everything she wanted. She lost something. But she gained closure and understanding for her position in the world and the things she's done or that have happened to her.

Come to think of it, I usually end with a new beginning.

[dwellerofthedeep]

Come to think of it, I usually end with a new beginning.

That is a great idea, and one that I have personally enjoyed using in almost every story I have yet written. Even if the story is over the world goes on. I'd also try the bittersweet ending. The two together could be really incredible.

[Shar-Jan]

My idea for the ending of my book was not being a 'new' beginning but being the exact same beginning. The last page is identical to the first and the book is a loop that goes on forever and ever. I don't recommend it because bascially nothing can really change, not even characters. It's still pretty fun to write though.

Why yes, I got the idea from a Borges story, how did you guess?

[RJK]

Here's the ending of my current WIP:

The line of prisoners passed a stairway that led down to the first floor. It was a straight run of twenty-five risers. When Hallam came abreast of this doorway, without any hesitation, he dove head first to the bottom of the stairwell. He landed on his head, which cracked open. The impact also crushed the top three vertebrae in his neck. Had the head trauma not killed him, the broken neck surely would have.

Theron, Connors and Orca stood on the front steps of the police station finishing their coffee. They had no idea what had just transpired on the other side of the building.
Theron tossed his empty cup in the trashcan. “I’m ready.”
Connors did the same, “Yeah, let’s go see our bad boy.”
Orca sat on the steps, “I think I’m going to stay out here and catch some more rays. They won’t need me for at least an hour.”
Theron and Connors opened the door and walked into chaos.

The End

[ccarver30]

I suck cuz I can't end my first novel. LOL I don't know why I am putting it off; maybe because I am afraid I will hate it and start all over (again). Hmmm...

[Sassee]

I don't like writing endings. I suck at denoument and then, especially with this one I'm workin on now, I wonder if I shouldn't have continued it on for a few more chapters.

[Phaeal]

As ever, speed-writing/free-writing can be your best friend. Start wherever you've left off and write as fast as you can, throwing ideas and dialogues and images on the page, jumping off on tangents, posing what-ifs and answering them, until one crazy current in the flood catches you and carries you on to the end.

[malberque@comcast.ne]

This may not help now, but...........design the ending first.

[Loriedna]

I haven't been able to write any sort of acceptable ending myself, for the novel I am working on, but I like open endings. I like to be left with a question. But then I am the obsessive type and I need things to obsess about.

[Jimmyboy1]

Here's a new one I just went through:
In my third mss, right at the scene before the last chapter, the players are in an ICU. There's been an accident. The mc, (at attny) has saved a Marine vet, who's blind, from a fire. But in doing so, he's suffered severe internal injuries, and needs surgery asap.
The soldier is on another floor of the hospital w/ a badly broken leg and loss of blood.

They learn that the soldier as well as the attny share a very, very rare blood type. They have little time, and the attny is going into shock and needs blood.

If the attny dies, the soldier can get his corneas in a transplant operation. But the attny needs units of blood for his own surgery.

I wrote the final chapter and did something I've never done before: I dumped the entire thing the next day!

Thousands of words were tossed for a few short graphs. They were a Godsend. I lie on my bed and close my eyes, wrapping my fingers in the headboard's iron rungs, and the answers always come. Always.

The secret? I didn't decide! I let the readers twist in the wind over it.

Either way, one of my best characters was going to lose something, and so.....

The main lessons/conflicts in the story were settled. I left it up to the book clubs members to thrash it out. Ha! Give 'em something to chew on!

[Chasing the Horizon]

Just don't do an epilogue showing the characters 20 years later. All other endings I can like if they work for the story.

[Raphee]

As ever, speed-writing/free-writing can be your best friend. Start wherever you've left off and write as fast as you can, throwing ideas and dialogues and images on the page, jumping off on tangents, posing what-ifs and answering them, until one crazy current in the flood catches you and carries you on to the end.
Ditto and great advice.
I ran into The End problem with current WIP. It took a couple of months and many edits/modifications/sleepless nights/ rewrites; you get the idea to finally make it work.
I also changed The End that I had originally envisaged in a major way.

[maestrowork]

The ending should be a satisfying, logical, appropriate conclusion of your story. You've come a long way, telling us a story for 300 pages, so please end it so that the story is now complete. I don't care if it's happy or sad; make it satisfying. Make me feel sad about leaving these wonderful characters, and make me want to read it again.

[FennelGiraffe]

Remember to end the same story you began. The beginning and ending are like a matched pair of bookends.

In a few cases, more common among those who don't outline, a "bad" ending can be fixed by revising the beginning.

[Telstar]

I like endings and the demoument even more (as a reader I'm picky but I love long demouments).

Now, as you can see, different people likes different kind of endings.
Rule n.1: whatever works for your novel!
Rule n.2: the best endings are the ones that satisfy the reader.

My suggestion: Write 5 or 6 possible endings, then pick the one less obvious and more satisfying.

[giaaddison]

thanks everyone

i did have the ending done but it got deleted in the second draft will all the really really bad stuff.

but I have something in mind.