When is the end?

[Diviner]

I have been finishing my book for the last 20000 wc, and I am still not there. How does an end differ from a middle? I know all the plot threads come together and all the story questions are answered and the mc shows some sign of growth and change, but does the writing change in any way as you get closer? Is there some sort of orchestration like the finale of a symphony or do the characters just keep doing their thing until all those other things happen? My story is an adventure story, a bit of painful history where my mc manages to survive when a lot of other do not.

Also, is it normal writing behavior to get more and more excited as you get deeper into the story? I wonder if this is one of the reasons I seem unwilling to tie it all up.

[Chasing the Horizon]

There is a final climax scene, where your main plot is resolved (for better or worse) then a final chapter (or two if you have a major subplot left) to wrap up the last few threads. Then it's over until the sequel.

Now that's just my formula, and I'm a genre writer, not literary. If you don't want the story to be over, start planning a sequel or another similar story. Maybe you'll get excited to write that and then be impatient to get this one done. (That's what happened to me).

The pacing and tension should get faster and tighter the closer you get to the end, and then release with that 'final confrontation' scene (which could be drama rather than action, I just happen to write action).

[sunna]

IAlso, is it normal writing behavior to get more and more excited as you get deeper into the story? I wonder if this is one of the reasons I seem unwilling to tie it all up.

Wow. 200K - I thought 122K (my 1st WIP) was a lot! :) What stamina.

I can only speak from personal experience: I knew because a) the outline said so and I believed it, and b) the final climactic scene was over and I had tied most of my loose ends up in the last few pages of falling action. It felt done. I felt fabulous. I even wrote THE END in great big 48 point monotype corsiva font to emphasize this fact, and then I felt slightly silly.

As for getting excited; I'm probably the exact opposite of an expert, so feel free to ignore me, but it seems to me that you should be excited - other people are supposed to be when they read it, right? :D

This is just me, though. Someone with experience will show up any minute...

[Joe270]

Diviner, sounds like you may be overwriting the end. The end is 20k words? Perhaps I missed something. How long is this WIP?

I'm a bit of a stinker on my endings, I leave something unsolved, not really key, but enough to leave the reader wondering. Then I type 'The End'.

[sunna]

Whups, I just realized I added an imaginary '0' in your book length.
Time to put the glasses on...
::hangs head in shame::

[Diviner]

Diviner, sounds like you may be overwriting the end. The end is 20k words? Perhaps I missed something. How long is this WIP?

I'm a bit of a stinker on my endings, I leave something unsolved, not really key, but enough to leave the reader wondering. Then I type 'The End'.

It's about 98000 right now, before final rewrite. Actually, I've been thinking of my book as almost done for some time now, not ended but almost done. Every time I do a little edit, I end up adding from 500 to 1000 words. These are not the end, but things that need to be done, mostly tells changed to shows.

I asked the question because I am not at all sure what shape the end should take. Hope (above) helped a little, so I am now thinking of a climax scene. I have one written, but as written it is more anti climax than climax.

Also, all my rewriting is beginning to bother me because I am liking the story better as I do it, not so much the story, actually, but my writing. I can change the story very little, but I can make the actions and characters more vivid.

[Joe270]

I'd keep rewriting for a while, until your own input ends.

Then dig up some beta readers. Don't have them read with a red pen in hand, just read it first, then take out the red pen.

[louiscypher]

Tis a problem this - eh?

My advice is to compact it, but keep the original for future cross-referencing ... then decide what you need to either add or omit from thereon in.
If you do compact it and still can't decide what to do, simply put it out there into the ether and allow your peers to critique/edit it. Remembering - of course - that they've not seen the original!


regards

J

Never be too overprecious about anything to do literature as there is nothing written which can't be written better.

[Anthony Ravenscroft]

I side with '270: write it all out first. Understand that you may reduce that last 20,000 to 1,000 before you're done, perhaps sifting much of it into the foregoing. Get it all out of your system, make sure that you haven't forgotten anything crucial.

[Oliveman]

Ok, let me step in and say something. "The End" comes quickly after your climax, but that usually takes care of itself. What we really want to know is when the does the climax appear.

Let's see. The climax of any full length story is contingent upon this: At this point, all the forces of your novel come to a head, and the conflict produces the most meaning and emotion of any point in your novel. It is at this point that everything the positive forces have worked for is put to the test, and the result of which is irreversible change. Without this part working, your story will not work.

After that, you let the readers down gently, allowing them to gain a picture of the result of this conflict, how things have changed - what they can conclude in your story. You can tie up leftover sub-plots here as well, or open new questions for a sequel.

So my advice to you is to look into the conflict of your story and bring it to the absolute extremes of confrontation. This conflict can exist on different levels, from inner to personal to extra personal. Whatever is going on in your novel, whatever progression, it needs to progress to some end, not "The End" but the climax before that end. The choices the characters make in these ultimate situations is where the most meaning comes through, so construct this section with care. If you're looking for an end, though, look to your story, then look to yourself, and what you want your story to mean. You'll find your climax, just work on it.

[infinitus_kaze]

The end comes whenever you want it to. There is no set in stone way to end a story. Some stories I've read end without a climax, giving the reader a feeling of unease and a desire to know more; some end right after the climax without resolution; some have a small amount of resolution (a page or two); and some drag the resolution out to the point where it becomes boring. Then, other authors care more about pages and the end comes for them when they've reached a specific amount of pages.

The truth behind the matter is that there IS NO SET way to end a story. There is only an individual writer's preference. You need to discover for yourself what "the end" means to you for your particular story. No one can give you the answer. All we can do is give you suggestions. As far as this topic is concerned, you have to have faith in yourself as a writer and ignore the suggestions of others, including myself, because we are all giving you are own individual perspectives and none of our advice will be truly helpful to you in the end. You'll still end up doing what you believe is the correct ending with or without our help.

[Oliveman]

Yes, there are many ways to craft a plot in a story. It all depends on the meaning, emotions, and questions you want to instill in your reader through how you let them go when you finally write the words, "The End"

[Oliveman]

Addressing another one of your questions, on how to approach the ending, I would say become very aware of pacing. Usually when the end is clear, the pacing and events in the story become quick, then drag out at the climax. I'd say though, if you have alot of questions popping up, explore them, perhaps turn them in a new direction, and bring all problems to their root at the most extreme ends of reality. That doesn't mean blowing things up, but like I said before, everything is at stake at the end.

Also something to keep in mind, what is the connection between your inciting incident and the end of the book? What has to happen before or leading into the climax? What ultimate decisions will the protagonist(s) have to make? What/who ends up doing what and because of what reasons? These are questions for you to keep in mind when figuring out the end of things.

[Diviner]

Thanks. Things are not much clearer, but at least I am getting ideas to work with.

[Raphee]

Just to add to the above, genre or mainstream writing tends to have a definite clear and precise ending where nothing is left unresolved.

Literary writing may end like a tease, leaving the reader to make up their minds if the end was what it should have been. There may be ambiguity but only just. The conclusion or the end may or may not be as clear as in genre writing.

[Raphee]

One more thing, I am stuck with my end also. This weekend I have partially resolved it though it means changing the storyline a little.
So I am going to leave the unresolved ending and today I start the re write of my WIP and hopefully get enough ideas over the ensuing weeks to get the ending for my WIP that satisfies me.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

I have been finishing my book for the last 20000 wc, and I am still not there. How does an end differ from a middle? I know all the plot threads come together and all the story questions are answered and the mc shows some sign of growth and change, but does the writing change in any way as you get closer? Is there some sort of orchestration like the finale of a symphony or do the characters just keep doing their thing until all those other things happen? My story is an adventure story, a bit of painful history where my mc manages to survive when a lot of other do not.

Also, is it normal writing behavior to get more and more excited as you get deeper into the story? I wonder if this is one of the reasons I seem unwilling to tie it all up.


I don't think there is a set formula, Diviner, that tells us exactly when the book is over. For me, anyway, there just comes a point when I realize I can't write any new story, and the manuscript ends. In other words, I just know. I can't explain it any other way than that.

I'm sorry this isn't much help, but it's really the only way I can tell when best to end a WIP. I hope you find the answers you're looking for. Good luck to you.

[NeuroFizz]

My suggestion is to keep the readers in mind. At the beginning of the story, you put a hackamore into the horse's (reader's) mouth and you've led that hoss through the story (loosely, I hope, to give the hoss a little mental meander room). But as the number of pages in the open book shift from the right side to the left, the hoss will begin to look forward to the time when you remove the hackamore (climax) and turn the hoss loose in the field of clover (tie-up). If the reader senses that the clover field is coming up, but there are still many pages left on the right side of the book, he/she may buck. Same if you are still pulling tight on the hackamore (waffling around in the story) when the righ-hand pages are down to almost nothing. As mentioned previously, pacing is really important at the end of a book (throughout, too, but I'd say critical toward the end).

[Jenan Mac]

Think of it as telling a story. You're the MC, you're sitting at dinner, with or without copious amounts of alcohol, and you're spinning a tale for your friends about the adventure you had last month killing a monster/travelling to Planet Mongo/ensuring Bat Boy's succession to the throne.
The part where you'd quit talking? That's the end. Or at least, the part where your dinner companions start turning to each other and saying, "somebody please stuff cake in his mouth!"

[Diviner]

Thanks for the two great metaphors. Vivid and amusing.

[Ken Schneider]

Find the main theme of the book, and satisfy it.

I always know how I want to start a story, what the middle will be, and have an ending in mind.

I write the ending first, and work toward it.

Do you know how the book is going to end? Do you have an ending in mind?

[Diviner]

Find the main theme of the book, and satisfy it.

Do you know how the book is going to end? Do you have an ending in mind?

I can see this as part of my problem. What I thought was going to happen in the story took a sort of left turn, making it difficult for me to end as I had first planned (mc married and founder of a dynasty). I realized that the story "ends" fourteen tumultuous years after I want to end it, and I can't just sum up all that stuff and write the book I wanted. As far as the theme (common men have valuable talents if allowed to use them), that takes about 200 years after my story, though on an individual level I can show some resolution and allow my mc to mature and show his mettle.

Since this is a historical novel, I have wiggle room only on the personal stuff. I hope it is enough. When I started this, I conceived of the story before I understood the period, so my ignorance got me off track. Until this discussion, I really had not figured out what my problems were.

Thanks.