The End of the Story

Kate Thornton · Jul 26, 2007

Short stories need that beginning-middle-end, otherwise they are just vignettes, not stories.

So how do you write your endings? Do you know the end before you write the story? Is the end a surprise to you as your characters or plotline take a left turn somewhere while you're writing?

And why did Stephen King's early stuff have so much trouble with endings?

Soccer Mom · Jul 26, 2007

I usually have an end in mind when I write a story. Occasionally, a left turn will surprise me and cause me to change, but most of the time I get the idea for the end first and write toward that end. This is especially true in flash fiction. But I don't just mean that I have a twist ending. I frequently start with the end and then write my way there. By contrast, I write a novel differently. I rarely know the end of a novel when I start writing it.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 26, 2007

Endings

I have no clue what the ending will be until I write it. But whatever and however, the ending must be a reflection of the beginning. And I think King's early stories usually had great endings.

dahosek · Jul 26, 2007

I've got a story which is in the beginnings of its third draft stage which, where my characters rebelled at telling the story I'd set out to tell. The ending ended up coming out of some of the tangential research I did to make sure that I wasn't using an anachronistic name for a train line and I discovered that there was a train crash on that line right around the time of my story which changed how things went in the story.

The last words of draft one were: "This ending sucks." I figure that ought to amuse anyone who goes through my files after my death to write my biography (as if).

Stijn Hommes · Jul 26, 2007

With flash I tend to form at least some sort of idea where I want to go before I start writing so I can avoid writing myself into an impossible corner. Sometimes, I end up changing where things go, but I start out with a map.

My first and only novel is a little bit more fluid. I know key events, characters and stuff, but I'm not yet sure where the characters will end up.

Del · Jul 26, 2007

With shorts I usually know early on how it will end.

With my book, not only did it end differently than I originally thought, it added a whole part two to itself and changed my main character from the guy to the girl.

My book writes better than I do.

Siddow · Jul 27, 2007

I usually don't know the end when I start writing the story, but my best ones always tie the end to the beginning.

Del · Jul 27, 2007

Siddow said:
I usually don't know the end when I start writing the story, but my best ones always tie the end to the beginning.

But that would be an endless loop!

Jamesaritchie · Jul 27, 2007

Ending

Delarege said:
But that would be an endless loop!

All good fiction is a loop. If the ending doesn't tie in with the beginning, you started the story too soon, which is probably one of the most common mistakes in fiction.

The point of an opening is to set up a problem, to ask a question, or both. The point of an ending is to solve this problem, answer this question, or both. To do this, the story must loop around so the ends meet.

Summonere · Jul 27, 2007

The ending works itself out as a natural result of the beginning.

Sometimes I know the ending before I start a story, but that's probably only twenty percent of the time, and then it's usually no more than a vague notion of, "Well, it'll probably end up like this." Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. I have found, though, that forcing a story to a preconceived ending is usually a bad idea, resulting in a bad story, at least in my hands...

nevada · Jul 27, 2007

I know the feeling I want the ending to resonate. Despair, relief, happiness. And from that the beginning comes. Which then nicely loops back to the ending. Because one sprang from the other. I rarely, if ever, have that "wouldn't it be cool if" idea. It's always a feeling, an emotion. The end isnt always what I thought it would be, but that emotion is there.

maestrowork · Jul 27, 2007

For short stories, I usually have a pretty good idea how they end because I've thought about it for a while before I actually sit down and write them. To me, there's usually three acts, as I talked about in the Sudden Fiction forum: the pledge (a problem, the beginning), the turn (a change of event, a twist), and the prestige (the final twist, which ties well with the beginning). To me, it's the prestige that is the trickiest, and I do think about it ahead of time. However, I don't plot in vacuum without my characters. It's actually kind of a collaboration, if you will. I have a story idea, and I have these characters, and then I work things out with my characters toward the end -- in my head, before I even put one word on paper. At least that's my process.

Justin91 · Jul 27, 2007

Kate Thornton said:
Short stories need that beginning-middle-end, otherwise they are just vignettes, not stories.

I must read a lot of vignettes, because most of the short stories I read really have no major resolutions or "ending" and are usually open ended. Read most any of Hemingways shorts and you will see what I mean. I think this is one of the reasons many poeple do not like short stories, for many of them leave a lot of questions unanswered. And I really dont like short stories to have a nice wrapped up ending (unless it is a kids story...morals and such).

Oh yeah, I love Kings early shorts. I see no problem with his endings at all. Matter of taste really. Now for his novels, I believe he could have ended them better (It, Tommyknockers, etc.)

Jamesaritchie · Jul 27, 2007

Justin91 said:
I must read a lot of vignettes, because most of the short stories I read really have no major resolutions or "ending" and are usually open ended. Read most any of Hemingways shorts and you will see what I mean. I think this is one of the reasons many poeple do not like short stories, for many of them leave a lot of questions unanswered. And I really dont like short stories to have a nice wrapped up ending (unless it is a kids story...morals and such).

Oh yeah, I love Kings early shorts. I see no problem with his endings at all. Matter of taste really. Now for his novels, I believe he could have ended them better (It, Tommyknockers, etc.)

Well, in fairness to Hemingway, many of his shorts, primarily the Nick Adams stories, were really an ongoing story that did wrap up eventually. But all his others seemed to have perfectly reasonable endings to me.

sgtmrb03 · Jul 27, 2007

I start with what I think is an interesting situation, then go from there. I have no idea how it will end until the characters get there. But most of my stories have an ambiguous ending. I've always liked subtlety, and I guess it comes out in my writing.

Adam Israel · Aug 6, 2007

Once I know what I'm trying to do with the story, the beginning and end usually fall in to place.

I don't always know specifically what the end will include, only what must happen to close the story. The how/where/when doesn't always happen the way I expect. I give the middle of the story some leeway in getting to the conclusion.

ChimeraCreative · Aug 10, 2007

I usually have an ending in mind and I have to create a story to lead up to the hilarious twist ending or a very bad pun. ^_^

Some of my stories are just concepts and I let it develop naturally while I write it. It took me a long time to learn to relax and let the story breath life into itself. I was somewhat anal and a control freak with my earlier stories. On occasion I have the entire story plotted from beginning to end.

-An

Penguin Queen · Aug 12, 2007

With short stories, I usually need to know the end - ideally, actually have thought of the last sentence - before I start writing. I started a couple of short stories on a really good idea / couple of sentences outlining the beginning, and they just petered out and didnt go anywhere.
One of them I managed to find an ending for after a year and a half. The other is OK but... lame. :-/
Whereas those where I start with a last sentence and then work my way backwards, work. Not that having an ending necessarily resolves things, but it provides a natural stopping point for that particular story; a railway stop as it were, which doesnt necessarily have to be the terminus.
If I have an ending before I start, the whole thing moves in a very satisfying manner, is way easier to write and has an energy that the ones with a beginning but no end (from the start) just dont have.

Odd how these things work.

Stijn Hommes · Aug 15, 2007

Justin91 said:
I must read a lot of vignettes, because most of the short stories I read really have no major resolutions or "ending" and are usually open ended. Read most any of Hemingways shorts and you will see what I mean. I think this is one of the reasons many poeple do not like short stories, for many of them leave a lot of questions unanswered. And I really dont like short stories to have a nice wrapped up ending (unless it is a kids story...morals and such).

Oh yeah, I love Kings early shorts. I see no problem with his endings at all. Matter of taste really. Now for his novels, I believe he could have ended them better (It, Tommyknockers, etc.)

Open endings are "endings" in the resolution sense too.

Solatium · Aug 15, 2007

Endings. Curse endings. I'm terrible at them.

Usually, I can make something plausible -- a profound-sounding last line, if nothing else.

On the other hand, I wrote a story the other day. Great premise (IMHO), interesting revelations toward the end, but . . . no end.

Eventually, I just had my main character hang herself. That was barely plausible, and I did manage to get a punchline out of it. But the truth is, both she and I took the easy way out.

lucky8 · Aug 17, 2007

I seem to be able to hold the whole idea of a short in my head or on scraps of paper so, while I start out knowing roughly where I want to go, it's a fluid process where things change and consequently other things change as well.

As to King, I thought his early stories had good endings, it's only the more recent ones that seem to struggle.

The End of the Story

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

Jamesaritchie

dahosek

Stijn Hommes

Know what you write...

Del

Sky isn't falling, ground is rising

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

Del

Sky isn't falling, ground is rising

Jamesaritchie

Summonere

nevada

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

Justin91

Jamesaritchie

sgtmrb03

Adam Israel

Formerly known as StoneTable

ChimeraCreative

Been there, Done that.

Penguin Queen

Break the rules.

Stijn Hommes

Know what you write...

Solatium

lucky8