Endings

I'm a pantser, and I've found that at some point I have to resolve the conflicts I've created "on the fly". If you can't figure out how, you're probably like me, you didn't get your subplots down clearly. This is one of the toughest parts of writing a novel. First you create all these neat subplots and connections, and then you set your characters on their way. But somewhere along that path you have to do the unthinkable--PLAN.

I hate planning, but I've found that without an end in mind, my story wanders all over the place. I get too many ideas and make too many changes, and what happens is I get subplots and characters working at cross purposes or doing something that isn't believable.

The idea of planning doesn't mean total restriction of creativity. It's part of the craft. You have to know where your MC is going. If you get 90% of the way there on sheer serendipity, concluding all the loose ends becomes a nightmare. One way out of this mess is to make an ending and work your way backward toward wherever you're stuck. I did this once, but it was probably more work than if I'd written front-to-back with a general outline.

Others have probably come up against the same wall and may offer better advice.

I try and stick to a simple formula - first quarter of the book is spent setting up the premise. The next half of the book is the meat of the story. The last quarter of the book is used to wrap things up. I find it works pretty well.

For some reason I find myself consistently writing 20 chapter novels. It makes the maths easy. Five Chapters is spent dropping my characters into their predicament, the next ten is spent fleshing out the story, the last five chapters are spent tying up all the loose ends.

Hope that is someway helpful.

Sassee said:

They seem to be my weak point... anyone have any advice? My problem is that I usually end too abruptly. Even I feel like I should have extended the last chapter or written another one, but I'm never sure how to work it just right or how far to extend. I suppose this is my payback for writing too many unfinished blurbs as a kid

How long do you all spend wrapping things up? Do you have better success if you know the end before you've even started? Does it come to you mid book? What do you seat-of-the-pants writers do for your endings?

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Although I don't outline and generally let my story tell itself, I always know how I want it to end. I have more trouble with my beginning than I do my ending! It takes me a long time and many false starts before I'm satisfied with my opening. I generally have two or three options for an ending and use the one that best suits my closing chapters. I don't feel I have a complete idea if I don't know my ending. But that's just me. Sorry, I'm really no help at all.
Linnea

Ok, I'm here with (hopefully) the answers you seek. The ending is perhaps the most important part of the novel. No, scratch that, it is THE most important part. Why? Because all of your meaning, and all of the experience of the novel is crammed into this short portion of the novel.

Many times it's explained as the conflict "coming to a head", and that's true... but ignores additional questions regarding the size and nature of the head.

In thinking about stories, I go with the Act structure. I don't explicitly label my acts, but I know they're there. The Acts you're concerned with are those of the "main" plot. Every subplot has Acts too, but the main plot is what the story hinges on.

What is an Act? It is a major transition in the plot. The traditional 3 Act structure is used in most feature-length movies, so go looking for it next time. Right before the climax, the plot changes focus.

Think of it this way. No matter how you split up your Acts, 2 things usually (remember, "usually") hold true: the last Act, which leads up to your climax, is the shortest and fastest pace-wise; and after the climax, the last Act is over, and you now can have a resolution for the leftover bits in your plot. The first one is just adhering to the natural laws of human desire: you show us what we want (at the Act switch), and we'll want it badly.

So the concept of the last Act doesn't mean that you're cutting the story short. Quite the opposite. The conflict you put into the last Act will lead up to the climax, the most important point in your story. If you go straight to the CLIMAX from the previous Act- THAT'S too fast. The point is to give your audience time to prepare for the climax through the conflict and setup in the last act.

By having that distinction, you can know yourself where exactly you're going to start seriously setting up for the climax. Now, you should've been setting up all book long, but it's not till the last Act that you refocus the conflict towards that last struggle. This is where what will happen at the end will most directly effect the action in the plot. I mean... it has to! Just set up a conscious point where you will start on the road to the climax, and then build conflict appropriately till that perfect ending.

So the last Act is the "ending" - it contains the set-up of the climax and the climax. The other thing it should contain most of the time is a crisis. This is when the side of the protagonist has the chance open up to them where they could lose EVERYTHING they have worked for throughout the story. It's crucial that such a moment comes up somewhere before the climax. If it's an internal battle, make them able to go back to how they were at the beginning... challenge them. If it is a James Bondish sort of story, the crisis is where the villain has the MC in their clutches, and has the MC completely under their control. Then... bring on the climax.

So, how do you pull off a climax? Well, you should have mini "Act climax"'s at the end of each Act. However, the climax of the final Act is different in this way: the climax MUST bring about irreversable change. The change brought by the final climax CANNOT be undone. This is true in every story. It is the act of irreversability that makes a climax a climax, and brings meaning to the story. I mean... if it could go another way, why did the story end?

Remember, this is only the main plot's climax. You can still have connecting threads that can be left to start a sequel, but the book's inner logic must be satisfied. Learn how that logic works for any story, and you're well on your way.

Hope that helps good luck.

Oliveman said:

. . . the climax MUST bring about irreversable change. The change brought by the final climax CANNOT be undone.

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Very well said.

I don't plan. I can tell you that I have the same difficulty with endings. It is usually the only part that I completely rewrite sometimes.

Joe Moore said:

Very well said.

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i second that

Excellent points, Oliveman.

One thing I would add is that the beginning and ending need to fit together. The ending needs to end the same story that the beginning begins. (One way of looking at this is that the beginning should ask a question and the ending should answer it.)

Sometimes the way to fix an ending is to rewrite the beginning. It's possible that when you started you thought you were telling one story, but as you wrote it morphed into something else.

I can't even imagine sitting down to write until I know the ending, and that goes for short stories and novels alike.

Luckily, the ending is usually one of the first things that come to me, often even before the beginning.

Wish I had some advice, but when I say the endings come to me, I mean just that. I usually don't have to give it any thought at all; they're just there.

I just sat down and read my novel after putting it aside for a month. This is what it looks like structurally:

Beginning, escalation, climax, denouement. Denouement. Denouement.

Notice a problem there?

I'm working on the same thing. My issue is that I want to stuff TOO MUCH into the end. Since my writing is very character-based, I know everything there is to know about my characters. Even if my MC is 30 years old, I know how she's going to die when she's 75. So the temptation is to pack way too much into the end because I want to tell "how it ends." I guess the key is keeping it relevant to the plot itself and the struggle that a particular character is dealing with. Whether or not my MC gets married to my other MC is relatively unimportant, because part of the plot is about whether they even HAVE a relationship to begin with. So I think it's sufficient to end on the note that yes, they do have a relationship (that may potentially end in marriage).

Oliveman said:

However, the climax of the final Act is different in this way: the climax MUST bring about irreversable change. The change brought by the final climax CANNOT be undone. This is true in every story. It is the act of irreversability that makes a climax a climax, and brings meaning to the story. I mean... if it could go another way, why did the story end?

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Does killing off the bad guy at the end count? 'Cos being dead is kinda irreversible. (This is a serious question, really!!!)

Great points, too! Thanks for sharing.

Oliveman said:

...the climax MUST bring about irreversable change. The change brought by the final climax CANNOT be undone. This is true in every story. It is the act of irreversability that makes a climax a climax, and brings meaning to the story. I mean... if it could go another way, why did the story end?

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I'm not sure I agree or even understand. Irreversable what? Why can't they just catch the bad guy?

Shadow_Ferret said:

I'm not sure I agree or even understand. Irreversable what? Why can't they just catch the bad guy?

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Gaining key knowledge is irreversable, as is taking action that easily follows from that knowledge("locking him up").

However, what if the story is about catching the villain, but he doesn't get caught in the end? If you look at the movie China Town, this is the case. However, the ending is irreversable, and involves a death and a kiddnapping both of which the MC is trying to prevent. The MC fails at this crucial moment.

You see, in China Town, the focus switches off just merely "getting the bad guy". So the climax hinges on two outcomes: either the bad guy is gotten, and the people the MC is trying to protect are saved; or the bad guy isn't revealed in time to the right people, and the people the MC is trying to protect are either killed or taken away by the villain. The latter is what happens.

Now, let's say the story continued, and there was some odd twist in which the villain was found out by some new evidence and was put into jail. Seems stupid because irreversable change took place. The story should've ended - it is pointless to continue, even with people who are in the story. The people the MC was trying to save... weren't. The MC failed. End of story. Or, more specifically, the end of the MC's story, and thus, this story.


P.S. One of you asked if death is enough of an irreversable ending. In some stories the dead are allowed to come back to life... so keep that in mind. Every story relys on its internal logic... it works if it works for your story- NOT anyone else's (necessarily).

I am currently finishing my first novel, so until I get published you may choose to ignore my two cents. However, I believe (like others have stated) that the ending is the key to a story's success. If it fails, the whole house of cards comes down, or at least the top floor or two. How many times have you thought a narrative was wonderful, only to be let down by its ending? It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and the work's merit is often lost. For this reason, I think it is important to have the ending carefully mapped out in advance in a way that makes sense and wraps up plot lines and thematic elements appropriately. This doesn't mean your story won't wander on its way to the ending, and it doesn't mean you won't change some things where the conclusion is concerned, but knowing where you're going on a journey makes leaving home much easier and you're more likely to arrive somewhere you really want to be.

OK, maybe what you need help with is not so much the ENDING (climax) but more the ending (denouement). I'm too tired for this. I'll try to write more tomorrow, what happened to the days when I could go on 4 hours of sleep. I got a lot more written then. For now, just think emotional wrap up. What things in the story do you need to finish to feel like you've answered the questions. To provide closure. Look at the last big scene (different from the climax) and think about it from the reader's perspective. Have you had a running joke throughout the book? You probably need to bring it in one last time as part of the denouement. Did the book start on a really important conversation, or did you raise a really important question? Especially one that ideally your climax provides an answer for? Then you probably need to look back and reflect on that before you wrap up. More tomorrow, I promise.

KTC said:

I don't plan. I can tell you that I have the same difficulty with endings. It is usually the only part that I completely rewrite sometimes.

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Same here. I rewrite endings more than anything else.

I sometimes have to let myself write a crap ending just so I can have the peace of mind to think about what really has to happen. And there's always only one way. One way to satisfy the reader, emotionally. Once I figure that out, the ending just comes.

OK, I've restored minimal brain function (and that's all that you get ) Remember that the climax, like Oliveman said, is the point of no return. In a great work (I'll take my favorite, but you may freely substitute yours), like Hamlet it is a decision. Some idea that once it comes transforms everything and sets the character moving into the finale of the story (which is ironically called the falling action). In Hamlet the climax is...

"Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come', if it
be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves,
what is't to leave betimes? Let be."

This is the moment when Hamlet decides. The whole grueling death match that follows with the entire royal family of Denmark massacred on stage is part of the "falling action". It is the necessary consequence of that climax when Hamlet is finally at peace with his decision and ready to act.

The denouement is Horatio and Fortinbras summing up the play. Horatio 's summary giving context to the scope of the tragedy and Fortinbras honoring Hamlet and giving him a final stamp of approval. Something to say that after all Hamlet's concern about doing what is right, that he made the right decision and would have made a good king. The denouement should be the emotional wrap up, just like the falling action/finale is the logical wrap up which springs from the conclusion.

Sassee said:

They seem to be my weak point... anyone have any advice? My problem is that I usually end too abruptly. Even I feel like I should have extended the last chapter or written another one, but I'm never sure how to work it just right or how far to extend. I suppose this is my payback for writing too many unfinished blurbs as a kid

How long do you all spend wrapping things up? Do you have better success if you know the end before you've even started? Does it come to you mid book? What do you seat-of-the-pants writers do for your endings?

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Then why not write another chapter or two? Extend the scenes and add more oomph to them? Take your time and make it really good? How so impatient to finish it off?

I usually know how my stories are going to end -- there may be variations but pretty close by the time I actually finish writing the book. It keeps me focus, to have that end goal, even if I know it may change. I also have an idea how long that ending should be. For novels, it's usually at least a chapter or two. Short fiction: 500 words at least. With novel, I also allow the ending/denouement to slowly wind down after the climax. It's not to say after the climax nothing happens -- actually a lot happens after. I just never end the novel with the climax. Always a denouement to settle everything.

"The first and last page are the most important pages of a novel. The first page sells your novel, the last page sells your next novel." --- unknown

Not to be contrary, but Stephen King has gotten away with weak endings for decades (which he's publicly admitted). The ending of IT was so weak I gave up on reading him.

Personally, I think a weak ending cheats the reader, who's read this far for...what?

My current WIP (which I thought was done until recently) came to a complete stop for two months, while I beat my head against the wall, trying to come up with a good ending. I can't imagine Stephen King has ever put a book down for a month to think of a good ending. If he had, I'd probably still be reading him.

Beat your brains out. Think about it when you go to bed at night. When it seems like there's no good, gripping, workable, believable ending, just remind yourself of all the good endings you've read, and remember they were written by human beings just like yourself. Don't settle for a weak ending. Put as much "sweat equity" into it as is necessary.

You'll do it.

wayndom said:

Beat your brains out. Think about it when you go to bed at night. When it seems like there's no good, gripping, workable, believable ending, just remind yourself of all the good endings you've read, and remember they were written by human beings just like yourself. Don't settle for a weak ending. Put as much "sweat equity" into it as is necessary.

You'll do it.

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I like the idea you embedded in this one too. "sweat equity" not in terms of head beating, but in terms of chlling out and waiting for it to write itself. Sometimes you've got to push work really hard, and sometimes you have to let go and just wait for it to come. I love writing late when I'm sleepy (like now ), and sometimes I'll write first thing in the morning when I'm not really awake.

Oliveman gave a great answer. TY.
In my current WIP, I have changed The ending three times and then had to go back and revise the earlier portions.
Right now I am working through the novel, seeing if everything fits and then work on the "idea" of The Ending that I have sketched.
Put plainly, it has been heartache and headaches. No easy way to find the End. Even if you work backwards; of which I am not a great believer.