Open Endings?

rwm4768 · May 16, 2013

That ending sounds like it doesn't work.

It's okay to think of your work as a series, though. You should always tell the story the way it should be told. Don't compromise your story because of what people say can and can't be published.

However, you might have to write something else that does standalone to function as your debut.

AlanaHarbison · May 16, 2013

Thank you heaps for all the great feedback. Now I just need a few minutes alone --not swamped by children and house guests-- to digest it all and make a decision about how to proceed.

Unsavory · May 16, 2013

Interesting thread, and I can't help but wonder if it applies to my work as well. My WIP is absolutely intended as a stand alone novel, but even my heavily-biased-in-my-favor wife was irritated by the ending until I changed and clarified a few things. I seem to frequently disappoint readers with my endings, perhaps because I leave them too open.

I'd like to know what more people think about my modified ending, but I think it might be too difficult so summarize succinctly in this thread...

Lady Ice · May 17, 2013

Unsavory said:
Interesting thread, and I can't help but wonder if it applies to my work as well. My WIP is absolutely intended as a stand alone novel, but even my heavily-biased-in-my-favor wife was irritated by the ending until I changed and clarified a few things. I seem to frequently disappoint readers with my endings, perhaps because I leave them too open.

I'd like to know what more people think about my modified ending, but I think it might be too difficult so summarize succinctly in this thread...

Maybe put it in Share Your Work?

The problem with open endings is that it's easy to make something vague, so the story just looks unfinished. A little bit of ambiguity isn't necessarily bad but you need to give the reader some sort of closure.

AlanaHarbison · May 17, 2013

Lady Ice said:
Maybe put it in Share Your Work?

The problem with open endings is that it's easy to make something vague, so the story just looks unfinished. A little bit of ambiguity isn't necessarily bad but you need to give the reader some sort of closure.

This just gave me an idea --it might not be a good idea, but an idea worth tossing around nonetheless.

In the final battle against those who have been hunting her throughout the entire novel, my MC finds she is stronger than she, or anyone else, had anticipated. Those sent to kill her are unable to do so, so they release a nerve gas, rendering her unconscious. Then she wakes up in the psych ward.

Maybe, just maybe, instead of those she is fighting being the ones to take her hostage, she does kill them, and some higher members of the organisation are the ones who release the nerve gas and take her hostage in the psych ward???

Just an idea, but it would give some amount of closure to the main objective that sustains this book, no???

I swear, I'm not trying to ask this in a way that implies I want the critters to write my book for me, just tossing around ideas and hoping I am not fishing in the wind with them.

BTW, it wasn't just this one reply that inspired me, but all of them, on some level... Kkbe, Will, Kalli, Susan, Cathy, Quicklime, always love your feedback... and all the others

And a special :Hug2:

for Kalli, because I know how much you love to be hugged in public :evil

Jack Parker · May 20, 2013

I'm going to rub against the grain a little and say that ending your novel with an open end is not "never" done. The extent to which you described would definitely leave the reader miffed. It's not like a TV show where a character ends the show with a line like, "Will you marry me?" The viewer just has to tune back in the next week. Your readers would have to wait a year for your next book to come out.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, (a first novel) as huge an exception as Harry Potter is, was open-ended. Granted, it still closed pretty tightly, just not completely.

It can be done but the writing would have to be exceptional and very, very well done.

Lady Ice · May 21, 2013

AlanaHarbison said:
This just gave me an idea --it might not be a good idea, but an idea worth tossing around nonetheless.

In the final battle against those who have been hunting her throughout the entire novel, my MC finds she is stronger than she, or anyone else, had anticipated. Those sent to kill her are unable to do so, so they release a nerve gas, rendering her unconscious. Then she wakes up in the psych ward.

Maybe, just maybe, instead of those she is fighting being the ones to take her hostage, she does kill them, and some higher members of the organisation are the ones who release the nerve gas and take her hostage in the psych ward???

Just an idea, but it would give some amount of closure to the main objective that sustains this book, no???

I swear, I'm not trying to ask this in a way that implies I want the critters to write my book for me, just tossing around ideas and hoping I am not fishing in the wind with them.

BTW, it wasn't just this one reply that inspired me, but all of them, on some level... Kkbe, Will, Kalli, Susan, Cathy, Quicklime, always love your feedback... and all the others And a special for Kalli, because I know how much you love to be hugged in public

Having the superiors take her hostage would be an effective way of leading the book into a series if that's what you want to do.

Cathy C · May 21, 2013

This:

Those sent to kill her are unable to do so, so they release a nerve gas, rendering her unconscious. Then she wakes up in the psych ward.

Will definitely annoy readers unless you already have a multi-book contract to guarantee that they will find out what happens. My suggestion is to make TWO endings. One that has a resolution where she winds up in a regular hospital, recovering. The other with the resolution you show here.

Why? Because when selling the book to an agent or publisher, they want to be certain it stands alone. There can be ROOM for a second book, but there's always the chance that the book on the shelf won't sell well.

Once you have it in front of the publisher, you can explain to your editor that you had an original ending that you'd like to run past him/her. It's very likely the ending will appeal to the editor and they'll run with it. But to offer it straight out? I think you'd be doing the rest of the book a disservice.

JMHO, of course.

Dave.C.Robinson · May 21, 2013

I think that sometimes it's too easy to focus on the open and not enough on the ending when writing open endings. An open ending has to be an ending, and it seems to me that problems occur when people forget that.

AlanaHarbison · May 23, 2013

Thanks again guys. Much to mull over.

Open Endings?

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

AlanaHarbison

Unsavory

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions

AlanaHarbison

Jack Parker

Sleep is only caffeine deprivation.

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions

Cathy C

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

Dave.C.Robinson

... with the High Command

AlanaHarbison