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Ending books within a series

indianroads

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How do you end books within a series?

The series I’m writing now is about the evolution of the human species over several thousand years, each book within the series is a part of that overall story, and is complete within itself (they can stand-alone).

Other authors write cliff-hangers at the end of each book to drive the customer to buy the next. I ran across this in a book I finished last night: The enemy comes through the compound gates, guns are drawn and ready to kill everyone. THE END. Some authors can get away with this, but this ending pissed me off enough that I won’t buy the next book, and may not purchase anything by this author again.

I’d like to start a conversation here about how to end books within a series.
 

RC turtle

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Hinting at something interesting to happen in the next book is fine. Ending a book in the middle of the climax is not!
 

Woollybear

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My go-to way of thinking about this is the ending to Star Wars IV.

The problem for the heroes to solve, was solved. And then, we saw that a new problem will arise. Like there is a shift and there's no way this will not bring up new conflicts of one sort or another. The reader can imagine what the next book will have within it, without feeling cheated on the resolution of the first book.

How do you normally handle it? You have a lot of books in series, I thought.
 

Cephus

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Every book has to tell a complete story. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The overall series might have a much larger story that is being told, but you can't get away with just stopping in the middle of the climax and expecting anyone to come back for the next book.
 

Sonya Heaney

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Are there different main characters in each book? I have different main characters in each book of my series, but a similar setting and time period (book #1 begins in 1885, #2 in 1887 etc.).

I'm going to take a guess that this varies a lot over genres, but a cliffhanger that screams buy the next book! is never something I'll appreciate.
 

benbenberi

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You don't want to stop in the middle of the climax, but you don't have to bring everything to a full stop and tie it off nicely either. I've recently been rereading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, which runs to 20 completed novels (21 if you include the final book unfinished at his death) -- and I have noted once more that, while these are masterfully written, they break most of the common "rules" we bandy about in places like this. The books often end at unexpected points -- not, to be sure, in the middle of the climax, but frequently in the middle of a sequence, so you know in outline what's supposed to happen next -- a hearing, a battle, a journey, a reunion -- but it's left to your imagination. This is in no way a cliffhanger, just a way of sidestepping the need for tedious denouement. The next book may pick up again shortly after, or there may have been some time passed and other offstage events between volumes that we may or may not need to learn about when we rejoin the story.

O'Brian employs a similar technique at the level of individual scenes too. They start and end in places where most authors wouldn't start and end them, and avoid all the boring connective bits that are so often a struggle both to write and to read. There's nothing choppy or incomplete about it, but his narrative priorities center around character, not plot -- an odd quality, you might say, in a series of Napoleonic naval adventure stories -- and beginning, middle, and end in this context are slightly off-key to the norm.
 

indianroads

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My go-to way of thinking about this is the ending to Star Wars IV.

The problem for the heroes to solve, was solved. And then, we saw that a new problem will arise. Like there is a shift and there's no way this will not bring up new conflicts of one sort or another. The reader can imagine what the next book will have within it, without feeling cheated on the resolution of the first book.

How do you normally handle it? You have a lot of books in series, I thought.

I do - each book is separate part of the overall story. The characters change, and at times a significant amount of time or distance separate them.

In the book that ticked me off enough to start this thread, it's the same characters with practically no time change.

ETA: Star Wars is a good example of how it should be done IMO.
 
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DeleyanLee

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It totally depends on what kind of series you're writing.

In a Closed-End series (including the traditional Fantasy trilogy), it's one single story spread across the entire series. Breaking of the books can come after smaller climaxes or other raising of the stakes. There is a limited amount of books, regardless of the number, because when the story is told, there are no more books. (ie: Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, etc.)

In an Open-End series (including Mysteries, most Romances, etc), each book is its own thing in the "life"/series of a set of characters. Events from a previous story may or may not be referenced in a later book (which allows books to be read out of sequence). (ie: works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, James Patterson, JD Robb, Laurel K. Hamilton, etc.)

I am writing a Closed-End series (Fantasy Police-Procedural), so I have one Fantasy main story that's being told across all the books. That said, because it's also a police procedural, there will be a major investigation that will solved within the course of each book. That's how I know how to end each installment in the series.

Hope that helps.
 

K.S. Crooks

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I don't mind a cliffhanger if the majority of the main story is completed in the book. I like books where there is a planned journey or undertaking. This and other similar formats establish the concept of a continuous story in the background. At the same time it allows a specific plot to be told completely within the book.The other way I enjoy a sequel is when the only connection is the character(s) in the book. Other than that it's a completely separate story. Lee Child uses this method for his Jack Reacher novels. Because of this you can read most of the novels in any order. It all depends of whether you want to have an overall plot objective between books be a focus or have all the attention be on the characters
 

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Other authors write cliff-hangers at the end of each book to drive the customer to buy the next. I ran across this in a book I finished last night: The enemy comes through the compound gates, guns are drawn and ready to kill everyone. THE END. Some authors can get away with this, but this ending pissed me off enough that I won’t buy the next book, and may not purchase anything by this author again.

Meh, that seems heavy-handed and gimmicky. It would piss me off too. And it would depend on how wrapped up I was with the characters whether I bought the next book or not. I can see that being a device used in novels of an "adventure/thrill" genre, but might be well avoided in, um, a more sober series? (Question mark b/c I fear offending somebody with whatever adjectives I plug in there.)

Good tips here so far, so I'll probably be repeating advice, but whatever. Each book in a linked series (not stand-alone) has its own goal to achieve within the umbrella-issue that arches over the entire series. The characters probably should achieve each book's goal while they continue to struggle toward the overarching goal, which won't be solved until the final book. "Should" being one of those "guideline" words and not a hard rule, cuz each series has its own structure/needs. "Link" being an appropriate descriptor if a book series can be compared to a chain, each book having some kind of satisfactory wholeness while being a part of a larger whole.

And obviously, the last book should tie up all loose ends. Beta readers are good for identifying anything the author might've overlooked. "But I was waiting to see what would happen with XYZ" and "I expected that character to play a bigger part in the endgame." All of which show imbalances and neglected subplots.
 
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Emissarius

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The more you can make each book stand on its own, the better. To me, when an author does otherwise, it feels like they're not in control of their work, and I'm not just talking about how the book ends. There's something far worse than a cliffhanger ending imo: it's when a new character is introduced in one scene and then we never see them again until the next book. It gets me thinking the author wasn't sure about this character, or he/she expected us to be so impressed by that character that we'd be waiting for him/her to make their reappearance. I see that a lot in my beta group, especially in action-oriented stories. There's this huge temptation to introduce this badass henchman character who kicks the MC's butt and then vanishes for the duration of the book so readers would be all excited about the next book (as if they don't have tons of other books, TV shows, and movies to be excited about). My opinion on that particular situation would always be to re-introduce that henchman in the same book, and maybe even get the MC to defeat them. If you don't want them beaten, at least let us get our fair share of them.
 
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Kerry56

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I've written one trilogy and a book with a sequel. In the trilogy, the books are episodic, so it wasn't difficult to find stopping points and have complete volumes with satisfying finishes. I dislike cliffhanger endings in series, and would never consider that in my own writing.

The two book series, if you can call it that, has stories so closely entwined, it could be one large novel, but I tied up all the major story lines in the first one before ending with a slight twist. The first book can still be read as a stand alone novel, but the ending shows the direction of the second.

Carrying a story arc across a longer series, five books or more, may be beyond my poor pantser's skills.