And then I woke up – The End
I find beginning a story and ending a story to be two of the most difficult things about writing. Sometimes I’ve spent twice as long writing an ending to a story than I have writing the entire story itself.
I remember in primary school the teacher would ask us to write stories and always say ‘I don’t want it to be a dream!’
Okay – so how do you end a story when you’re a child? You’ve been woken from your bed in the dead of night by aliens, you fight them off, you save the world and then – is that mum calling me for breakfast? Oh, it was all just a dream! The End. No wonder the teacher at school hated it.
I’ve read a couple of books where the ending falls apart and this can be bitterly disappointing. An ending doesn’t have to be predictable, but it does need to be ‘rounded off’ for me. I like closure, I like things to be made clear, I like to see people satisfied, fail, win, killed or something, I like the question at the beginning of the story to be answered, I like to see people grow and their situation change them in some way – I don’t like to find the hero hanging by his jockstrap on the precipice then see ‘to be continued…’ this is when I throw the book out the window.
If the story starts off with a girl’s quest to find her long lost twin sister I don’t want to read 250 pages to have her satisfied that she learned to drive a tractor instead.
Surprise and twist endings are my favourites – but I don’t like them to be too surprising. I don’t want to find that the two year old baby cooing in the pram for the last hundred pages is actually the serial killer.
If I want to be preached to I’d go to church. Reading a humorous novel and finding in the end that I have to forward this book to seven people or I’ll be damned to hell doesn’t really endear me to the author.
Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I like closure and this is why I spend so much time on endings. Do you have this problem or are endings easy for you?
Dianne Gray author 
Yes, endings are difficult……. I tend to wonder ‘is this too happy?’ Everything is resolved but it seems a little too much. Then I start thinking which of the main characters to kill to make it sadder. 😀
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Hahaha – I love that! Can I make it really sad? I hate having to kill off characters because I get all misty and guilty and want them back again 🙂
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The ending can make or break the book. It can leave the reader in awe or completely disappointed. I think that endings deserve a great deal of time so that the questions are answered and the reader feels satisfied. We owe a good ending to our readers who have traveled the journey of the book with us that whole time.
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Well said, Emma. Readers don’t deserve to be let down after spending time on a book. I remember my sister throwing a book down on the table once and saying ‘I’m never reading that author again! What a crap ending!’ Not a good look 🙂
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I think I’ve done that, too!
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I don’t write fiction, but as a reader, I have to say that I have a lot of respect for a good beginning or a good ending as I think it’s particularly difficult to accomplish. And taking that into consideration, I also give the author a little leeway with those two aspects and don’t judge them in quite the same way, I think, as I do the rest of the book. Some of my favorite books have disappointing endings (oh well!) 🙂
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Thanks, Letizia! You’ve restored my faith in readers – It’s so good to see there are understanding and patient readers out there 🙂
You’re an author’s dream!
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I really hate it when the ending appears in the beginning of a book, like a nasty taste for what is to come, so you read the entire book knowing exactly where it’s going to end up (even if you don’t have the complete details.) I like to be surprised at the end, reading frantically through to find out what happens.
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I’m with you on that one. I’m not a great fan of movies or books that have a murder in the beginning and then it cuts to ‘three weeks prior to this’! OH – I want to see what happens after, not before! Some of them (if done well) can be great, but I always let out that little ‘disappointed’ sigh 😉
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I struggle with endings almost all the time. I have a novel and a short story in progress right now that don’t seem to want to end. That’s why I try to have more than one work in progress at a time; if I get stuck on one, I can go to another one and hope it gets resolved somewhere in my head while I’m working on something else. It works most of the time. Beginnings aren’t as much of a problem for me.
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I also have two or three stories on the go for exactly the same reason. Writers block on one? Switch to the other and so on. It really works and lets you look at a WIP with fresh eyes. Sometimes I just don’t want the novel or short story to end but have to draw the line somewhere!:D
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Endings are a pain sometimes…you’ve got to come up with an ending that satisfying the reader.
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Exactly right – and also satisfying for you as an author 🙂
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Absolutely! There is no greater joy than writing “The End” on a good piece of writing.
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Yes, endings are hard for me. I don’t want to give away the story in the first chapter, but the ending also has to fit. I hate it when an ending negates everything I read in a story!
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I’m glad I’m not the only one 🙂
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I agree – a story with no resolution isn’t a story. It’s like a punchline I guess.
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So right, Julie – a joke wouldn’t be a joke without a punchline! 🙂
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Recently I finished Kafka on the Shore, a fantastic novel, all but the end. Which was a bit of a letdown, but the rest of the book was so good, I knew something was going to give. I want to reread it (which I often do with fave books) and see if I feel the same. One of my fave authors, John Irving, comes up with the end first, then works backwards in the plotting. For me, the ending is known, or it materializes as I reach it, so while it’s not a problem, it’s not always clear from the beginning.
But it ends up as the end, one way or another. 🙂
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This is great, Anna – I love how it ends up at the end 🙂
I haven’t read Kafka on the Shore. It will be interesting to see if you enjoy it as much the second time around knowing the end was a bit of a letdown
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Endings are very difficult. I hum and hair about them and there is a lot of hair pulling involved. I wish I had a solution.
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I wish you had a solution as well, Kate. If you ever find one, let me know and we’ll make a fortune 😀
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I have read so many authors, renowned authors at that, who’s book ending seems to have no flow, almost as though they got to page 310 and decided now to end. The ending is so abrupt, leaving one wondering why he spent 3 pages describing his sex escapade with a hunch back in the Amazon forest, while shooting monkeys with a blowgun for the pot and fighting a 18ft. boa intent on crushing the sex crazed pair. It has resulted in me no longer purchasing the authors new “best seller” as it seems that they are using ghost writers to write the content and they pen the beginning and the end… and this they do between spending the millions that they have earned from idiots like me, horsing around on their speed boats, with woman half their age, on the Mediterranean sea…..
Too me a good book must have a good beginning that captures me from the start, and ends when I’m expecting it to, having had all the loose ends tied up…
Great post by the way…
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Oh god – this made me laugh! 😀
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Lovely post.
I tend to find endings really easy as it just flows for me like the main storyline… However I do struggle greatly with beginnings . They have to be good, catchy but not give everything away… I tend to write 1 beginning, finish the story then ebd up re-writing the beginning a couple of times.
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I’m a rewriter of beginnings as well. In fact sometimes I take out the beginning altogether when I’ve finished the story! 🙂
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end*
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😀
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So glad you liked “A Little Rain Must fall.” I have to admit that as a writer I find it had to write about writing. But with regard to the “end” I almost always know what the end will be. Its the getting there correctly that’s demanding.
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So true, Paul! And it is hard writing about writing! As W. Somerset Maugham said – “There are three rules to writing a novel, but no one can agree what they are.”
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The ending of a story is so very important, isn’t it? So many movies end in the most disappointing fashion, and then I feel that I’ve wasted my time watching. The same with books.
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One of my husband’s favourite sayings after watching a movie with a bad ending is – I want that hour and half of my life back! 😀
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My feelings exactly. 🙂
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I might not have a story at all, except for the beginning and ending. Those things come naturally, holding hands and chatting gaily while I suffer through the ‘actual story’making process… And I adore weird endings, though tend to have quite an ok endings in most of my own stories. Guess it depends on what you’re telling – if it’s uncertain and keeps changing during the whole story, why bother and try to make closure fit if open ending would be better. Harmony and balance, that’s what important, I guess…
p.s. did you actually write that story about aliens? =)
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You’re lucky having the beginning and ending mapped out. It’s kind of the getting there that can be really difficult 🙂
A ‘friend’ wrote a story about aliens (LOL) 😀
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I find beginnings are no problem, but, endings? WOAH!!!!!
I have about 200 unfinished “pieces” because I just don’t know how to end them *slumps* 😦
Xx
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Oh no, Vikki! That’s very frustrating. I feel your pain!
And then there’s the problem of knowing how the story is going to end but trying to figure out how to write it so it’s not too abrupt, but not too drawn out either 🙂
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Exactly, and I’ve been told my short story endings are a bit predictable lol
Xx
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So true! The same applies to writing poems! I’m really good at writing poems, but I always have difficulties with the title of the poem, and it’s theme!
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Okay – there must be another post spin-off here. Titles are a nightmare!
I could imagine ending a poem would be difficult because it needs that little ‘punch’ at the closing 🙂
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So true! 🙂
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Dianne, I love this! I don’t like endings in general, and especially when it’s a good book, a great story. If an otherwise good book ends poorly, it ruins it for the rest of the story, for me.
I am with with, and when it all ends and it was just a dream, I feel so cheated, it seems like such an easy way out. Did you watch the tv. series LOST? That was an ending I did not feel was worthy of 6 years of great story telling…
I think some of my favorite stories end with me wanting more of the characters I came to know and love [or hate!] and just enough to think I might be able to picture in my own mind what might be next for them. The book, The Help is one example…you can kind of see how Skeeter’s life just might unfold, but not exactly.
I’m not a writer and so I can’t begin to imagine the challenge of crafting a good ending…great post!
🙂 B
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Oh good grief, Bonnie. I was going to mention ‘Lost’ in this post but ended up cutting it out because it made me so cranky! Every episode was frustrating and I think I ended up canning watching it after the first series. It seemed like it was going somewhere and then go nowhere. What a waste of an hour (although it had so many advertisements in it that it really only went for half an hour – grrrrr).
I must have a look at The Help – thank you so much for mentioning it 🙂
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Dianne..that’s funny that you were going to mention LOST! I loved it, until the end. I liked the characters, overlaps, good v. evil, backstory mechanism..but the ending just ruined it all for me! I watched it mostly on DVD so there were no commercials! 🙂
I hope you read The Help, such a wonderful book, and the story of the woman who wrote it [and almost didn’t!] is great too! Let me know if you decide to read it.
🙂 B
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I don’t mind any ending as long as it is tastefully done for an identifiable reason. I can deal with stories that dont quite end and leave the final ending to the readers imagination. It’s a great way to get people discussing their opinions on what happened. At the same time I do like to read a book that has a complete finality to it.
I never start a book having the end in mind however, I always write and the end becomes a suprise to me as the writer as much as it is for the reader.
Seth.
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That sounds really interesting, Seth. I usually have the ending in mind (having said that, the story can evolve and become a great surprise). There is nothing better than that AHA moment where an ending hits you in the solar plexus – you just know your readers are going to love it 🙂
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Indeed, I get that all the time, sometimes I don’t know the characters quite as well as I thought I did and they end up doing something completely different to what I had in mind. 🙂
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I usualy find that if I have an ending in mind it changes by the time I get to it. I agree though, there is nothing better than discovering an ending that you know readers ar going to love.
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Sigh. At the moment I seem to be having issues with the beginning, middle and ending. On a slightly more serious note though I find that the last quarter of my projects always give me hell. Especially that act right before you start working on the ending. It is then I tend to have a lot of second guessing of my writing, my plot, my characters… my genre. I have three books on permanent hold because I can’t get past that bit.
I find with endings though that it is sometimes I bit hard to strike the balance. Very rarely do things work out all wrapped up in a bow 🙂 but we come to tend to sort of kind of expect that from the books we read. And of course the opposite is also true… in life things are not very often all bad.
This writing thing is hard work isn’t it?… Now I understand why writing to most writers is like the air they breathe. Without such dedication books would never be written.
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So very true, Rilzy. It’s the passion that keeps us going. Most writers write because it’s in them and they are driven to do it, no matter who reads it or whether they’re famous or not. It’s the same with artists, musicians and poets. It’s the air we breathe and without it we’d go a little nutty (and sometimes go nutty with it!)
That act right before you start working on the ending is the climax (or is supposed to be), where the reader is flicking faster and faster through the pages wondering how this is all going to work out. This is very difficult to achieve without skipping over important facts or having it run for too too long.
I really hope your stories go well for you:)
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Another thing about endings–done right, they make us want more. For those of us writing a series, that’s especially critical.
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Congratulations! I’ve nominated you for a blog award! See:
thelifeofathinker.wordpress.com
For more info!
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Thank you so much, Liam! I’ve gone over to your blog and I’ll be checking out your other nominees and also Chelsea’s blog 😀
Congratulations to you too!
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Dianne–I haven’t been writing long, but I hope I got it right on the beginning and ending of my one completed (not yet published) novel. I agree they can be hard to write, and can make or break a book and a career. I like your style. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Dennis. I’m really glad you’ve got it right and it’s not a difficult task for you. If you haven’t been writing long and you’re nailing it you must have the ‘gift’ 🙂
Well done!
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Interesting 🙂 I understand how you feel. But what about books in a series? Are ‘cliffhangars’ not acceptable then?
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Hey, Dan – they are as long as I know it’s part of a series when I pick it up. I read a book a long time ago where the author left the cliffhanger with the intention of writing a series and never did. That was pretty frustrating.
But I believe that each book in a series should be able to stand on its own and the reader should want to move to the next book and not feel they have to because there are too many loose ends.
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I don’t mind endings that leave me hanging. Life is like that anyway, isn’t it! An author wants to leave a little something behind to tempt the reader to go on to the next book. Just a little doubt adds spice to the dish? Seated at the dinner table after a delicious meal, my Opa used to say – always leave the table when you could eat just a little more!
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Oh, well said! This is the fine balance we have leaving the readers wanting more, but not leaving them scratching their heads thinking, ‘what on earth was that all about?’ 😀
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Usually, the ending leaves me thinking “aww, it’s over? Now what do I do with my life?” But yeah, the ending can make or break a book. I loved “The Mists of Avalon” but I didn’t like the ending all that much. I still read the other books in the series, but still it kind of ruined the book and the series for me.
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That’s such a shame. People put so much work into their books – the greatest thing for an author would be the ‘Now what do I do with my life?” feeling from the reader.
It’s a shame about the “The Mists of Avalon” because if the ending had been great it would be ‘wow – best book I’ve read in a long time!’ 🙂
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I love this line, “If the story starts off with a girl’s quest to find her long lost twin sister I don’t want to read 250 pages to have her satisfied that she learned to drive a tractor instead.” I haven’t found a story quite that bad, but you are right. One thing I hate is an abrupt ending. It’s like the author says to the reader, “Ok I’m tired of writing this story now. I’m done. Goodbye.” Great article!
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Thanks, Marsha! I actually found The Horse Whisperer to be one of those books that seemed like the author said, ‘Okay – wrap it up!’ To me that ending was really disappointing because he spent very few words on it – ‘the woman got pregnant and they moved away and lived happily ever after’ (or something along those lines). I just thought – “what the?”
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Exactly. I haven’t written many full length books, and not published any, but I can understand how it could happen. You write for months, and then it seems like the characters just keep getting in deeper, and you want to put an end to them. It’s like the time is 1:30 a..m. and they just jumped into a new topic of conversation, so you rather impolitely say to them, “Thanks for coming,” and you stand and walk towards the door. “End of book. Whew, finally!” I think maybe that is the poor, tired author’s perspective.
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I agree with you 100%. Endings are difficult for me, too. I write, rewrite and repeat so many times. I like ‘happy’ endings, but they can’t be too cheesy. It also can’t be an ending where the reader flips pages looking for the real end, shouting, “what? That can’t be it! That’s so stupid.”
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Oh, Janna – I’m laughing so loudly at this I’ve got tears in my eyes. I can just see the reader shouting now “what? That can’t be it! That’s so stupid.”
I’ve said this line so many times (particularly with movies) *wiping tears away now*
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You have opened up a discussion which has no end!
I mostly write with an end in sight, but unless the beginning works, my reader will never get there. Trouble is, even with an end in sight the story has the habit of leading somewhere else. Whichever way, concluding it is important. Without an end there is no beginning (of the next story, that is).
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Too true, Richard! I love the analogy of no end 🙂
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Hi Dianne,
I’ve been slow with ‘official’ notification of this nomination, sorry if you ‘read about it first’ on my blog. I have nominated you for a Thought Provoking Blog Award (you truly deserve it). If you wish to accept visit my site for details [http://pairodox.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/thought-provoking/]. As I understand it the protocol is in four parts. 1) Thank the person who nominated you, 2) Post the image of the award on your blog, 3) Share 7 things about yourself, and 4) Pass the award along to 5 blogs you enjoy.
Congratulations! Dave
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Thanks, Dave! I’ve been travelling all day and only just logged on to my laptop. I’me heading over your way right now 🙂
Congratulations to you, too!!!
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The headline made me laugh: I had a good friend in school who always wrote like that, even in upper secondary school. I always joked with her about that and she knew it wasn’t a very good ending, but every time she just wrote: “…and then I woke up. The End”. Thanks for sharing this post!
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I love this! Thank you for comming by and commenting, Anna 😀
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I laughed out loud at the idea of the baby being a serial killer. I think you’re onto something with that one. 😉
Endings are very difficult, especially because recently I learned that in one of my stories,my “mystery” subplot didn’t have closure. Of course, my excuse was–but there’s a sequel!
Nope, sorry, go to the back of the line. Even when you have a sequel, apparently mysteries begun in book one, need to be solved in book one. Unless you’re someone who has already written 39 novels and then you can do whatever the floop you want. 🙂
So, I am having to rewrite that subplot in order to solve the mystery–but write it in such a way that it actually leads to another mystery–hence book 2.
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Oh, dear! That doesn’t sound good 😦
Rewrite time! It’s interesting that this happens. Two of my books have people asking when I am going to write a sequel, but I don’t really have any plans to. All questions were answered in the books, but I think it’s the ‘I want to know more’ thing that gets people interested. One day (when I have time!) I may go back and write sequels, but usually when I finish a book I really don’t think about it again. Sounds strange, but once it’s on paper and out of my head (driving me insane) it’s gone!
Who told you to go to the back of the line?
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I agree, the end is huge, it is the taste in your mouth you are left with when you set the book down! A bad taste might be all many people remember after a few days. And then there are the readers that think the author just got lazy and didn’t know how to end it…I always hate that idea because it taints the whole book and any other books by the author, in my mind at least.
My PE teacher always said to keep some reserve energy to finish strong, the homestretch is where you can often win or lose. A little silly, but I think it works here too. 🙂
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Wow – the PE analogy is great. It’s so true – you want to be left with a burst at the end and not a slow drip that kind of fizzles out to nothing. I put a comment in earlier that I found this with The Horse Whisperer. It just kind of ended (as if someone else wrote the ending).
Speaking of which – I saw a website the other day that offers to write endings for novels. I thought WTF! People PAY to have someone else write their endings? What’s the world coming to? 😀
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LOL – WTF is right! That is kinda nuts.
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Is it Stephen King who always knows what the last line of his novels is going to be before he’s ever written a word? Not sure if it’s him or someone like him. Anyway, I always have a killer line in mind for the end of the novel. Then I get to the end and change it because I’ve come up with a better one during writing the rest!
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I’m not sure either if it’s Stephen King who does this, but I have heard that before.
I laughed about your killer last line and they way you change it because I’ve done that as well! 😀
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I have a harder time starting… If I don’t get that first sentence right, I can’t go on 😦
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Oh no – that’s a problem 😦
I tend to go back and change that first sentence – sometimes cutting out the first paragraph (or page!)
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I wanted to leave a comment, but I couldn’t decide how to start it. So I thought I’d start at the end and work backwards, but I had a hard time with the ending. So I decided to write just the middle part which is: good post!
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Hahahahaha! Love this, Rick ! 😀
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Oh, yes! Endings are always tough for me, too! I think they’re tough because they matter so much. Even if a story isn’t built perfectly in the middle, so long as there is a great, seductive opening and ending, people will still love the whole book! Great post!
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Thanks, Jessica! Too true indeed 🙂
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I’m glad you think about your endings…reading a book and having a wishy washy ending is horrible!! unfinished business!!
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So true, Lisa. It kind of ‘flattens’ the whole thing…
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I’ve only written one novel -during NaNoWriMo in 2010. I actually ended up re-writing the ending entirely. It was much easier the 2nd time because that was the ending it should have had! 🙂
I do enjoy a bit of a twist when I’m reading, though! Just a slight tweak that leaves me thinking!
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So right, Denise! Endings can be very difficult indeed because you don’t want to leave your readers scratching their heads. I’m glad you rewrote your ending – some writers are scared to do that, but it’s perfectly okay because it’s YOUR story and you need to be happy with it 🙂
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I don’t have much trouble with beginnings. Usually I am so excited and enthusiastic, that it flows. But I agree, sometimes it requires a bit more work not to sound cliche, corny, or predictable at the end. It takes a bit more editing to write a good one,
I like your writing, I’d love you to read one or two posts from my blog if you have the time. The one on Dating, There’s a We in what ? and My First time, have gotten big laughs.
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Thank you so much for dropping by my blog 🙂 I’m having a look around yours and it’s great!
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Thank you. It’s get to read another writer’s blog- good writing. It inspires and encourages.
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