Lately I've been kinda wondering what makes a story feel like it's come to a satisfying end. There's a couple of stories I've written now that I had thought of as complete, but some people seemed to see as the first chapter in a series. Anyone have any thoughts on what it is about the end of a story that makes it feel like it's actually ended?
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...when it's over
Gee, Heather, this is easy. The story is over when it is over. After the climax (unless you want to drag it out and have an anticlimax); following the resolution; after the denouement; when the narrator says, "and they lived happily ever after". Nothing simpler, really.
Of course, problems arise when there isn't a denouement (Did you know, they used to call it the catastrophe (even in comedies)? However, that word started to mean something else, and they had to steal another one from the French.). Lots of short stories, and even lots of very long ones, don't follow the conflict- complication- resolution- conclusion pattern. Sometimes they are just told to show how the protagonist exists, or a simple event that occurred, or how someone changed one day. Such stories have always existed, and (imo) are often among the best (they make the reader feel, rather than just go along for the ride sometimes). And I think that's the case with your stories that have caused this question.
When you write such slice of life stories, and someone says, "This is only a beginning," you should turn to them and say "I hope so. Now you finish it in your own head." And then congratulate your self for creating such characters that others want to keep them going.
So the story is over when the writer says it's over. It's not about satisfying (that's another activity), and of course the character continued after the end of the tale, but that doesn't meant every story needs to go on like a biography.
Joy;
Jan
Epilogue
I've finished some stories with an epilogue, it a more elaborate way of saying, "And they lived happily ever after!"
I learned it from the old Quinn Martin productions on television.
Mr. Ram
So, it's over.
The story is done when you say it is.
My story, "Changed by Aliens" is over in two more chapters. "Desert Princess" is over in one.
I have another project sitting in the crock pot that I am anxious to get to. I plan on making it large; there is a lot to tell and I am really going to put the effort into characarization.
Don't let anyone push you into a project you do not wish to do.
Gwen Brown
Or they run and run....
.... I know, "I told you so."
My problem is that I just follow what the characters are doing in my head, does that say more about them or me? Oops! 8(
Stop when it feels right to you.
hugs,
Angharad.
Angharad
back by popular demand?
Hey Heather Rose...
I noticed some of what you were talking about over at FM, where you had recently posted GENDER EXPRESS. While "Congradulations, it's a girl" seemed like just a perfect ending---a punchy little line like that---a whole bunch of people seemed to just assume it was the opening chapter of a much longer piece. One even accused you of cruelty for ending it like that! But then someone who identified herself only as "a writer", and must be some kind of totally amazing genius (& writes suspiciously like me), said:
"The ending was FINE. Ambiguous endings that promise plenty more adventures (Casablanca: What happened to Rick? Did he and Louie have a beautiful friendship? PLEASE WRITE A SEQUAL!!!!) are a good literary device, engaging the reader's mind; and that's not cruel, that's our job in this game, IMHO (or is an artist nothing more than a purveyor of escapist "product", who should shut up and give the consumer what they expect? GAAAAHHHH!!)... But I would maybe like to see more of this world, other situations involving the same technology....... There's so much potential here!"
The thing with your stories in particular is, I think, that they generate extremely positive emotions and hopeful perspectives in the the reader (or is it only me?), and it might not be an exaggeration to say there is even something healing about much of your work (I'm not nominating you for Messiah or anything, but you do have a talent for putting this stuff into words)....... that they get like addicted or something, to those feelings, which they have a hard time generating on their own. Rather than try and find this stuff within themselves, they want another Heather Rose fix, even where it would not necessarily benefit the story itself...
So like others here have said, you have to really focus on your own creative senses, what the material itself suggests, and maybe also have a couple of fellow writers (whose work, sensibilities, honest appraisal you trust in) to run things like this by, rather than agonize over the random clamoring of anonymous reviewers,
who maybe don't get that a good ending can be something more subtle than blowing up the Death Star.
~~~hugs, Laika
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
Wanting more
Write a fine story with engaging characters and your readers will be naturally reluctant to leave the little world that you've created, but a story must end somewhere. Find a good place where a "phase" ends, a circle completes, an enormous task concludes, and then make sure the important loose ends are wrapped up and relax. If you do that, then you've done your job; there's no need, nor should you, exhaust the subject. Someone said to "Leave them wanting more ..." and that's probably a good idea.
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
Advice from an Auntie
Abraham Lincoln was once asked how long his legs were. He rsponded, "Long enough to reach the ground." It is the same with stories: they need to be long enough to be finished.
To an author a story is "never" finished. There is always something you could add, subtract, or revise. But eventually the story is like the kindergardner on his or her first day in school. You must let go, even though neither of you want to. It is for the best. You need to let it spread its wings and fly on its own.
As for making a sequal the ball is in your court. You can either let it lie there or hit the ball over the net. It is entirely up to you and your characters. Discuss it with them.
My favourite
With all series of fanfiction where we see so many additions, I think that "Joe Bates' Story" is one of the best that ended just in the middle. It has to be some reason why the athor felt that enogh was said and nothing more really needed to be added. I have read some of the added finals, but hace not found any that really aded something more essential to the original story. Real life seldom finish as the Buena Vista movies with a all-are-happy.It is more of a struggle to keep lose ends in some kind of order
Ginnie
GinnieG