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To all readers,
I have been wondering how to end a story that has been going like a runaway train? Should I let it slow down or end it in a flash? That has been my problem! I started to write When tales come true to try to break the writers block on my main two stories. That didn't work but the story just grabbed me and took off. Now 18 chapters later I am faced with a choice. End it fast and get my life back or end it slow and be at it for several more chapters. I was up all night and finally have an answer. So read
When tales come true chapter 18
to find out what I did.
Comments
Endings
According to my writing classes, typically fiction stories are ended by building to a climax followed by a relatively short denoumois where any loose ends are wrapped up. Hope this is some help.
Waterdog
This is not the best place to
This is not the best place to ask that since most would say NEVER end it after all I saw Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 2687 posted right before your story on the list I say you can end yours at part 3.0*10^1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.
Might Take a While
The chances are, you wouldn't reach part 3*10^(10^57) before the Andromeda Galaxy collided with the Milky Way (about three billion years into the future) or the sun became a red giant star (about five billion years). Probably not even before the current white dwarf stars turn into black dwarfs (perhaps a hundred trillion years).
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
WWJKD?
The electronic media has changed a lot of things. One of these is length of stories.
The cost of paper and ink, plus the scarcity of shelf space in book stores forced writers to certain limits. Under old rules a new writer would be asked to keep her novel under 70,000 words while the average novel was about 80,000 words. Young adults novels came in at about 45,000 words.
No ink or paper makes for much longer stories. Plus JK Rowling sort of blew the cap off most conventional thinking for young adults.
I believe you should spend 8 to 12% of your story introducing your characters and world. Once you've moved from the protagonists "comfortable old world through conflict you should move through several story arcs. Chapter length should shorten as your novel progresses. The denouement should take about half as long as the set up, so about 4 to 6% of total length.
I believe readers' minds are set to the above internal clock. So . . . if your set-up took 5,000 words, your total story should be 40K to 60K words.
Just one person's opinion.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)