The Writing Process Part 5, The Ending

Alright, this is the last of the posts specifically devoted to the writing process. After this we will have a series of posts about writing in general, my favourite written works, my writing, and additional posts about the writing process. Thanks for reading, it's a pleasure to write for you.

Now we have the ending. The end of your story is where you bring it all together and you leave your reader amazed, inspired and very glad he picked up your book. It is where you tie all the loose ends you've left thus far in the story, and is almost always a conclusion and a stop for the series of events you've laid out.

The dragon is slain, so the prince and the princess decide to get hitched. The cowboy shoots out the villains at their secret hideout and the town is saved. The forces of evil have been triumphed over by the forces of good. All that jazz. I would give you some examples from well known books but I just realized that would give away the ending, and that's the best part! Instead, you should read the endings from:

Mission Earth

The Belgariad

Harry Potter

Alice In Wonderland

The Lord of the Rings

Fear

The Lord of the Flies

Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow

Etc.

Etc.

You get the idea. You should read some good books. If I didn't list your favorite book here, either I haven't read it or didn't like the ending. You'll also notice that I am indicating whole series more often than not, I do that sometimes, so if I haven't read your favorite series in full than I can't say I liked the ending can I? Also there's a slight chance I have read it but didn't like the ending, in which case you should send me angry comments! I am always in need of suggestions for good books to read.

But essentially the ending has to have sufficient impact to knock the reader out of his socks. Even if the first 479 pages of your book were a compelling and subtle compendium of creeping suspense, even these stories need an ending that just launches the reader three feet back of his head. Anti-climaxes suck, please do not write them.

Now, on the chance that your 479 pages before page 480 were all rubbish you will have a hard time pulling off a convincing ending. It would probably be more profitable to just go back and re-write the beginning and middle until they are not rubbish and then do your ending. The ending is the most important part of the story, but that doesn't mean you can drag your heels with a weak story up to that point. And your reader may never get around to reading your ending, mayn't he?

Inspirational, that's important. Why is your story inspirational? Because you chose a specific idea to get across to the reader at the onset of your writing, perhaps even several. Now's your chance, if you were subtle about it before the ending you should now leave the reader with no doubt in his/her mind you are completely right.

It usually involves some sort of massive plot twist. Or, more accurately, it usually involves our hero overcoming difficulties arising from a massive plot twist just a few pages before. Happy endings are not required, just realize you are responsible for any lynchings you might cause to happen, as you will be the one being lynched. To a small degree your readers become the character you are portraying, they develop an empathy for them and briefly (or lenghtly) they share the same ideas and motivations, and you're going to have this person fail in the end? Next time make it a happy ending.

Then again Shakespeare's most famous play was Romeo and Juliet, so end your stories however you like. As long as you're as good as Shakespeare. And hey, who says you aren't?

But the things you can do with your ending are unlimited, make it a climaz, get your idea across, and knock your reader out of his head. They'll come back for more, no question.

Ok, now that you're done reading my soliloquy on how to write, and now that it has truthfully ended, where do we go from here? For the answer, see you next time.

CME

Comments

[Wildercardenfran]

WHAT? You've read Mission Earth, but not Battlefield Earth?

If you're going to read any fiction by Hubbard, Battlefield Earth is a must. The movie was cr*p--don't bother with it, and if you've already seen it, disregard it. Read the book! It has the best ending of any book I've ever read.

Read it!