Thursday, April 8, 2010

And we came to the end...

Last week I received an email from a reader. She wrote, "I really enjoy writing stories and books but I'm never sure how to finish them." She asked me for advice. But you know what? I didn't really know what to tell her.

I always begin a book knowing how it starts and how it ends. It's the middles that I strugle with. Unfortunately, the middle is the majority of the book!!

I'm not a fan of hugely happy endings. The kind where everyone ends up happy and then they walk into the sunset. Because, well, that's just not real life. Even when one of my stories has a "satisfying" ending, I know there's still trouble down the road. That's just the way it is.
I tried to think of books with endings that disappointed me, but I couldn't think of any off hand. What about you? Any endings that left you wanting more? Do you like your stories wrapped up in a bow?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do enjoy happy endings and I think we all do to an extent. That being said I don't like my stories wrapped perfectly in a bow. If there's some dysfunction still at the end I think that's more than okay because as you mentioned, that's just real life. I'd rather a story end unhappily and authentically that to have something forced and unrealistic. I'm also okay with sadder endings as well. As long as it's true to the story I think it's fine. :)

Kierah Jane Reilly said...

I don't mind if there's a not-so-happy ending, but there has to be at least some hope that things will look up sometime in the near future. A sense of optimism and that the characters haven't figured everything out yet, but they're confident they will soon. I read a book for a crit partner that ended badly for the MC. Throughout the book, everything was getting worse and worse, and at the end, a you-thought-that-was-bad-well-it's-about-to-get-worse bomb was dropped. I hated that!