Endings

Endings are fun and difficult and touchy and all that. Everyone has different advice. Go with your gut. Happy endings aren't realistic. Tragic endings are more realistic, but people generally want happiness in this whole messed up world. Blah blah blah. And I guess it's a mixture of all that. 

Let's start with the obvious: Stories have to have endings. In the words of Ted Naifeh, "I get tired of stories that keep going and going and never get anywhere. It's like a promise that's never fulfilled. Stories need endings. Otherwise, they aren't really stories. Just pages." 

Some people think that endings aren't very important. It's the middle that counts right? But your ending is your last impression on the reader. "Ending's carry a tremendous weight with readers; if they don't like the ending, chances are they'll say they didn't like the work." Nancy Kress

Highlight your character's change.

Ever write an ending after you write the beginning and then get through the book and realize that so much is different from when you first started the book? And you have to completely rewrite the ending because the characters have changed or that thing you planned on happening never really worked out? It's because throughout the writing of your book, you've made promises to your readers. You've dropped hints here and there and you've developed your characters (hopefully:P). You want an ending that will really reflect that change in your character. 

Try and pinpoint your character's flaw. What's the thing they struggle with most? What's the story goal? Try to make your ending contrast the way they used to be and how they've changed over the course of this story. I'm realizing that I'm not quite sure I'm doing that....hmm... I'll have to look into that. I'm going to use Big Hero 6 as an example. Fairly close to the beginning, Hiro wants revenge on his brother's death and that drives his motivation throughout the whole story, even ***SPOILER*** at one point removing Baymax's health chip to destroy the person who killed his brother. He ends up realizing, through a video that Baymax recorded of Tadashii that revenge wasn't the option. In the final battle he defeats the man, but doesn't kill him. He tries to teach the villain the same thing he learned, that revenge isn't the option. "Is this what your daughter would have wanted?" he asks. "This won't change anything. Trust me. I know." ***END SPOILER*** See how that highlights his change? 

Don't make it too perfect

"In real life, endings aren't always neat, whether they're happy endings, or whether they're sad endings." --Stephen King

"You don't reach points in life at which everything is sorted out for us. I believe in endings that should suggest our stories always continue." --Lauren Oliver 

"The world does not have tidy endings. The world does not have neat connections. It's not filled with epiphanies that work perfectly at the moment that you need them." --Dennis Lehane

"I don't necessarily like endings that contrive an artificial moment of completion." --Daniel Clowes 

People like to relate to the characters, and if everything finishes happy-go-lucky, the reader will feel skeptical. Plus, there's still life after the story. This isn't necessarily the end, even if it's the end of this story.

What do you want your readers to be left with? 

Think what the main goal of your story is. What feeling did you want to get across? Do you want your reader sniffing away tears at the end? Do you want them sighing in relief? Do you want them swooning over the romantic couple? Do you want them inspired? Experiment with different endings and see which ones get your feeling across best.

Last lines

Last lines play a big part in the ending. And this section, is, for the most part, intuitive. What sounds right? Play around with it. Here are some good last lines (or a few). All these books left me feeling exactly what the author wanted me feeling. :

Sad ones first:

"He fell to his knees. Hunching over, he covered his head and wept." ~Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers. 

(This one is also at the end of the first book in the series.)

"Life isn't always filled with sunshine and laughter. I've had my share of heartaches, just like everyone else. And I know that God's plan is to give his peace for those who struggle, even if it takes some time for us to see his plans. And I think that would be a pretty great thing to paint on a sign. In Spanish or not." ~ Chasing Jupiter by Rachel Coker 

It may not seem like it, but trust me. This one's sad. The Spanish part? Read the book and you'll figure it out.

"By this time the soldier was reduced to a mere lump, and when the maid took away the ashes next morning she found him, in the shape of a small tin heart. All that was left of the dancer was her spangle, and that was burned as black as coal." ~The Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson

Not so sad ones:

"He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning." ~To Kill a Mockingbird by: Harper Lee

"He rubbed down the goosebumps on his arms and made another promise to himself. Whatever happened, next time he'd do the right thing." ~Code of Silence by Tim LaHaye

Inspirational ones:

"I truly learn
to fly-kick
not to kick anyone
so much as
to fly.
January 31
Tet" ~ Inside out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai  

Happy ending ones:

"Sam picked up his suitcases and let out an excited laugh. I could see his twinkling eyes in the moonlight. 'I suppose you have an awful lot to write in your little notebook.'
I smiled. 'Yes, I suppose I do.'" ~Interrupted by Rachel Coker

Satisfied endings:

"With a burst of brilliant wings and three trails of sparkling fire, the warriors shot into the sky, heading southward, becoming smaller and smaller until finally they were gone, leaving the now peaceful town of Ashton in very capable hands." ~This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti  

Suspenseful endings:

"'Tom?'  

'What?' 

'WICKED is good.' 

 And then she was gone." ~Scorch Trials by James Dashner 

Also a series.

In conclusion, here's a great bit of advice for writing: 

Footnote: I'm pushing my blogging habits out to every other week in order to keep up with my other blog and school and stuff. Sorry for all you who are addicted here. ;)  

Last race to the end!

I've got my music. I've got my milk and cookies. I've got my candle and I've got my prayers. I'm preparing for my mad dash to the finish line. My sisters have already crossed it and I'm plodding along behind, delayed by such roadblocks as schoolwork, finals, procrastination, writer's block and days when I didn't do any writing.

I'm tired, I'll say that. This story has been exhilarating and exhausting. Oh, it'll need major rewriting. I've developed this habit over the course of the last month of closing my eyes and letting my fingers fly without letting me know what they're typing. So, quite honestly, much of what's happened this month is largely unknown to me. I know for a fact though, that it's terrible. Terrible writing. Generic verbs. Adjectives galore. Whiny characters. Oh, heaven help us! In the words of Anne Lamott:

"The whole thing would be so long and incoherent and hideous that for the rest of the day I'd obsess about getting creamed by a car before I could write a decent second draft. I'd worry that people would read what I'd written and believe the accident had really been a suicide, that I had panicked because my talent was waning and my mind was shot."

I'll fix it though. All bestselling novels began like this. Climax is drawing near. Soon. Soon.

Don't be silly. I have a plot. I just need to
figure out how to execute it in an
 inspiring way. A way that does justice to
 the real story. That's my problem...

I want to put a couple quotes about writing on here, to inspire those of you who are like me and are putting everything in them toward that finish line.

"What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy." --Salman Rushdie

"The goal, I suppose, any fiction writer has, no matter what your subject, is to hit the human heart and the tear ducts and the nape of the neck and to make a person feel something about what the characters are going through  and to experience the moral paradoxes and struggles of being human." --Tim O'Brien

"For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed." --Ernest Hemingway 

"I am not a consecutive writer." --Dr. Seuss

"As a writer, one of the things I've always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that's what we're supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react." --Stephen King 

"The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all, there is nobody to scold him." --Roald Dahl

"A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer." --Karl Kraus

"A writer uses a pen instead of a scalpel or blow torch. --Michael Ondaatje

"A writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location." --Flannery O'Connor

"A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom." --Roald Dahl

"Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him." --Mel Brooks

"All the writing elements are the same. You need to tell a good story... You've got good characters... People think there's some dramatic difference between writing 'Little Bear' and the 'Hunger Games,' and as a writer, for me, there isn't." --Suzanne Collins

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities." --Dr. Seuss

"To be a dramatic writer takes hard work, talent, and discipline. And that's why I just make up crap." --Colin Mochrie

"You can mope and cry all you want, but it won't help you write a better novel." --Gilbert Blythe 

 

 Come on! Let's do this thing! We can do it.