Hello and welcome to TaleSlinger, the part of Inklings where I use 3 decades of writing experience to offer some of the bits of knowledge I’ve picked up along the way.
First, I‘m sorry for being a day late…I might move these to Thursdays anyway but honestly this time was just the result of all this chaos I talked about on Sunday.
If you want to know how we’re doing, the best places are @leekhulme on twitter, and @leekhulme@toot.community on Mastodon. There you’ll find my more day to day ramblings, including about how we’re surviving this whole thing. Hugs, support and cute pet pictures are all welcome!
Anyway, the last time, we talked about Beginnings. So, it seems fitting to talk, this time, about endings.
Because if beginnings are hard, endings might actually be harder.
Whether you plan it, wing it, or something inbetween, knowing when and how to stop is a tricky concept. Sometimes the final scenes of a book just keep happening, tumbling over each other, adding more and more post-ending content. Sometimes the story will end abruptly, leaving the reader slightly stunned and checking they didn’t miss something. Sometimes the ending is at the right time, but feels so contrived it makes the reader cringe.
These are all problems, and they can make an otherwise good book feel lesser than it should—lesser than it deserves (we all know those writers—they can weave a brilliant story and we love them for it, but you’re never quite sure if the ending will live up to the rest).
If you’ve kept your reader right up to the end, then you owe them a good one. Don’t let “good book, terrible ending” be their takeaway.
The biggest trick with writing endings is actually pretty simple, but it’s all about how you see the story you’re writing.
Rather than a self-contained plot, which doesn’t touch anything else, consider this. You’ve created a world with moving, thinking, acting characters in it. The story you’re telling is what happens to those characters, and what they do about it.
At the beginning, you had to choose where in their lifetimes to pick up their tale, and the same is true of the ending. Once the plot is completed, your ending is the point at which you choose the moment in the life of your characters and their world to stop your telling of their story.
Imagine that the wider world of your story continues on without you. More things will happen, more stories might be in their future, or it might be a peaceful one, but it’s up to you to decide when to close the door on them. If you want to write a sequel—or just leave it open to that possibility— that’s great, you can plant a quiet plot thread or two which you can pick up on later. But that’s not the point of your ending, it comes after everything else, because all stories—even ones that will have a sequel—need the book-specific plot to wrap up.
When that main plot closes, look into the future of your world, and end things before the world and your characters move on, away from the happenings you’ve just related.
For example: once your heroes have successfully vanquished their foe/rescued the farmboy fair/walked off into the sunset for lesbian kisses/whatever - that’s the end of your plot. So the end of your story generally needs to happen soon after this. Tell the reader how each character reacts to the ending of their quest, and then let them continue on their way without you. Unless you have a very specific reason for checking in on them a few years in the future - you don’t need to.
Seriously. Beware the difference between wanting to write that bit that’s years down the line to show where they wound up, and needing to end your story with that bit years down the line. Unless there’s a very good and specific reason, you don’t need to go more than, at most, a few months to close off, and most of the time you won’t even need that.
Remember need vs want. Figure out which you’re having before you risk writing too much.
Ask yourself this, about everything you write post-plot: does it add value to the story? Is it necessary for my readers to see this, or am I writing because it’s in my head so I feel like I should?
There’s absolutely no reason to write anything post-plot that isn’t about wrapping up your characters, and potentially giving a hint/opening/subtle plot hook to the next book (if one is coming).
Train yourself to spot the moment when the right cutoff has arrived by asking those questions every time. Your ending is not the time for filler, or to satisfy your urge to keep going. Learn when you need to step back. Offer the reader a satisfying, explained, but tight ending, at the end of an enjoyable story, and they’ll come back for more.
That’s all for this week, please do subscribe and share, and I will see you again Sunday.