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The Ending: What's Important?
by Adam Reyher - 8/07/03
Copyright © 2003 Adam Reyher. All rights reserved.
The Ending: What's Important?
You've written 35 excellent chapters; you keep the suspense up high and the plot dripping with excitement; you become more excited as you realize that this story and writing is excellent! So, you throw together one last chapter, and sum it all up!
What's wrong with this picture?
The answer: You let your excitement get the better of you. This is something you should never do, especially at the end. By letting this happen, you end up with the ever common, and always every boring "Calvary comes to the rescue" ending. I've seen it many times--even in published books, and it ruins everything else the author has written.
People are dripping with excitement and can't wait to turn the last page, and they see, "But wait! Johnny forgot that he had a gun hidden in his boot, so he pulled it out, shot down the enemies, and lived happily ever after." The reader will pull their head back, shrug, and think
"What was that?"
I know you are excited, and want to get to the publisher as soon as possible, but hold on! You are no where near complete yet! Be twice as careful and conservative when brining your heart-pounding story to an end. You want it to be something the reader would never expect, or even something that the reader can see boiling up to the end where they say, "See! I knew I was right!" This brings much satisfaction to a reader, and they will have successfully enjoyed your story.
But once you find that perfect ending to your perfect book, you are not done yet. Read your entire book over and improve on it. When something doesn't seam to fit at the end of Chapter 3 and into the beginning of Chapter 4, find out what you can change. Whenever you read something that makes you, the author, uneasy, it probably signifies that what you previously wrote won't work properly. It is at this point that you must figure out another way of writing it.
Remember, editing is your best friend in this situation, and it's the thing that will turn your work from a 'good story' into a masterpiece.
Good luck you future Classic writers!
--End of Article--
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"We must not allow the clock and the calendar
to blind us to the fact that each moment of life
is a miracle and mystery."
- H.G. Wells
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