For the character transformation part, yet ending up in the same place as the start, I think about Frodo from LoTR and how he came home and no longer fit in his community. He was too scarred. Too changed. Too experienced to remain in Hobbiton.
Great point about the tone of the last line. A couple of useful tips I've heard are; think about how your opening and ending image compare/contrast, and also if you aren't happy with your ending (or any scene) try listing 20 different possible outcomes, including all the obvious things. By the time you get all the way to the 20th you probably have a couple of strong alternatives, that are perhaps more likely/believable than the scene you were doubting in the first place.
I know exactly how my book will end before I start. I sometimes have an epilogue to tie up any loose ends. As mine are usually historical, I put in a little about how things panned out after the end of the book.
I love videos like this. They are so helpful for introspection and analyzing one's writing. This was so helpful and a great gut check. I am happy to say I answered YES to all questions. :)
I look forward to writing. I plan to resolve the plot and subplot with foreshadowing to what will happen in the next book. There will be a twist/cliffhanger with the romance plot that could be good or bad. I look forward to hearing what my beta readers think.
I’m interested in discussing approaches to sequels… How much do you need to reintroduce characters and key locations? I assume it’s nice that the book can stand on its own, but you don’t want to re-iterate the detail that was in the first book? Thoughts?
Thanks to my two young beta reader's I saw my novels ending in a new light. I put it aside and after much thought I changed it. I am anxious to hear now what they think. I am still shocked over how I love not only my new ending, but the story itself more then I could ever have imagined. Made me realize how very important a well thought out ending is. The ending I had in mind changed as the story evovoled taking on a life of its own.
amazing video My book ends up with some sort of cliffhanger, but it's supposed to be actually what the characters are expecting. Also Alice (my MC) has changed so much at the end, and the ending shows us that too :)
Another excellent video packed with good advice. I'm pleased to say I didn't have a single "No" and, as I value your wonderful and inspirational advice very highly, this gives me even more encouragement and a boost to get my work finished. Thanks Alyssa.
You just helped me in the strangest way. The final action sequence was planned and goes according to plan but it was too quick. That's all I was telling myself. "Its too fast, slow it down" but when I started to describe it in this forum I had to make it a little more concrete and then I realized; I need the plan to start to unravel or fall apart, I need more tension/drama. I know yhis seems obvious (now) but I was just stuck in that loop of "it needs to be longer." So a new problem solving technique for me. Write down the problem as if explaining it to someone else.
Very important issue to tackle! And this video is a very smart way of addressing the Ending. James Scott Bell wrote a whole book on Endings. ("Unforgettable Endings")
Hi, thank you for the video! The ending and the beginning is the everything I use. I start from somewhere and chase an ending, that is already in my mind. The fun fact is that the ending can be changed by the journey. My first work is a trilogy, I just signed a contract with a editor* from Romania. The main conflict is done, I mean the things that was chased in the book and I didnt do that on purpose, it just land naturally. The thing about the ties, I didnt nod all of them, but I hope that is not a problem, cause I intend to resolve them in the second or in the third book. And I think is not cliches* because the character has changed and the ending send him on another road.( or start to send him!)
Concerning the question of whether the conflict has been properly resolved at the end, I should point out it's actually possible to resolve a story's conflict with another conflict. For instance, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's episode "In The Pale Moonlight" ended with Captain Sisko bitterly triumphant and wracked with guilt over having had to violate his most deeply held moral principles to achieve an all-important victory for the Federation. That episode remains highly controversial in the fandom to this day, and yet many also agree it's one of the best-written in the entire franchise, so that was arguably a pretty amazing way to end the story. Also worth mentioning: even a thoroughly happy ending for the characters can be rife with conflict for the reader. One of the classic science fiction writer Ben Bova's short stories "Crisis of the Month" ended with the protagonist succeeding at resolving the story's central conflict and being promoted and showered with accolades for doing so. However, since the organization for which he's working is actually a thoroughly despicable global cabal manipulating the news media worldwide for fun and profit, the astute reader can't help wondering at the end "Hey, wait a minute: have I been rooting for the bad guy?" One of the novel-length stories I wrote likewise gave its protagonists a happy ending in which they got pretty much everything they wanted and ended with the villain getting killed in a very satisfying comeuppance. Yet the whole story clashed so much with the target audience's personal and social mores that I knew neither traditional publishers nor any of the socially respectable self-publishing platforms would ever allow me to publish with them. So I ended up posting it on ArchiveOfOurOwn.org instead.
Creative novel writing is like having to wear too many hats, especially after 8 years and Godness knows how many pages and drafts of the same book. My old ending couldn't be made to fit under the circus tent, which is kind of like a big hat, that the novel has evolved into. So thank Goodness again for haphazardly bumping into a good sorting hat, of sorts.
When it comes to tieing up all loose ends, why ALL of then? For less significant events what is wrong with leaving certain things to the reader's interpretation?
Mam could please🙏 make a video how to find a literary agents for poetry genre. Most literary agents are for either fiction or non fiction but not for poetry
I'll add in a couple of others for your consideration: Does the protagonist actually contribute to the resolution (does it have agency at the end)? Related, and maybe more of a concern for fantasy: does the ending come in like a bolt out of the blue, or was there something the reader will look at and say - yeah, I could have figured that out?
How do you know whether your ending is dragging on / stretched too long? Let's say I'm writing a romance story and the main characters get together in the final chapter. If I write the chapter long, people might think it's dragging on, but if I write it short, people might think I didn't give them enough emotional payoff of the couple finally getting together.
I'm wondering what your advice is on endings for realistic/general fiction short stories where character arc may be limited due to the constraints of the story. Do you advise ambiguous or fully resolved endings? Should the reader supply the missing information or should the author, given the direction of the story?
Titanic''s ending sucked. Rose absentmindedly drops the necklace into the drink--why not give it to her daughter in law? The potentially beautiful death symbol of Lenny diCaprio, arms outspread on the staircase logically suggests Rose's suicide jump overboard to meet her lover, a much more romantic option. (especially after such a long and fulfilling life) But the studio lawyers probably nixed it due to possible lawsuits. And the most heinous desecration of all: No cigar smoker throws a corona over the side unsmoked. What planet were you born on?
Love the channel! It’s so helpful! I have a question I haven’t seen asked yet...do agents still accept physical query submissions? So far most of them I’ve researched haven’t...and I heard one well known author/agent say to never query by email because it’s too easy to delete and doesn’t stand out. He also recommended to have a physical folder with artwork to help a person stand out, and when I was researching J.K. Rowling’s story, the girl that was working for Christopher Little(her first agent) said the black folder with the custom artwork on it was the only reason she gave it to Christopher to review...if Harry Potter needed to do this to stand out, how can another person hope to get attention in a email slush pile? I’m curious as to your opinions on this, what should a writer do? It seems listening to the guidelines would make it easier for agent to reject. The author/agent friend of mine said that if the odds are stacked for rejection anyways, just break the rule and send a physical copy. He said he used to do this and it was never a deal breaker for most agents. I’m curious as to your thoughts.
The best way forward to save all your heartache with these agents. Publish your work yourself. Agents turn down 99% of all queries, reason being 99% of all books in todays world don’t make back their publishing costs. Agents don’t have any idea of what would become a potential bestseller. I don’t know of any publishers that would accept a physical copy. I found most of these agents to be very rude people. If they send you anything back it will say’didnt quite love it enough’. Or not ‘commercial’. Or writing is ‘subjective’ this is standard talk from these people. Good luck.
I loved the titanic watching all of them screaming as they try to cling on to life, I love the part where the guy cranks the propeller 😆 I'd make a raft of dead bodies and ties
