![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
The complexity of endings
May. 6th, 2012 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
analectHowdy all!
First off, let me apologise for not being around since, like, ever. I am a flake. I suck. However, the comm clearly does not need me to function, which is a very good thing, and I’d just like to say hello and thank you (as appropriate) to those of you joining, posting, and generally keeping things moving around here.
Anyway, I’d like to pose a question about endings. I don’t know about you, but I think they are one of the things I find most difficult to write.
For me, it’s the multiple issues of a) needing to tie up loose ends in terms of plot, character, and thematic or other floating things, b) finding a mechanism or moment in the story at which the ending actually sits naturally, and c) like a fastidious painter with a bad eye for colour, truly knowing when to stop, put down thebrush pen keyboard, and step away.
Of course, added to this, endings come in many different forms. There are neat ones, dangling ones, ambiguous ones, signposted ones… and ones that leave the reader wondering what on earth just happened.
I’d like to know what, in your view, makes a successful ending. Whether it’s happy, sad, conclusive or inconclusive, what do you think the key components are? And how do you all go about constructing and refining your endings?
I admit, there is an ulterior motive here, in that I want/need to rewrite the end of a book and I don’t know wtf I’m doing with it.
If anyone would like to workshop/read/comment/generally peruse the specific bits in question, I’m posting them on my journal, access list only, because of contractual things. So, add me to your circle to read, then feel free to point and laugh. *grin*
I would be eternally grateful for any suggestions on my own bit of messed-up ending, but I’m interested in other people’s thoughts on the subject generally, too.
Discuss. ;D
Link to my journal post: http://analect.dreamwidth.org/42292.html
First off, let me apologise for not being around since, like, ever. I am a flake. I suck. However, the comm clearly does not need me to function, which is a very good thing, and I’d just like to say hello and thank you (as appropriate) to those of you joining, posting, and generally keeping things moving around here.
Anyway, I’d like to pose a question about endings. I don’t know about you, but I think they are one of the things I find most difficult to write.
For me, it’s the multiple issues of a) needing to tie up loose ends in terms of plot, character, and thematic or other floating things, b) finding a mechanism or moment in the story at which the ending actually sits naturally, and c) like a fastidious painter with a bad eye for colour, truly knowing when to stop, put down the
Of course, added to this, endings come in many different forms. There are neat ones, dangling ones, ambiguous ones, signposted ones… and ones that leave the reader wondering what on earth just happened.
I’d like to know what, in your view, makes a successful ending. Whether it’s happy, sad, conclusive or inconclusive, what do you think the key components are? And how do you all go about constructing and refining your endings?
I admit, there is an ulterior motive here, in that I want/need to rewrite the end of a book and I don’t know wtf I’m doing with it.
If anyone would like to workshop/read/comment/generally peruse the specific bits in question, I’m posting them on my journal, access list only, because of contractual things. So, add me to your circle to read, then feel free to point and laugh. *grin*
I would be eternally grateful for any suggestions on my own bit of messed-up ending, but I’m interested in other people’s thoughts on the subject generally, too.
Discuss. ;D
Link to my journal post: http://analect.dreamwidth.org/42292.html
