Short Fiction Endings
In the Editor's Note for the Summer 2005 edition of JMWW, Jen discusses the importance of nailing the beginning of a story. It is essential that a writer hook the reader with the first paragraph--preferably with the first sentence.
For me, though, the end is far more difficult to write than the beginning. And from reading JMWW submissions, I think many writers share this difficulty. Maybe fairy tales have hurt us--made us more likely to tie everything together with a bow so our characters can live happily/miserably/lonely/whatever ever after. Or maybe some writers are so afraid of tying things together too neatly that they don't tie anything together at all, so the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying (from a technical/stylistic standpoint).
It is okay for an ending to be provocative, but it needs a context as well. A story is about some sort of conflict, and thus in the end there should be some sort of resolution--the protagonist has to learn or decide something; there has to be some sort of choice made or action taken, or at least strongly suggested. And it isn't necessarily bad for the reader to predict where the story is going, as long as the ride to get there is enjoyable and engrossing. After all, we know at the beginning of Romeo & Juliet what will happen at the end. But we read anyway to find out why and how it happens.
One more thing. Some writers have submitted sections of unpublished novels to JMWW. And that's great. But those sections must be able to stand alone. There are writers out there who don't believe that there needs to be an arc to a story--because it's more realistic not to arc and not to resolve. And that might be true. However, there needs to be a reason for a story--there needs to be something cohesive that ties the story together and explains why the story starts and ends when it does.
And, you know, as with poetry, we like endings that won't let us go. Often those endings lead us to wonder what exactly happens next or what exactly that final image means. Readers want to wonder--but they need to have some direction.
posted by Anonymous @ 4:10 PM
2 Comments:
This ia a good topic. I also believe there are many authors who err on one end of the spectrum or the other—tying everything up in a neat little package or leaving everything incoherently unresolved. I think these problems comes from not trusting one's characters and their motivations. Is the action or inaction they take in response to the conflict presented believable? Many times I find myself thinking, "why is the character doing this?" when I'm reading a submission.
Of course, there's a fine line between show and tell re. characters. I want to be able to discern the motivations of the characters on my own w/o having them spelled out for me, yet their actions can't be a complete mystery to the reader; some explanation (in the form of "show," not "tell") is sometimes necessary.
One other topic I'd like to touch on re. endings and plots in general is that I don't mind if it's a concept that's been done before; after all, what's new under the sun? The only problem is that we do often receive stories that are based more on concept (an established one at that) than on characterization. If we know how the ending unfolds, that's fine. However, there should be fully fleshed out characters and situations to bring us there, to give a unique perspective on a popular theme.
I write, but none of my stuff is really ready for submission, and currently I find myself in a huge frozen writer's block, with all that said, I find I have the problem with endings where I'm just done with characters.
The things that were part of what attracted to me the characters to begin with stops and then whatever life they might have afterwards goes on, but I'm finished with them and feel no need to continue.
So often times I wonder if the ending is really an ending, or just an ending to the line of the story I've decided to tell. I know this kind of thing can be interesting, where you meet some people, and events happen, and then you leave the people behind with some things resolved and other things unresolved.
Is there ever a time when the unresolved isn't well accepted? When it is often rejected?
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