I think the last few stories I wrote so far are just chapters, not stories. Haven't got the knack of a real ending yet. Ending a story is a good ambition to work toward..
What ever happened to leaving the audience wanting more? I think that certainly has a place in short stories. For novels, I totally agree with your post.
It's like when you're watching a movie and you have to decide for yourself how it probably ended. That's sometimes an interesting way to finish, but quite often, irritating!
Whoops double-posted by accident.
oh! this reminds me of a story. A few years ago, i spent a summer in Peru with a celebrity (i won't mention his name) on a Llama ranch in the mountains. One weekend, a trio of drug smugglers got lost and drove up through the gates, like just minutes ahead of some sort of hit squad. My celebrity friend gave me the keys to the basement (it had been locked and off limits to me before) and told me to grab some weapons. I mean, seriously, turns out he had a small armory down there, as well as a fully stocked dungeon AND a submarine yard! wow! so yeah, we armed our selves and...
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
On a more serious note... sometimes, it works. movie-wise, the first thing that comes to mind is Inception. ok, so, the reason it works is that it DOES tie up the story line, it gives you a choice between endings, admittedly, but there is an ending, and it gives you something to work over for hours days weeks - a debate of sorts about what really happened - i left that movie both satisfied AND with so many questions. i think it can be done well like that - a vague ending, if you will - thing is, with novels, you invest days or weeks in reading them and you want a pay off. i have read short stories that were opened ended, and enjoyed them - sort of a moment in time, a story that went on, leaving you to finish it if you will... but, i think they work because they are merely a moment in time, and usually, i've only put an hour or less into reading them. it gave me time to be invested, but not so much that i NEEDED that solid ending. it's ok, in my mind, to have things that aren't tied up, minor plot lines, etc, but dammit, the major characters and story thread had BETTER be tied up (unless, of course, it's the first of a trilogy where it's understood that it's only the first third of the story).
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Bartleby is one of my favorite stories, precisely because of the ending.
"There's only three tempos: slow, medium and fast. When you get between in the cracks, ain't nuthin' happenin'." Ben Webster
Sounds as if your suggesting the story should have a moral instead of being just a dirty turn-on tale.
i'm not a writer, and i obviously don't know the process - so i'm really surprised. i would have thought for sure that you'd start with the ending/point and work your way back from/toward there.
i don't think it ever occurred to me you'd conceptualize a story from the beginning on.
Wow, what a great thread this is. Other than underscoring everything MorganHawke said, my two cents here from here and there:
CumGirl: The Bartelby point is an excellent one, and it's one that used to bug me a lot. I reread it last summer for the first time since high school, and it worked better for me this time round. The difference for for me was that before I thought of it as a story about Bartelby and his odd "I would prefer not to" quirk. Now when I read it I view it as a story about the actual narrator, whose fascination with Bartelby subtly paints a picture of a man on the verge of becoming aware of the pointlessness of his life's drudgery, but who tragically never quite gets there. I don't mean to suggest that this is what Melville had meant, but I found it worked as a more complete tale when I viewed it as such. And I loved that I had to take the time and bandwidth to puzzle out the right interpretation for me. For whatever that's worth.
bustyreadhead: I think a lot of writers do in fact start from the ending. But a lot of times on your path back to your original point, you find you've ended up somewhere entirely different.
Once again, this is just a great thread.
I agree with what Morgan said about books not having an ending. I wasn't best pleased with the way Hunger Games ended, I signed up for a book, not the series! So end the first book and then let me decide if I want to read the second one, don't try to coerce me into buying the second one.
I haven't had this issue on Lush so it must be different for short stories.
Had a dream I was king, I woke up still king!!
I don't know that the story has to have a ending. But I do prefer reading stories where I feel "something has happened" - a change has occurred from the status at the beginning. I also like stories that leave me wanting more as opposed to "Whew, I'm glad that's over".
I believe that, in Bartleby, Melville is far ahead of his time; it is an existential story, and reminds one of the writings of Sartre, de Beauvoir, and others of that phlosophic bent.
But, because it is existential, I think it DOES have a ending. In the story, Melville establishes his premise that life is pointless. Bartleby's death confirms that premise.
"There's only three tempos: slow, medium and fast. When you get between in the cracks, ain't nuthin' happenin'." Ben Webster
I appreciate the advice regarding making a point. "What am I trying to say? When the point has been proven the story is over." Seems simple. I have enjoyed this thread and besides the POINT, the other thing I take with me is that writing is organic. I'm hoping that my stories will naturally flow and evolve. That is the way the events happened in real life; naturally, flowing and very erotic.
I find the same thing. Most of my stories were chapters to be continued. So I started writing more short stories with the ending being an important part of the story. In fact, my last story, The Diary, the ending made the whole story connect.
The End of a story should leave the reader satisfied, not hanging with unanswered questions or a feeling of "What was the point of reading all those pages?" Even in erotica, where it SEEMS like the point is the sex, the reader will ultimately come away unsatisfied unless the sex had a point in the overall story. For instance, in a story about a woman who brings her husband along on a business trip... would the story be ultimately satisfying if it was "about the sex" she has with various people but never addresses the matter of her husband being there as well and how THAT plays out?
And don't forget "The Twist Ending". If you can put an unexpected surprise at the end of your story, that's the icing on the cake! A helpful way to think up a surprise ending is to ask yourself, about the ending you had in mind to write, "But what if, instead of it simply being that, it turns out to be...." Twist endings are usually the most popular with readers. I know they are with me.
). I say supposedly self-contained because sometimes I get comments like "That was great! I can't wait to read what happens next." It's a nice compliment and an opportunity for me to write a follow-up piece, but mostly I haven't considered a next episode and oftentimes I don't want to write a follow-up, precisely because my story ended where I wanted it to end.