"The story must have an ending?"

Quote by Magical_felix

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Was that celebrity the most interesting man in the world?

I hope my reply doesn’t get lost in the antiquity of older messages discussing this topic, but I have a useful perspective to share. When I wrote papers at university, I learned that the best way to start one was to first write the conclusion. That way, I was always focused on where I wanted my writing to go; it was much quicker, and easier to write an excellent essay, while also making sure I was well read on my references.

Instinctively, I have used the same approach in writing erotica. I first think about where I want the story to end up, and then I can write a story taking the reader precisely where I want them to go. Works like a charm.

In my opinion, the thing that draws me through a story isn't so much figuring out how it will end (it's erotic fiction - it's going to end in sex 99 times out of 100), but how the characters get there. In other words, I tend to focus more on establishing the circumstances and relationship between characters, building the tension to a point where the conclusion is inevitable. The sex at the end of the story is the payoff, but the payoff doesn't mean too much unless the characters have to work for it, to overcome some challenge or resistance that's keeping them apart. When the work has been done and the characters receive their reward, the story ends. I don't do sequels usually - they're too predictable and have too little tension left in them to be interesting. A story that spends too much time in 'happily ever after' gets tiresome and quickly overstays its welcome.

“It’s the not the destination, it’s the journey” is a quote famously attributed to American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. He may have been writing erotica at the time.

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know

In my opinion, the thing that draws me through a story isn't so much figuring out how it will end (it's erotic fiction - it's going to end in sex 99 times out of 100), but how the characters get there. In other words, I tend to focus more on establishing the circumstances and relationship between characters, building the tension to a point where the conclusion is inevitable. The sex at the end of the story is the payoff, but the payoff doesn't mean too much unless the characters have to work for it, to overcome some challenge or resistance that's keeping them apart. When the work has been done and the characters receive their reward, the story ends. I don't do sequels usually - they're too predictable and have too little tension left in them to be interesting. A story that spends too much time in 'happily ever after' gets tiresome and quickly overstays its welcome.

I'm a near novice and not ashamed to say that. With that caveat established, I would dare to suggest that some of the accepted norms of writing a story may not be as set in stone in this environment as elsewhere. ( The 99/100 statistic above being a big clue.)

Yes, you can have an unexpected twist in a story, but even that would need people reading it investing in the characters enough to care.

People can, of course, treat putting a story together like those here in exactly the same way as they would any other, but holding certain conventions dear when they're, at best, over the top, might do more harm than good.

Quote by itsmagic1954

I hope my reply doesn’t get lost in the antiquity of older messages discussing this topic, but I have a useful perspective to share. When I wrote papers at university, I learned that the best way to start one was to first write the conclusion. That way, I was always focused on where I wanted my writing to go; it was much quicker, and easier to write an excellent essay, while also making sure I was well read on my references.

Instinctively, I have used the same approach in writing erotica. I first think about where I want the story to end up, and then I can write a story taking the reader precisely where I want them to go. Works like a charm.

I do this, too. If I don’t write the ending first I at least have an idea of it. I usually write the beginning and ending first and then fill in the rest.

And I don’t always have everything tied up in a pretty bow at the end. Sometimes, I think about what I think the reader expects and then do the opposite. It’s okay if a story ends with the readers mad at a character (or me, the author), as long as they felt something after reading. 😊

If reality doesn't always reach a point where everything is resolved and neatly packaged, why should a piece of fiction?

(>>> Grabs tin hat, runs away and hides,)

Quote by JustForYou

If reality doesn't always reach a point where everything is resolved and neatly packaged, why should a piece of fiction?

(>>> Grabs tin hat, runs away and hides,)

Because fiction isn't reality. Non-fiction (e.g. "true stories") isn't reality either. For one, the time frame is completely different. Reality extends infinitely in both directions (past and future). A narrative is finite, bound between a beginning and ending. There's no getting around it - a story needs to have an ending and a beginning. These could be arbitrary points in a chronology, but then what would be the point of telling or reading that story? Whatever would be contained between them would be equally arbitrary:

"I was watching the building across the street. A man came out. Then a woman with a dog came out. The woman with the dog returned after awhile. It started to snow. The end."

I hope you feel your time was wasted reading that, because it was. Any story worth telling or reading should be about something. Whatever that thing is becomes the central organizing subject that shapes the structure of that story, and sets the perimeters within which it is contained (in other words, the subject defines the beginning and ending). Efficient story telling should respect the reader's time and attention by not making them wait too long for you to get to the point and not hanging around too long after you've made it. Start as close to the end as you can while telling your whole story. A story with no ending is only a fraction of a story, and readers will feel ripped off. It's like getting a fish tank with one side missing.

Secondly, while reality happens in 'real time,' narrative time is very deliberately cut up and manipulated by the author to present the details in an engaging way. I just spent seven hours sleeping, for example. Reality contained every second of my slumber, but a narrative recounting of the events of the night would likely edit most of that out because nothing happened during that time, and it isn't interesting. Instead, I'd 'fast-forward' or skip from going to bed to waking up. Stories should leave out the boring, irrelevant bits or risk becoming unreadably tedious and frustrating to readers.

If you leave out the irrelevant stuff, then it stands to reason that everything in the story should be relevant to that story. If you introduce anything to a story, you should make use of it, or it just amounts to a bunch of clutter that gets in the way of the story itself. Micro-fiction authors take this to an extremely minimalist extent, which is why micros are actually very hard and require a ton of talent to pull off well. This is also why unresolved 'loose ends' become a sign of shoddy craftsmanship. If you aren't going to finish it, then it didn't need to be included to begin with. Leave it out. If you are going to introduce a plot or subplot to your story, it's your responsibility to see it through.

Keep in mind that writing fiction is more than putting a bunch of words down on paper. It’s relationship building between an author and reader. As such, there are relational ethics involved, and you shouldn't abuse your readers or their faith in you as a storyteller. Refusing to conclude your stories in a meaningful way or tie up the loose threads by the end shows that the author is lazy, unskilled, or simply doesn’t care about their readers’ experience. You might as well spit in their faces.

Passionately put forward points and rightly so. I completely agree that relevance is more important than time scales being represented in proportion too. I might suggest that whether loose ends have been tied up is subjective, but to do so might sound like I'm disagreeing with someone who's forgotten more than I will ever know about writing, which I'm not and would never do,

I raised the point I did to illustrate that putting things together is a different process if you are new to doing so than it is to those with experience. Even the best had to start somewhere.

The challenges I face in trying to reach acceptable standards do make things difficult for others to understand, but it is no more their fault than it is mine that I don't have the experience of others,

I am extremely proud of what I achieve with a significant brain injury and will defend my right to be the best that I can be in this environment as passionately as the things others feel strongly about. If I don't have the experience others do of producing quality, there is nothing I can do but learn. It's rather like people being expected to understand what it's like to have impaired cognitive ability when they've never experienced it.

It depends what the writer wants, after all the writer controls the reality of the story. In any writing I try to get to a conclusion of sorts but I never try to to tie up the loose ends in a pretty bow. After all, life's not like that. Plus, as writers, we want to leave the door open to a further chapter or adventure for the protagonists. I like to think that any fiction leaves the reader thinking 'I wonder want happened next?'