Truncated Stories

wileyhernando

Virgin
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Dec 21, 2008
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Over The last few months, I have noticed that a number of stories seem to come to an abrupt and relatively senseless end. These include “classic” Lit stories that I. Read when Lit and I were young, as. Well as new stories too well—written to end this way. Does anyone have an explanation and a solution?g
 
Over The last few months, I have noticed that a number of stories seem to come to an abrupt and relatively senseless end. These include “classic” Lit stories that I. Read when Lit and I were young, as. Well as new stories too well—written to end this way. Does anyone have an explanation and a solution?g
The writers get bored, run out of ideas, give up, die. There is no solution - some writers publish as they go, and often have no idea how to finish a story, so just stop. This is the consequence - the great unfinished story on Lit.

You find some writers will announce a long story with a note that it's actually finished, but many don't do that.

Keep in mind, too, that many writers publish the first part as a self-contained story with no intention to continue, but then give in to readers asking for more. Under those circumstances, readers get what they ask for, I think.
 
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Keep in mind, too, that many writers publish the first part as a self-contained story with no intention to continue, but then give in to readers asking for more. Under those circumstances, readers get what they ask for, I think.

And sometimes the author has written himself/herself into a corner that seems impossible to continue the story. My worst was at the end of Christmas Fairy 02. I could not think of a feasible resolution for years without the classic "With one bound he was free" following a hero facing a painful unescapable death at the end of the previous episode.

I get requests for a sequel to Miranda The Witch, but as that was so long and complex, the sequel would have to be too. I have 5,000 words of a draft but the plot outline couldn't be finished in less than 100,000 words and I'm not sure I can commit that much time and effort...
 
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What do you consider an abrupt or senseless end? Examples in the Literotica file? I ask because there's a large readership here that claims not to want a story to stop ever, even after all of the characters have been killed off, and doesn't recognize that "slice of time" is a legitimate short story technique--that resolving one specific dilemma (or making an attempt to and the point of the story is that the dilemma isn't resolved) doesn't mean the story is going to solve all others beyond the grave as well.
 
What do you consider an abrupt or senseless end? Examples in the Literotica file? I ask because there's a large readership here that claims not to want a story to stop ever, even after all of the characters have been killed off, and doesn't recognize that "slice of time" is a legitimate short story technique--that resolving one specific dilemma (or making an attempt to and the point of the story is that the dilemma isn't resolved) doesn't mean the story is going to solve all others beyond the grave as well.

I was wondering the same thing. My stories typically end shortly after a sexual encounter of some sort, and I like the ending to have a hint of openness and of something to come later, but without an intention to follow up with a story to describe it. I think that's what life is like. But I have readers asking for more chapters and follow up, and I wonder if that's what the OP means by "truncated."
 
I was wondering the same thing. My stories typically end shortly after a sexual encounter of some sort, and I like the ending to have a hint of openness and of something to come later, but without an intention to follow up with a story to describe it. I think that's what life is like. But I have readers asking for more chapters and follow up, and I wonder if that's what the OP means by "truncated."

Wasn't it Bambi's mother who said; 'Never submit an unfinished story.'? That could expand to: If it's a Chapter style story, write every chapter and submit it at one time. If it's a one shot, the last line should say; The End. If it's to be continued, the last line should read; To Be Continued. It could even say; If you readers beg me hard enough I might write more. :rolleyes:
 
What do you consider an abrupt or senseless end? Examples in the Literotica file? I ask because there's a large readership here that claims not to want a story to stop ever, even after all of the characters have been killed off, and doesn't recognize that "slice of time" is a legitimate short story technique--that resolving one specific dilemma (or making an attempt to and the point of the story is that the dilemma isn't resolved) doesn't mean the story is going to solve all others beyond the grave as well.

Agree. My question, too.
 
In addition to the observations above, I would add the "look! shiny!"theory. You finish a story and you get inspired to go in a different direction with different characters, although it is more applicable to authors who continue to write. I tend to suffer from this a bit my self. Here at LIT, I would nominate silkstockinglover as the poster girl for this practice.
 
Wasn't it Bambi's mother who said; 'Never submit an unfinished story.'?
Her advice never made it to a sticky.

That could expand to: If it's a Chapter style story, write every chapter and submit it at one time. If it's a one shot, the last line should say; The End. If it's to be continued, the last line should read; To Be Continued. It could even say; If you readers beg me hard enough I might write more. :rolleyes:
I've tried all those. Also, NEXT: [misdirected cliffhanger resolution]. And invitations for others to write my sequels. Hasn't worked yet.

At least two of my arcs deserve sequels but I've not felt driven enough. So sue me. Or sue my voices, the laggards. When they're awake, they now advise me to finish an arc before submitting anything. But some stories just keep growing on their own. I think I'm done -- then more eventuates. Damn.
 
In addition to the observations above, I would add the "look! shiny!"theory. You finish a story and you get inspired to go in a different direction with different characters, although it is more applicable to authors who continue to write. I tend to suffer from this a bit my self. Here at LIT, I would nominate silkstockinglover as the poster girl for this practice.

Or they may continue, but not as fast as the reader hoped for. Which may be due to distraction, real work events, or - yes! - “Look! Shiny!”
 
Or they may continue, but not as fast as the reader hoped for. Which may be due to distraction, real work events, or - yes! - “Look! Shiny!”

True. I had every intention of posting a new story or chapter every 3 weeks to a month. Then that pesky "life" got in the way. :)
 
I intentionally leave a lot of my endings ambiguous. Except in a couple of cases, I have no intention of directly continuing the story. Why? Because I enjoy reading stories like that, so I write them.

I get SCADS of emails asking for sequels. Nope. Not the point.
 
I intentionally leave a lot of my endings ambiguous. Except in a couple of cases, I have no intention of directly continuing the story. Why? Because I enjoy reading stories like that, so I write them.

I get SCADS of emails asking for sequels. Nope. Not the point.

I'm with Voboy on this one.

I had a note from a reader recently saying that he loved the story, but now he wanted to know all about the main character's life before and after the story. I felt like saying: Hey, it's not an exhaustive biography; it's just a short story.

:)
 
I ended one of mine with an epilogue. It otherwise probably would've been six or so chapters longer, by what happened pre epilogue regardless. Sometimes I don't even think of the end, until I get to it. It.does help to know exactly how it ends and to keep your characters aimed towards that ending.
 
For me it depends. For short stories I like it when they are open-ended (usually), but for stories posted as multiple chapters I do like some sense of finality to it. I don't mean all the story threads have to be finished or there is absolutely no question left, but it is satisfying to feel that the writer at least considered the story done and, at the very least, the main plotline has a proper ending. That said, I know with platforms like Lit that it's just not fair to expect that from writers. Because of all the above reasons, writers might just abandon their stories halfway through. Or just don't want to put a final end on it yet in case they get motivated to write another chapter later.
 
Well, a writer could always use Michael O'Donoghue's famous ending to any story that couldn't be resolved:

"And then they all got run over by a truck."
 
There might be an issue with your web browser.

I have had to refresh my screen frequently when there are bits (sometimes whole paragraphs) of stories that aren't being shown. Likewise, I had noticed that with some of the entries here in the AH on longer threads, like the 'More Humor' thread.

I wanted to post some jokes, but not if they had already been posted. I spent an entire day laughing as I went through that thread, but often had to refresh the page as some of them were truncated. It wasn't that someone had failed to finish the joke, my computer just didn't want me to read it.
 
There might be an issue with your web browser.

I have had to refresh my screen frequently when there are bits (sometimes whole paragraphs) of stories that aren't being shown.

Yep, nothing as embarrassing as posting to a thread that's already days old but you only see a few posts. ;)
 
Yep, nothing as embarrassing as posting to a thread that's already days old but you only see a few posts. ;)

That's not the issue here, I don't think. All of the posts are there, but parts of what was posted are missing.
 
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