An apology to Dean Koontz

[Rob_Royale]

I have a love-hate relationship with the horror/weird shit writer, Dean Koontz. Back in the 2000's I was given a load of his paperbacks and my wife and I read our way through them. Now your opinion may vary, but I was very frustrated with his work. He writes well and spins a good tale. BUT, he can't end a story to save his life. When I finished his 2007 novel The Darkest Evening of the Year I was quite upset. The story reaches its climax, falls, and resolves in just six pages.

I have only sent a writer a criticism twice in my life. I did that day. I reached out through his website and told him how disappointed I was. I called his ending "ejaculation without orgasm". Perhaps that catchy little quote foreshadowed my eventual dive into the world of erotica.

Needless to say, I did not receive a reply.

But now, after 1.5 years writing here, I've come to understand how really fucking hard it is to end a story satisfactorily. As we mostly write sexy short stories for free we're not expected to come up with amazing endings. Most readers are happy with a mutual orgasm, and it's a wrap.

But I really have been trying to do better. I worked hard on my Aunt Tina series ending, but it stymied me for a good while.

So, Mr. Koontz, if you're a Litster and reading this, I do apologize for my hasty remark. I have not read any of his work since the third Odd Thomas novel in 2008. Hopefully, he's gotten better at endings since.

And by the way, if you're in the mood for some real fun weirdness, I recommend his 2004 novel, Life Expectancy. It's a great story and the ending is quite good.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Write the ending first.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have a love-hate relationship with the horror/weird shit writer, Dean Koontz. Back in the 2000's I was given a load of his paperbacks and my wife and I read our way through them. Now your opinion may vary, but I was very frustrated with his work. He writes well and spins a good tale. BUT, he can't end a story to save his life. When I finished his 2007 novel The Darkest Evening of the Year I was quite upset. The story reaches its climax, falls, and resolves in just six pages.

I have only sent a writer a criticism twice in my life. I did that day. I reached out through his website and told him how disappointed I was. I called his ending "ejaculation without orgasm". Perhaps that catchy little quote foreshadowed my eventual dive into the world of erotica.

Needless to say, I did not receive a reply.

But now, after 1.5 years writing here, I've come to understand how really fucking hard it is to end a story satisfactorily. As we mostly write sexy short stories for free we're not expected to come up with amazing endings. Most readers are happy with a mutual orgasm, and it's a wrap.

But I really have been trying to do better. I worked hard on my Aunt Tina series ending, but it stymied me for a good while.

So, Mr. Koontz, if you're a Litster and reading this, I do apologize for my hasty remark. I have not read any of his work since the third Odd Thomas novel in 2008. Hopefully, he's gotten better at endings since.

And by the way, if you're in the mood for some real fun weirdness, I recommend his 2004 novel, Life Expectancy. It's a great story and the ending is quite good.

You can do better than "mutual orgasms" and it's a wrap. In fact, there should (or could) be some "aftermath" paragraphs in which whoever is involved goes through some discussion of what happened, good or bad. There doesn't even have to be mutual orgasms or even any orgasms at all. That's frequent in Romance stories, for example.

 

[intim8]

how really fucking hard it is to end a story satisfactorily. As we mostly write sexy short stories for free we're not expected to come up with amazing endings. Most readers are happy with a mutual orgasm, and it's a wrap.

Good endings come from the three basic elements of a story:

Plot: the conflict is resolved,
Character: the character has "grown", has learned something.
Theme: some truth about the theme has been revealed.

Great endings do all three. Two out of three can still be a good ending.

In much popular fiction, one out of three still sells.

On Lit, zero out of three is fairly common.

 

[SimonDoom]

I pretty much follow Melissa's advice. Endings aren't a big problem for me because I know how the story will end when I start writing it. I write with the end in mind almost all the time. I see it as like a symphonic movement where all the notes are building toward a particular crescendo. For over half my stories, I write the last few paragraphs before I'm halfway through the story.

So far, it seems like this method works. I've felt satisfied with my endings and most of the time they've been well received.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I pretty much follow Melissa's advice. Endings aren't a big problem for me because I know how the story will end when I start writing it. I write with the end in mind almost all the time. I see it as like a symphonic movement where all the notes are building toward a particular crescendo. For over half my stories, I write the last few paragraphs before I'm halfway through the story.

So far, it seems like this method works. I've felt satisfied with my endings and most of the time they've been well received.

I structure all my stories as a journey. I know where I am starting from, I know my destination and I have a rough map of the trip between the two. I am not a pure plotter, because I am open to detours and side trips, but the goal is to always to arrive at the destination.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I pretty much follow Melissa's advice. Endings aren't a big problem for me because I know how the story will end when I start writing it. I write with the end in mind almost all the time. I see it as like a symphonic movement where all the notes are building toward a particular crescendo. For over half my stories, I write the last few paragraphs before I'm halfway through the story.

So far, it seems like this method works. I've felt satisfied with my endings and most of the time they've been well received.

It's common for me to write the first chapter, then the last. Not only does this keep me focused, but it has the added effect that, as I think of it, many of my stories "rhyme."

For example, the last paragraph of My Fall and Rise directly comments on the first, or vice versa, depending on how you want to look at it. The last paragraph of Queen of the Roller Derby closely paraphrases the last paragraph of the prologue.

In my opinion, that makes for a strong conclusion, but I don't think it's likely that I'd have come up with that technique if I did not write the ending right after the beginning.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Sometimes I know exactly how to end a story, sometimes I don't. Either of those can still be hit or miss.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think it's perfectly fair to fault a professional writer for bad endings. I haven't read enough of Koontz's books to pass judgment. I think I've only read one, and I think it was called Intensity, about a woman trying to escape a serial killer. I think it ended just fine. But I've read many Stephen King books and have often been dissatisfied with his endings.

With erotica, I think a good rule of thumb is to end with the orgasm. Make the climax the climax, or just have a very short denouement after it. I try to end on a punchy, memorable line. The ending doesn't have to answer every question. It can make the reader wonder what's going to happen next. That's OK. In fact, I think it's a good thing. The only requirement is that it has to be a satisfying conclusion to what's come before. If you figure out the ending early in the process and work toward it, you are more likely to accomplish this goal.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I think it's perfectly fair to fault a professional writer for bad endings. I haven't read enough of Koontz's books to pass judgment. I think I've only read one, and I think it was called Intensity, about a woman trying to escape a serial killer. I think it ended just fine. But I've read many Stephen King books and have often been dissatisfied with his endings.

With erotica, I think a good rule of thumb is to end with the orgasm. Make the climax the climax, or just have a very short denouement after it. I try to end on a punchy, memorable line. The ending doesn't have to answer every question. It can make the reader wonder what's going to happen next. That's OK. In fact, I think it's a good thing. The only requirement is that it has to be a satisfying conclusion to what's come before. If you figure out the ending early in the process and work toward it, you are more likely to accomplish this goal.

Sorry, Simon, you can do what you think is best, but there are other ways to do it. As I mentioned above, sometimes there is no orgasm at all, but it still qualifies as an erotic story or chapter (to me, anyway!).

 

[gunhilltrain]

All right, some more self-promotion. This chapter has no orgasms in it, although there is quite a lot of sex in other chapters. I'm not sure I would recommend having not one, but two, epilogues, but so be it. There is a a memorable line (maybe) as the second to last sentence, her comment about coffee and transmission fluid.

https://classic.literotica.com/s/my-summer-with-nora-ch-05

The point of this chapter is to show their attitudes about each other at the peak of their relatively brief affair.

 

[SimonDoom]

Sorry, Simon, you can do what you think is best, but there are other ways to do it. As I mentioned above, sometimes there is no orgasm at all, but it still qualifies as an erotic story or chapter (to me, anyway!).

Of course, and if you are satisfied with the way you handle the story and the endings, then that's fine. My comment is addressed to those who aren't satisfied and are wondering what to do about it. It's one possible approach to the problem.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Of course, and if you are satisfied with the way you handle the story and the endings, then that's fine. My comment is addressed to those who aren't satisfied and are wondering what to do about it. It's one possible approach to the problem.

I think I understood that. The OP in fact specifically asked for advice about endings. I have a tendency to jump into a thread if someone is asking for help, although I have botched that a couple of times.

 

[Paul_Chance]

One of the things to also keep in mind is that a professional writer deals with a set of pressures that we don't (as amateurs here on Lit) and that is the contract. You must deliver the work by a set date. You only get so long to rework it and then you let it go to the publisher.

If you read a lot of fiction, books with unsatisfying endings are not that uncommon, even by some very talented authors. Because of the financial pressures in the publishing world, they have to get the books out on schedule or they don't make money. You get an author like Koontz (and we could think of hundreds of other examples) and the publisher knows they're going to sell X copies just on name alone, and then X+ if it's good, X++ if it's great. But at the end of the day a fast nickel beats a slow dime and it's off to print.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Life has only one ending. It has transitions from one part to the next. Even when marriages end, the other person, absent their death, is still there to fuck up your life. Ramond Chandler is famous for believable endings in his stories, as in it, A. not all mysteries in the story are solved (if any) and B. the end of the book doesn't mean that the stories are done or that we will ever find out more.

 

[MelissaBaby]

"All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you." -Ernest Hemingway

 

[Rob_Royale]

The OP in fact specifically asked for advice about endings. I have a tendency to jump into a thread if someone is asking for help, although I have botched that a couple of times.

Actually, I didn't. But that's fine. No harm, no foul.
I simply brought up a subject that I find difficult, for discussion. I figured that I would get some commiseration and perhaps a nugget of writer's gold like @MelissaBaby laid on us. I usually have an idea of how the story will end but very rarely is it fully formed in my head. That's something I can work on in the future.

Great discussion.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Actually, I didn't. But that's fine. No harm, no foul.
I simply brought up a subject that I find difficult, for discussion. I figured that I would get some commiseration and perhaps a nugget of writer's gold like @MelissaBaby laid on us. I usually have an idea of how the story will end but very rarely is it fully formed in my head. That's something I can work on in the future.

Great discussion.

I had to go back to your OP to figure out what I was talking about. I see now that you didn't explicitly ask for advice, but I took the implication that you were open to suggestions.

I would make a distinction between ending a story, ending a chapter, and ending a series in general. That last one can trip me up, although the worst one for me is an another site and has been hanging around for over a year.

Do you mean "nuggets of gold" as in the Hemingway quote? I don't have one of those nuggets for you, but he was Hemingway and I'm not. I have to think of the endings of various novels and short stories, and many of them did end in death.

P.S.: One could mention the endings of movies and TV series too.

 

[AlexBailey]

Bougainvillea.

Years ago I got on a Dean Koontz kick. What I remember most about his writing is unnerving setups, the Odd Thomas series, and bougainvillea - I think he mentions the flowering vine in every story.

 

[StillStunned]

Bougainvillea.

Years ago I got on a Dean Koontz kick. What I remember most about his writing is unnerving setups, the Odd Thomas series, and bougainvillea - I think he mentions the flowering vine in every story.

To be fair, sometimes it seems the damn plants are everywhere. Once you notice them (or any other specific plant), you can't stop seeing them.

Or maybe he likes the name.