Advice on how to end a story...

[flatiron2]

Hi everyone. I’m hoping to get some advice on how to end a story I’ve been writing. I’ve written the last chapter and I’m ready to post it, but I’ve got two options for the final resolution and I’m not sure which one to go with.

Here’s a brief summary of the premise/plot. Two well-known pornstars (who also happen to be besties and housemates) discover religion. They want to keep shooting porn, but they want their contracts amended so they no longer get booked for anal scenes. Even though they love anal, they’re worried that it’s particularly sinful. Their request is rejected, so they quit the industry. They each meet a guy (who are also best friends) and they start relationships with them. One of the two guys is in a shitty job, but he aspires to become a standup comedian. They all live in Miami, which I’ve described as some kind of tropical paradise (I know it isn’t!).

As the story develops, the standup comic’s career gets off the ground, the girls make a triumphant return to porn (doing anal again, having resolved their earlier concerns), their relationships remain intact (their boyfriends are cool with their careers), and as the tale ends, literally everything is perfect.

So that’s one possible ending.

Throughout the story, the guys often say to each other things like ‘we’re going out with pornstars? this has to be a dream, we’re just ordinary guys, they could have anyone they want, nothing makes sense about any of this’, but there’s no suggestion that it actually IS a dream.

I’ve written an end to the story where the standup comic character is actually a timid guy living in chilly Montana with an ultra-religious mother. He wakes up for work one morning and the reader discovers the entire story was a dream. Everyone in his dream was happy, successful and fulfilled, but in the real world, he hates his life.

That’s the other possible ending.

I’ve written the alternate ending. It’s an epilogue that’s barely more than 300 words long after a story that spans ten chapters, but I don’t know whether to include it or whether to leave it ending like a fairytale. I’m proud of the alternate ending, but it’s like an anvil falling to earth.

Has anyone else been in a situation like this? I’d be happy to share if anyone’s interested in helping me convince myself one way or the other.

 

[StillStunned]

I've never written it, but as a reader I dislike "It was all just a dream!" endings. They feel like a copout.

On the other hand, maybe you could end it with the stand-up comedian ending his set in which he described the whole sequence?

 

[TheLobster]

Reading your synopsis, the story seems kinda all of over the place. There doesn’t appear to be any dramatic arc going through it, which is why it’s not very clear where the story is supposed to end.

Like @StillStunned I’m averse to the “all just a dream” trope, so I’d focus on making the first ending satisfying enough to stand on its own. Throw some conflict spanners into the works, such as the guys struggling to accept the girls’ profession or the comedian’s career going poorly in the beginning.

Have your characters earn their happy ending. It will be more satisfying to everyone.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I agree with @TheLobster that there's no dramatic arc in the summary you posted. Is the story about your two porn stars overcoming "being religious" as the main conflict? Why do you need two of them? I'm sure there's a lot of plot you didn't include in the summary, but that makes it hard to judge what the right ending is.

--Annie

 

[flatiron2]

I've never written it, but as a reader I dislike "It was all just a dream!" endings. They feel like a copout.

On the other hand, maybe you could end it with the stand-up comedian ending his set in which he described the whole sequence?

That happens too. A half-hour comedy set which is essentially based on one of the characters' perspective of the tale. It's in the last chapter, which is written but not yet posted - it's the ending that's stopping me from uploading it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I agree with @TheLobster that there's no dramatic arc in the summary you posted. Is the story about your two porn stars overcoming "being religious" as the main conflict? Why do you need two of them? I'm sure there's a lot of plot you didn't include in the summary, but that makes it hard to judge what the right ending is.

--Annie

Yep, this, and @TheLobster's comment.

From what you've described, I can't see the erotic centre of this story. Is it porn stars not loving anal then loving it all over again? A not very good comedian? A dream ending? Under any and all circumstances, no, just no. Not the dream ending.

Maybe you need to go back and unpack the erotic zing in this story, figure out what it is.

 

[flatiron2]

Reading your synopsis, the story seems kinda all of over the place. There doesn’t appear to be any dramatic arc going through it, which is why it’s not very clear where the story is supposed to end.

Like @StillStunned I’m averse to the “all just a dream” trope, so I’d focus on making the first ending satisfying enough to stand on its own. Throw some conflict spanners into the works, such as the guys struggling to accept the girls’ profession or the comedian’s career going poorly in the beginning.

Have your characters earn their happy ending. It will be more satisfying to everyone.

Thanks. OK, I've just learned how impossible it is to summarise ten lengthy chapters in two short paragraphs, so I can see why the question didn't land with you! To me, there's a very strong dramatic arc, but it's easy for me to say that because I've been living with the characters in my head for months, and I didn't even mention the name of the story so that people who might be interested could look it up! (It's called 'Bitches Gone Bible', and it's in the anal category.)

The 'conflict spanners' you mentioned are deep in the narrative from earlier chapters, plus others.

I totally get that the 'oh it was all just a dream' is a cliche, which is exactly why I'm testing the waters. In this case, it's not relief that the dream is over, it's a sense of internal devastation that the 'dreamer' (let's call him that) realises how much his real life sucks, which sets up a juxtaposition between the joy, love, fulfilment and amazing sex carried in his dream and the desolateness of his actual life.

Let me put it another way. To my mind, the choice is between the happiest possible ending I can think of, and the saddest, and it's only 300 words that swings the difference.

 

[flatiron2]

(I should also point out that this isn't my first full-length narrative, it's about my eighth, but I rarely post in the forum. It's just that this is the first time I've vacillated about how to end a tale.)

 

[TheLobster]

OK, I've just learned how impossible it is to summarise ten lengthy chapters in two short paragraphs, so I can see why the question didn't land with you!

You have a series then, not a standalone story. It wasn't super clear from your first post, so I assumed "chapters" were just internal chapters in a single large submission.

If that's the case, then I see a contradiction in what you're saying here.

You mention there were several conflict arcs already, meaning the characters went through their journey and had (presumably) been changed by their experiences. (I'm guessing the girls' attitude towards anal is the main thing).
However, at the same time you're saying that you can tie the loose ends either way in just 300 words, in a series that (I'd assume) is several tens of thousands words long.

That doesn't add up. It seems to be that the narrative arc hasn't been cohesive enough -- that it hasn't been building towards something rather than just going through loosely connected sequences of events. The latter isn't bad per se, since there are other reasons besides narrative for things to happen (worldbuilding, for example). But you have to identify where exactly does the main narrative thread goes through the series, and then write the ending for that thread.

It would've been much easier if you could go back and edit previous chapters to emphasize the main arc and deemphasize the others. But since that's not an option, I'd start a short "closing arc", maybe a dedicated extra chapter, that brings the main subject (the erotic center, as @ElectricBlue puts it) to the fore and allows you to close it, thus ending the entire series. It's definitely going to be more than 300 words to make it satisfying for the readers but hey, 12 is a pretty good chapter count, too

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I totally get that the 'oh it was all just a dream' is a cliche, which is exactly why I'm testing the waters. In this case, it's not relief that the dream is over, it's a sense of internal devastation that the 'dreamer' (let's call him that) realises how much his real life sucks, which sets up a juxtaposition between the joy, love, fulfilment and amazing sex carried in his dream and the desolateness of his actual life.

Rules about writing are made to be broken. That said: to me, the "wakes from a dream and realizes his actual life is shit" plot device could work ... if it was in the first third of the story, and motivates him to do something about his real life.

--Annie

 

[flatiron2]

Rules about writing are made to be broken. That said: to me, the "wakes from a dream and realizes his actual life is shit" plot device could work ... if it was in the first third of the story, and motivates him to do something about his real life.

--Annie

I see what you mean, but I can't go back and rewrite 100000+ words! The sting in the tail of revealing the 'dream' right at the end is to underscore the utter desolation of the dreamer's life compared to the awesome life his alterego has in the dream.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

That can only work (for me as reader) if you've been setting it up through those 100,000 words. Unless you pull it off better than other writers I've read.

--Annie

 

[flatiron2]

So I decided to trust my instincts with the ‘it was all a dream’ epilogue right at the end. Nobody seemed to be artistically offended. Either people didn’t mind, didn't notice, or didn’t care.

So far, the chapter is rated 4.5 with a readership of about 2.5k, which is about par for me for a story eleven chapters long.

I’ve only got one comment so far, and it wasn’t about the ending, but was instead about the content of the final chapter. Paraphrasing: ‘too much talking and not enough sex’. Oh well. Can’t please everyone, I guess

https://www.literotica.com/s/bitches-gone-bible-pt-11

 

[SkyBubble]

End it when you think it's finished. Tie a bow on it if you want to.

 

[flatiron2]

I did

 

[Raybies93]

I've never written it, but as a reader I dislike "It was all just a dream!" endings. They feel like a copout.

On the other hand, maybe you could end it with the stand-up comedian ending his set in which he described the whole sequence?

Mr Pither from Monty Python. A man awaiting execution awakens from a dream where he sees his mother. He shouts”So, it was all a dream!” To which his mother replied “No Dear, this is the dream, you’re still in jail.”

 

[Raybies93]

End it when you think it's finished. Tie a bow on it if you want to.

My stories usually end with someone getting a face full of cum.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I have three current works in progress, and I know how they all end.

In one, a vacation ends and the happy vacationers go home.

In one, a person sentenced to slavery survives the sentence and is free.

In one, a prank is revealed. (Not very spoilery, considering the story is "Pranked 2".)

Those are the climaxes (pun not intended). Two of the stories have a falling-action segment after the climax.

--Annie

 

[flatiron2]

Mr Pither from Monty Python. A man awaiting execution awakens from a dream where he sees his mother. He shouts”So, it was all a dream!” To which his mother replied “No Dear, this is the dream, you’re still in jail.”

the cycling tour is the best episode ever! i love that line

 

[Raybies93]

the cycling tour is the best episode ever! i love that line

What do you keep your hard boiled eggs in?

 

[Raybies93]

What do you keep your hard boiled eggs in?

It is certainly up there with the Spanish Inquisition and Dennis Moore

 

[NickAxel]

I have three current works in progress, and I know how they all end.

In one, a vacation ends and the happy vacationers go home.

In one, a person sentenced to slavery survives the sentence and is free.

In one, a prank is revealed. (Not very spoilery, considering the story is "Pranked 2".)

Those are the climaxes (pun not intended). Two of the stories have a falling-action segment after the climax.

--Annie

So build an outline first so you’ll remember where you’re going with the story all the way to the end.