ambiguous endings

[Reshbod]

I am working on a story where a young woman has to make a choice. Go with the man of her dreams or go with the man she wants. At the end she makes her choice but is left unstated for the reader to fill it in. It could also be the springboard for a sequel or readers could vote on where it goes next.

I do know that when discussing movies, books and things many people don't like this type of ending. Just curious what folks here think about this idea.

 

[jeninflorida]

I am working on a story where a young woman has to make a choice. Go with the man of her dreams or go with the man she wants. At the end she makes her choice but is left unstated for the reader to fill it in. It could also be the springboard for a sequel or readers could vote on where it goes next.

I do know that when discussing movies, books and things many people don't like this type of ending. Just curious what folks here think about this idea.

I'm confused. if its the man of her dreams, why should she go home with someone else?

 

[roomfor1more]

Personally, I do not like stories where the reader decides, unless the author clearly defines the reason for asking. Reason being, I feel it is up to the author to decide in order to keep control of the story and I feel, leaving up to the reader is a passive way of making a decision. Ultimately, it will be you who decides what the next part will be, how it is written, and how it ends. Therefore, the question must be asked, what is the purpose of asking the reader?

 

[Carnevil9]

I predict that a lot of readers will be put off by it.

Personally, I like ambiguous endings. My theory is, a clear-cut ending is just an arbitrary decision by the writer, and why should he get to decide? The interesting thing about any story (erotic or not) is the central conflict or problem. That is what always sticks with me, if it is well-written. The conflict, and contradictory arguments, going on in the protagonist's mind. How it ends up never strikes me as very interesting.

Classic example: the story of "The Lady or the Tiger." The author doesn't tell us how it ends, and we are forced to go over the possibilities in our own minds, and thinking them all through......Carney (who is probably in the minority on this)

 

[Great_Brit]

There are two kinds of ambiguous endings:

1) The hook for the next story:

She ... walked out of the gate and far enough down the road to be out of sight.
In the envelope ... was also a sizeable sum of money; ... enough for her to live on for several months if she was careful.
Thinking aloud she wondered, “Well girl, what now?”
There was no immediate answer that she could think of.

2) The horror ending:

Somewhere out there the zombie/vampire/enemy still lurked ...


Either is fine and in the first case (yes I have permission to quote from "After The War") the reader can invent their own continuation, or pester the author for a continuation.

In the second case there is only ambiguity about how long will elapse before the hero meets the zombie/vampire/enemy again.

 

[Reshbod]

I'm confused. if its the man of her dreams, why should she go home with someone else?

Perhaps I could have put it better but that's not really the main point of my post.

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea because it'd be something different but I guess most people probably wouldn't care for it. If I do write it I'll just put it in LW and just let the trolls have at it.

 

[tmmmbrrr]

leave it ambiguous. if nothing else, ambiguity gives the reader something to think about.

 

[LOAnnie2]

Plus the ambiguity allows you if you want to create two different stories, the What if she went with the first guy, and the what if she went with the second guy.