The End

[ElectricBlue]

I tend to end many stories with an ambiguity, leaving it open if I want to revisit those characters. I have plans to write a final chapter for at least one series, but I'm not ready to write that one yet, because a favourite heroine will die, and she's not ready to do that yet.

 

[onehitwanda]

Do you mean the characters or the reading public?

Yes.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I’ve done one direct sequel, one pseudo sequel, and one spinoff. The two sequels were both monkey paw stories; people were like “this needs a sequel, we need to see how the ex was punished, etc.” So in one story, I had the MMC and FMC reconcile from a seemingly impossible position, and in the other, I showed that the MMC was an unreliable narrator while the FMC was both dealing with an impossible situation and deeply remorseful for the fate of the MMC. My favorite comments on those were all along the lines of “How did you fucking do that? Why would you make me like her? Asshole.”

 

[NotWise]

I don't. I write my stories for here just like I'd write them for the mainstream (just more graphically). I think it's true that there seem to be more readers here than in the mainstream who just want a happy ending (in every way) delivered and don't want to get more deeply involved in the story by engaging in thinking about the whys than is the case in the mainstream. But I don't cater to that.

I don't think I appreciated what @KeithD said here until I googled around a little and found some guidance on story endings.

The comment that caused me to start this thread was on a story ending that resolved the main conflict but left some story elements unresolved. That is supposed to be a good way to get readers to think about the story--to encourage them to digest the story and decide for themselves how the details should resolve.

Some readers commenting on the story had clearly thought about how the other elements might work out, but they wanted me to resolve it for them. Others just weren't committed enough to the story to think it through, so they insisted the story wasn't done.

The writing workshop stuff included a couple ideas that I hadn't thought about (Chekov's Gun, for instance) that might help readers reach a more satisfying ending. I have to wonder though... If readers of mainstream literature had the ability to dump a comment at the end of story as conveniently as readers can here, would they stop thinking it through and just insist that the story wasn't done?

If the answer is "Yes," then maybe that turns a "good way to get readers to think" into something to be avoided--all because of the context.

 

[NotWise]

Oops

 

[ronde]

On this very same forum, years ago, there was a topic about how to end a story. The answer I liked best was and still is, "stop writing". It's too easy to launch into what should probably be a seqie;. Rather than do that, I usually tie up the loose ends with a pretty little, "they lived happily ever after" ending. Most of my readers seem to like that.

I too have been requested to write a sequel to a story, but what I find is that never works out well unless I already have the sequel in mind. The reason is that as I'm writing the requested sequel, I find things I should have done in the first story to set up the plot and characters. If I do write a sequel or sequels, what I end up writing is a novel broken into chapters with each chapter being a story that can stand on its own. That way, I can end the story with a "hook" that lets the reader know another chapter is coming. That "hook" might be one character asking another what was going to happen next, or it might be just an abrupt end that makes the reader almost demand that I write the sequel I already have in mind.