For me, at least, endings have always been tricky. The most important thing is for them to resolve the storys major issue. I dislike endings that make me want to sit in a tub of warm water and open my wrists. I dislike those even more than and they all lived happily ever after, which runs a good second place on the dislike list. In a mystery, there should be no hanging plot threads -- the reader must know exactly who dunnit, and how, and sometimes why. Even in mysteries, other hanging threads are not only acceptable, they are even necessary, unless the writers is going to end up with everyone dead. Minor characters often walk into the story, do their jobs, and walk out again (In Icelandic sagas, its not unusual to read, and he is now out of this story.) Bittersweet endings should only rarely be employed. Used too often, they lose their value as a story-ending device. The shocker ending -- in which the problem, rather than being resolved, is only clarified and restated, is tossed back to the reader -- should be used even more rarely. I generally prefer and ending that resolves the major conflict of the story but which reminds the reader that evil and bad fortune cannot be banished, only beaten this time. This is a prejudice, of course, but most writing is a matter of taste, and much of taste is prejudice.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:42:15 +0000
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