Writing [Tutorial] How to Make THE END

[OokamiKasumi]

Okay, so you got this GREAT Idea for a story!
This Great Idea...that births chapter after chapter-- This Great Idea...that you can't seem to finish. (WTF?)
What do you do now?

How do you make
THE END?

DISCLAIMER: This is Advice, and only advice. This is a technique that I came up with that works for me. If you choose to use this technique, or just bits and pieces from here or there; Great! If not; that's fine too. Feel free to fold, spindle, or mutilate as you see fit. It is only advice.

"The trick to reaching any destination is to first know where you want to end up before you pack for the journey."

HOW to make -- THE END.​

Fairy tales and Myths were my foundational reading, so they became my base model for how a story should finish. Fairy Tales have Symmetrical Closure; they end where they began, making a nice tidy 'Karmic' loop.

• The lost find their way.
• The wicked are punished.
• The weak become strong.

This doesn't mean ending a story in the location it began, or that full irrevocable transformations don't happen, but that the story ties the knot to the Emotional and/or Karmic place they began. Monsters are faced, emotional hang-ups are dealt with, and problems are solved. What is begun -- finishes.

It sounds perfectly simple, and it can be--! However...

I despise stories I can guess the ending to, so naturally, I refuse to write them that way. [Insert evil snicker.]

The Wrong direction is the Right direction!​

I prefer to write stories that throw the reader completely off the obvious path; straight through the center of the village, and force them into the deep dark woods. I deliberately make every straightforward solution unbelievably problematic!

• The obvious answer is the wrong answer.
• The simple solution is impossible to accomplish.
• What seems to be a easy task has impossible if not fatal complications.

Once the reader has been sent careening off into territory they never expected to go, and gotten utterly wrapped up in a plot they never expected, that's when I start tying up ends -- by way of pulling rugs out from under the reader's feet.

Characters reveal Motives that change how their base characters are Perceived.​

• The obvious bad-guy isn't the bad guy, he's AFTER the bad-guy. However, he's completely ruthless in his hunt, which is what made him seem like the bad-guy in the first place.
• The bumbling fool that merely wants to help improve his fellow man, is in fact completely deranged sociopath that likes to do his improvements with a scalpel.
• The person the main character is trying to rescue, not only doesn't want to be rescued, but in fact resents the intrusion.

Random events and objects are revealed to have Unexpected Connections.​

• The ancient sword hanging on the mantelpiece wasn't merely a decoration.
• The strange recluse neighbor turns out to be the one person who actually knows what's really going on.

What was accepted as Fact is revealed to be Something Else entirely.​

• "We're all living in a computer generated dream-world."

And in the process of dealing with all that...

• Monsters are faced.
• Emotional hang-ups are dealt with.
• Problems end up solved.
• What was begun - finishes.

The END​

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When will you make an end?"
- The Pope on the painting of the Sistine Chapel

"When I'm finished."
- Michelangelo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

"But the story is already halfway written and I have no idea where to go from there!"​

Go back to the beginning and figure out what your Main Point of View Character's Problem was Internally (emotionally) and Externally (plot/quest). If you haven't solved them yet, then that's all you need to do; fix their emotional issue then solve the quest.

In a nutshell: Conclude the Character Arc then the Plot Arc.

"I've come to the end, but I wanna keep going!"​

That's what Sequels are all about. Find a good place to Stop, write The End, then start writing the next volume.

Very simply: Same world, new problem -- and new title!


Speaking of Sequels though--

"--too many good books, book series, anime series, etc. suffer from
Bad Endings."​

Most often, this happens when:

A) The author didn't have a plan to End the story. ​

They just wrote...until they couldn't write any more.​

AKA: Writing by the seat of their pants. ​

B) They planned the end, but got trapped in a corner. ​

They tossed in too many characters or a major (head/heart/sex) problem they didn't know how to fix before they could get to the end.​

AKA: Bit off more than they could swallow.​

​

How do you FIX the Problem?​

1) Written by the Seat of your Pants.​

When you've written something by the seat of your pants, the only way to fix it is by stopping cold, figuring out where you want it to end, then adjusting the whole story to suit your ending.

Don't like the idea of doing rewrites?

DECIDE: What's more important to you as a writer? ​

A) The hours you spent writing all those words that got you nowhere?​

Get back to writing and let the story go where it wills until you just can't stand writing it any more.​

​

- OR -​

​

B) A story with an Ending your readers will swoon over, and demand all their friends read too?​

Get ready to do extensive cutting and rewrites to get the damned thing back on track.​

2) Bit off more than you can Swallow.​

Getting overwhelmed by one's own story happens most frequently when a story has way too large of a cast.

Large casts of characters makes for so many characters to keep track of, the writer literally gets lost in who is doing what at any given time. It also makes for POV problems I don't even want to think about. Seriously though, too big of a cast is the main culprit behind a story that just won't end. Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, and Game of Thrones, anyone?

The way to deal with this problem is by keeping detailed notes on each character, and creating a rough timeline with the major plot points marked out on it. Without that list of characters, and a timeline to keep track of where they are, any writer is going to very lost, very fast.

Getting overwhelmed also tends to happen when the Writer doesn't know enough about what they're writing.

In Horror and Angst stories, this is frequently seen when the writer creates a character with a mental health issue like Depression, Psychopathy, or ADHD, and doesn't know nearly enough about the reality of these issues.

Because they don't know what they're actually dealling with, these writers have a great deal of trouble keeping those characters from going Out Of Character (OOC).

No big deal right, especially if the writer is using Original characters?

WRONG. Any reader that actually has Depression, ADHD, or Sociopathy will immediately spot when those characters go OOC --especially if they're the POV character-- and they will Not Be Happy.

Would you be happy if you were reading about a character with the same problems you have, then suddenly that character did something your problem would never allow you to do?​

​

I wasn't. I let them know too, then informed all my friends.​

Oddly enough, many writers get overwhelmed when they go to write a Romance story, but haven't quite figured out what Real Love actually is. Hint: Stalking is not a sign of Love! Neither is Jealousy!

This also happens when young writers try to write a Smut scene, but never had sex before.

Fixing Smut ​

This is actually really easy. Read good smut. Watching p0rn movies is Not Enough. P0rn gives you what smut looks like and sounds like, but not what it FEELS like physically, or emotionally. By the way, those feelings are what makes smut juicy and delicious, especially to female readers!

CAUTION! When you go to select your reading material, make damned sure you read the warnings on each story! Some of this stuff might make you wanna hurl.​

​

Hetero smut: I recommend reading books by author Angela Knight for excellent graphic detailing without making you wanna hurl, and a solid romance with her adventures.​

​

Yaoi smut: go here: Minotaurs Sex Tips for Slash Writers. Read that.​

​

Just, for God's sake, don't copy someone's smut scenes word for word! That's plagiarism. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable.​

Fixing Angst ​

This one's tough.

If you're trying to fix a serious problem like Grief over lost loved ones, begin by Googling '7 stages of grief', so you know what your character is supposed to be going through, and follow the advice given for getting over it.

Oddly enough, if you're trying to address a heart-ache like a break-up between lovers, the stages of grief still works.

If you're trying to get two lovers, or worse; parents, back together again after a break-up then you have a real set of problems.

In the West, getting back together rarely ever happens in real life because it's just easier to end the relationship completely and not deal with it anymore.​

​

In the East, it's another story entirely. People do get back together because they are taught from childhood that Family and Duty to that family is far more important than personal feelings.​

• Enemies WILL put their personal vendettas on hold until a common enemy is vanquished.
• Wives will go back to their husbands for the sake of keeping the rest of the family safe from harm; giving those husbands a chance to make their wives fall in love with them again.

No matter what angsty issue you are dealing with, Research that issue thoroughly. Someone will know if you get it wrong -- and they won't be nice about it.

Google is your friend. There are literally thousands of help sites for dealing with mental issues, and even more on how to deal with grief, loneliness, and other emotionally devastating problems. Go find them and Use Them.​

Never Forget.
​

In Conclusion...​

​

So, how do you make -- The End?

The most effective way to End any story is the same exact way you set up a road trip.
-- You first, Select your Destination, then map out the Route to get there with notes on the margins listing what sites you'd like to see during the drive. Then you Pack for the journey.

Also known as PLOTTING.

If the story is already halfway written--believe it or not, this is still fully feasible! Just plan to do a lot of excruciatingly painful scene trimming and character cutting to get the story back on track.

Or, you could just keep writing, and writing, and writing, and hope that you'll bump into a destination somewhere out there.



~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to read my other Writing tutorials?

 

[SakeVision]

My ending is literally one of the first things I envisoned~ and I'm steadily marching forward towards that inevitable desitantion.

The ass hill.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

 

[Szaku]

didnt even read it. i just wholeheartedly agree and support the concept that authors nowadays NEED some type of tutorial on how to finish their stories. now quickly translate this to mandarin and mass send it to every cultivation-y novel writer and see you in that glorious future i am now envisioning.

 

[OokamiKasumi]

didnt even read it. i just wholeheartedly agree and support the concept that authors nowadays NEED some type of tutorial on how to finish their stories. now quickly translate this to mandarin and mass send it to every cultivation-y novel writer and see you in that glorious future i am now envisioning.

LOL! Those Chinese novels are designed to be endless since most of them started out on Pay-per-chapter sites. The readers purchase each new chapter individually. This is also why all those chapters are Short. They're faster to write so they can post them, and make money, daily.

However, once a story ends, the writer has to come up with a whole new story; new characters, new settings, new plot-twists...and hope the pay-per-view site will take it.

It's simply more cost efficient to stick to one successful story and just add a thousand teeny-tiny chapters to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Mysticant]

I feel sad, I envisioned at 1600 chapter end that I would never reach. And today I have extended it to 2000 chapters! Hooray to Chinese cultivation web novel metalore! Sitting down to write it out just becomes so painful.

 

[KoyukiMegumi]

Is it weird I first see the end then the start? Then all the stuff in the middle.

 

[Jemini]

I used to consider myself more on the "pantser" side. However, after reading this, I am starting to think I am a lot more in the middle on the plotter-pantser scale, and happen to have some kind of intuition that is actually scaring me now that I've read over your advice up there.

I have been writing my stories in story-arc format. Each individual arc actually follows your "back to the beginning" advice almost spot-on perfectly. Meanwhile, I actually DO have an idea of where I want to end the entire series as well.

Spoiler: Key to the Void planned series ending

It is an Isekai story. It started on Earth going through the portal from using the MC's power in an inappropriate manner. It will end back on Earth, and then the MC will leave Earth again voluntarily this time by using her power for it's originally intended purpose.

As for the individual arcs...

Spoiler: Key to the Void 1st arc plot outline

MC starts after just being Isekaied to this small elven village. She is uncertain about how the future is going to look due to a massive amount of instability and need for more information. There is an implication of an underlying problem within the culture. Follows a plot that sort of resembles the 7 Samurai, if the Samurai lived in the village to start with and we can throw out the recruiting phase. Meanwhile, the fight to fend off the enemy has also brought a lot of the nature of the problems in the village into the open. Now with the information known, she is just as uncertain as she was when she was ignorant to the world around her.

Spoiler: Key to the Void 2nd arc plot outline

MC starts still in the village mentioned in the 1st arc. She has to flee. This arc is all about the attempts to get away from the village and find a new place to live. She is being pursued, and has to dodge a lot of dangers. It ends by finding a new place to live. It looks safe. It is an unfamiliar place that she has to get used to, but everything looks like it promises a bright future. Then, the 1st real turning-point of the greater story happens due to issues that the MC was unaware she had brought along with her and were set up from chapter 1. (This turning point is very well foreshadowed, complete with a prophetic prediction near the beginning of the 2nd arc.) It ends with her feeling fairly unstable in her life once again.

So, yeah. Now that I have stopped to think about it, I cannot believe I actually thought of myself as a pantser when I keep wrapping up my stories in such neat little bows, and also tend to have a good idea of where the end-point of each individual arc should be as well as how the grander story is going to end. The very fact that I have been setting up all this foreshadowing for a planned turning point ought to have made me at least realize SOMETHING!

Yeah, just because I don't sit down and write-up a story outline doesn't mean I'm not plotting out my story. It may be mostly intuition at work, and I may keep the major plot points mostly in my head until they are written down in the actual story, but I am still following the structure. And, going by the tutorial up there, I have actually been following it pretty faithfully. (I guess I must have developed some kind of intuition from all the reading I've been doing.)

(I'm even developing something of a world bible as I do my world-building and writing at the same time. I have received complements on my world's creation story for being fairly vivid.)

 

[EternalSunset0]

Okay, so you got this GREAT Idea for a story!
This Great Idea...that births chapter after chapter-- This Great Idea...that you can't seem to finish. (WTF?)
What do you do now?

How do you make
THE END?

DISCLAIMER: This is Advice, and only advice. This is a technique that I came up with that works for me. If you choose to use this technique, or just bits and pieces from here or there; Great! If not; that's fine too. Feel free to fold, spindle, or mutilate as you see fit. It is only advice.

View attachment 9729​

"The trick to reaching any destination is to first know where you want to end up before you pack for the journey."

HOW to make -- THE END.​

Fairy tales and Myths were my foundational reading, so they became my base model for how a story should finish. Fairy Tales have Symmetrical Closure; they end where they began, making a nice tidy 'Karmic' loop.

• The lost find their way.
• The wicked are punished.
• The weak become strong.

This doesn't mean ending a story in the location it began, or that full irrevocable transformations don't happen, but that the story ties the knot to the Emotional and/or Karmic place they began. Monsters are faced, emotional hang-ups are dealt with, and problems are solved. What is begun -- finishes.

It sounds perfectly simple, and it can be--! However...

I despise stories I can guess the ending to, so naturally, I refuse to write them that way. [Insert evil snicker.]

The Wrong direction is the Right direction!​

I prefer to write stories that throw the reader completely off the obvious path; straight through the center of the village, and force them into the deep dark woods. I deliberately make every straightforward solution unbelievably problematic!

• The obvious answer is the wrong answer.
• The simple solution is impossible to accomplish.
• What seems to be a easy task has impossible if not fatal complications.

Once the reader has been sent careening off into territory they never expected to go, and gotten utterly wrapped up in a plot they never expected, that's when I start tying up ends -- by way of pulling rugs out from under the reader's feet.

Characters reveal Motives that change how their base characters are Perceived.​

• The obvious bad-guy isn't the bad guy, he's AFTER the bad-guy. However, he's completely ruthless in his hunt, which is what made him seem like the bad-guy in the first place.
• The bumbling fool that merely wants to help improve his fellow man, is in fact completely deranged sociopath that likes to do his improvements with a scalpel.
• The person the main character is trying to rescue, not only doesn't want to be rescued, but in fact resents the intrusion.

Random events and objects are revealed to have Unexpected Connections.​

• The ancient sword hanging on the mantelpiece wasn't merely a decoration.
• The strange recluse neighbor turns out to be the one person who actually knows what's really going on.

What was accepted as Fact is revealed to be Something Else entirely.​

• "We're all living in a computer generated dream-world."

And in the process of dealing with all that...

• Monsters are faced.
• Emotional hang-ups are dealt with.
• Problems end up solved.
• What was begun - finishes.

The END​

View attachment 9727​

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When will you make an end?"
- The Pope on the painting of the Sistine Chapel

"When I'm finished."
- Michelangelo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

"But the story is already halfway written and I have no idea where to go from there!"​

Go back to the beginning and figure out what your Main Point of View Character's Problem was Internally (emotionally) and Externally (plot/quest). If you haven't solved them yet, then that's all you need to do; fix their emotional issue then solve the quest.

In a nutshell: Conclude the Character Arc then the Plot Arc.

"I've come to the end, but I wanna keep going!"​

That's what Sequels are all about. Find a good place to Stop, write The End, then start writing the next volume.

Very simply: Same world, new problem -- and new title!


Speaking of Sequels though--

View attachment 9722
"--too many good books, book series, anime series, etc. suffer from
Bad Endings."​

Most often, this happens when:

A) The author didn't have a plan to End the story. ​

They just wrote...until they couldn't write any more.​

AKA: Writing by the seat of their pants. ​

B) They planned the end, but got trapped in a corner. ​

They tossed in too many characters or a major (head/heart/sex) problem they didn't know how to fix before they could get to the end.​

AKA: Bit off more than they could swallow.​

​

How do you FIX the Problem?​

1) Written by the Seat of your Pants.​

When you've written something by the seat of your pants, the only way to fix it is by stopping cold, figuring out where you want it to end, then adjusting the whole story to suit your ending.

Don't like the idea of doing rewrites?

DECIDE: What's more important to you as a writer? ​

A) The hours you spent writing all those words that got you nowhere?​

Get back to writing and let the story go where it wills until you just can't stand writing it any more.​

​

- OR -​

​

B) A story with an Ending your readers will swoon over, and demand all their friends read too?​

Get ready to do extensive cutting and rewrites to get the damned thing back on track.​

2) Bit off more than you can Swallow.​

Getting overwhelmed by one's own story happens most frequently when a story has way too large of a cast.

Large casts of characters makes for so many characters to keep track of, the writer literally gets lost in who is doing what at any given time. It also makes for POV problems I don't even want to think about. Seriously though, too big of a cast is the main culprit behind a story that just won't end. Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, and Game of Thrones, anyone?

The way to deal with this problem is by keeping detailed notes on each character, and creating a rough timeline with the major plot points marked out on it. Without that list of characters, and a timeline to keep track of where they are, any writer is going to very lost, very fast.

Getting overwhelmed also tends to happen when the Writer doesn't know enough about what they're writing.

In Horror and Angst stories, this is frequently seen when the writer creates a character with a mental health issue like Depression, Psychopathy, or ADHD, and doesn't know nearly enough about the reality of these issues.

Because they don't know what they're actually dealling with, these writers have a great deal of trouble keeping those characters from going Out Of Character (OOC).

No big deal right, especially if the writer is using Original characters?

WRONG. Any reader that actually has Depression, ADHD, or Sociopathy will immediately spot when those characters go OOC --especially if they're the POV character-- and they will Not Be Happy.

Would you be happy if you were reading about a character with the same problems you have, then suddenly that character did something your problem would never allow you to do?​

​

I wasn't. I let them know too, then informed all my friends.​

Oddly enough, many writers get overwhelmed when they go to write a Romance story, but haven't quite figured out what Real Love actually is. Hint: Stalking is not a sign of Love! Neither is Jealousy!

This also happens when young writers try to write a Smut scene, but never had sex before.

Fixing Smut ​

This is actually really easy. Read good smut. Watching p0rn movies is Not Enough. P0rn gives you what smut looks like and sounds like, but not what it FEELS like physically, or emotionally. By the way, those feelings are what makes smut juicy and delicious, especially to female readers!

CAUTION! When you go to select your reading material, make damned sure you read the warnings on each story! Some of this stuff might make you wanna hurl.​

​

Hetero smut: I recommend reading books by author Angela Knight for excellent graphic detailing without making you wanna hurl, and a solid romance with her adventures.​

​

Yaoi smut: go here: Minotaurs Sex Tips for Slash Writers. Read that.​

​

Just, for God's sake, don't copy someone's smut scenes word for word! That's plagiarism. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable.​

Fixing Angst ​

This one's tough.

If you're trying to fix a serious problem like Grief over lost loved ones, begin by Googling '7 stages of grief', so you know what your character is supposed to be going through, and follow the advice given for getting over it.

Oddly enough, if you're trying to address a heart-ache like a break-up between lovers, the stages of grief still works.

If you're trying to get two lovers, or worse; parents, back together again after a break-up then you have a real set of problems.

In the West, getting back together rarely ever happens in real life because it's just easier to end the relationship completely and not deal with it anymore.​

​

In the East, it's another story entirely. People do get back together because they are taught from childhood that Family and Duty to that family is far more important than personal feelings.​

• Enemies WILL put their personal vendettas on hold until a common enemy is vanquished.
• Wives will go back to their husbands for the sake of keeping the rest of the family safe from harm; giving those husbands a chance to make their wives fall in love with them again.

No matter what angsty issue you are dealing with, Research that issue thoroughly. Someone will know if you get it wrong -- and they won't be nice about it.

Google is your friend. There are literally thousands of help sites for dealing with mental issues, and even more on how to deal with grief, loneliness, and other emotionally devastating problems. Go find them and Use Them.​

View attachment 9721
Never Forget.
​

In Conclusion...​

​

So, how do you make -- The End?

The most effective way to End any story is the same exact way you set up a road trip.
-- You first, Select your Destination, then map out the Route to get there with notes on the margins listing what sites you'd like to see during the drive. Then you Pack for the journey.

Also known as PLOTTING.

If the story is already halfway written--believe it or not, this is still fully feasible! Just plan to do a lot of excruciatingly painful scene trimming and character cutting to get the story back on track.

Or, you could just keep writing, and writing, and writing, and hope that you'll bump into a destination somewhere out there.



~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to read my other Writing tutorials?

This is by far my favorite in the series. Thanks.

The "wrong direction" thing really helped me get some possible perspectives I could integrate.

 

[Armored99]

Its quite simple,

I simply won't right an ending.

 

[OokamiKasumi]

Is it weird I first see the end then the start? Then all the stuff in the middle.

No, especially if you're a voracious reader.
-- Once a reader digests an enormous amount of stories; books, movies, TV...they begin to see the patterns. If said reader becomes a writer, those patterns crop up in the stories they write. One of those patterns being; the ability to predict the ending of a tale by the fourth chapter.

Someone that good at predicting endings has a tendency to write their stories by setting up the ending first to ensure that their ending is Not predictable by the fourth chapter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I used to consider myself more on the "pantser" side. However, after reading this, I am starting to think I am a lot more in the middle on the plotter-pantser scale, and happen to have some kind of intuition that is actually scaring me now that I've read over your advice up there.

I have been writing my stories in story-arc format. Each individual arc actually follows your "back to the beginning" advice almost spot-on perfectly. Meanwhile, I actually DO have an idea of where I want to end the entire series as well.

....

Yeah, just because I don't sit down and write-up a story outline doesn't mean I'm not plotting out my story. It may be mostly intuition at work, and I may keep the major plot points mostly in my head until they are written down in the actual story, but I am still following the structure. And, going by the tutorial up there, I have actually been following it pretty faithfully. (I guess I must have developed some kind of intuition from all the reading I've been doing.)

It's not Intuition. It's Experience.
-- You've read and written so much, your brain has figured out how to do correctly 'on purpose' what you used to do correctly 'by accident.'

Congrats!

~~~~~~~~~~

This is by far my favorite in the series. Thanks.

The "wrong direction" thing really helped me get some possible perspectives I could integrate.

Excellent!
-- I love being helpful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aemored99:

Its quite simple,​

I simply won't right an ending.​

Are you planning to wrong your ending instead?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[KoyukiMegumi]

No, especially if you're a voracious reader.
-- Once a reader digests an enormous amount of stories; books, movies, TV...they begin to see the patterns. If said reader becomes a writer, those patterns crop up in the stories they write. One of those patterns being; the ability to predict the ending of a tale by the fourth chapter.

Someone that good at predicting endings has a tendency to write their stories by setting up the ending first to ensure that their ending is Not predictable by the fourth chapter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hahah! I think you nailed me! I usually can tell how a book/story is going to end before it even starts flowing towards the climax. There are some exceptions that genuinely surprise me, but my hubby calls me a killjoy when we watch movies or series together. I am like... well... it was obvious he was the bad guy who was going to betray everyone.

 

[ConcubusBunny]

Is it weird that I don't have an ending to be honest the main plot of my story are the characters so the end will be them getting their shit together and working as a unit I think that's a good ending for my story.
Also that game thrones part, damn that's some analogy, I never thought someone critique the bad choices that the series had in SH thread

 

[Armored99]

Ignoring my joke comment, I think the best ending is usually one that reflects the beginning.

(To clarifiy I'm not talking about that stupid timeloop book series)

Its like writing an essay, the first paragraph introduces you to the topics and the last paragraph goes back and concludes those same topics.

Hmmm... its like if a story begins with loss, it should conclude with either a gain or a loss.

If the story begins with someone dying, it should end with someone dying, or being born.

Like a reflection it shows the same thing but reversed, so both the same and opposite are acceptable.

But that's just my idea of how a ending can be poetic, while showing the difference from the start and end.

 

[RedHunter2296]

Excellent article with very good advice.The truth is I am impressed by your work and the different articles you have written


it's funny because I have planned it over and over again with my story for years. The ending that I have planned for the story actually excites me even just thinking about how I'm going to write it.

But the truth is I was so fond of the characters that I really would like to continue their adventures even more.

So I will probably write it as I have it planned to the end. Then I'll take a chapter talking to the readers that up to here the story was planned in its entirety and that the following chapters apart from there will be short episodes without a long-term plot. It is something similar to scooby doo where each chapter was its own adventure and nothing else. But I'm still undecided about the latter and maybe if I make a second season at all XD

 

[OokamiKasumi]

Is it weird that I don't have an ending[?] to be honest the main plot of my story are the characters so the end will be them getting their shit together and working as a unit I think that's a good ending for my story.

If you're writing a 'character focused' story, then the characters getting their shit together and learning to work together is a perfectly fine ending.

It's also the most common ending in any '4 man band', the '5 man band' and superhero stories.

​

Also that game thrones part, damn that's some analogy, I never thought someone critique the bad choices that the series had in SH thread

The problem with Game of Thrones, was that the author was Still Writing the Books while filming!

The TV people grabbed an unfinished series and offered the author a huge amount of money to let them have it. Foolishly, the man did. After which, the man was under enormous pressure to finish the series at top speed. Of course he made massive mistakes. In fact, he's still not done yet!

From what I understand, he gave up and told them the ending, then told them to do whatever they wanted as long as the ending stayed the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excellent article with very good advice.The truth is I am impressed by your work and the different articles you have written

Thank you!
-- Would you believe that most of my essays were written as notes for myself? As I discovered things I wrote extensive notes on how they should be done, so I wouldn't forget. When other authors started asking me how I did a certain thing, I just dug through my essays and posted sections from my notes.

Just so you know, I have well over 300 documents with writing tips, most of which have never seen the light of day because no one has asked that question yet.

it's funny because I have planned it over and over again with my story for years. The ending that I have planned for the story actually excites me even just thinking about how I'm going to write it.

But the truth is I was so fond of the characters that I really would like to continue their adventures even more.

So I will probably write it as I have it planned to the end. Then I'll take a chapter talking to the readers that up to here the story was planned in its entirety and that the following chapters apart from there will be short episodes without a long-term plot. It is something similar to scooby doo where each chapter was its own adventure and nothing else. But I'm still undecided about the latter and maybe if I make a second season at all XD

Another thing you can do is take your favorite characters' personalities and put them in new bodies with new backgrounds -- recycling them for new stories.

I can't tell you how many times I modeled my female characters on this one actress, yet each one turned out completely different because the story changed the character along the way.

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[greyblob]

Just so you know, I have well over 300 documents with writing tips, most of which have never seen the light of day because no one has asked that question yet.

The few you have posted have been incredibly helpful, so I don't have much to say other than please and thank you.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Good stuff, as always!

 

[OokamiKasumi]

The few you have posted have been incredibly helpful, so I don't have much to say other than please and thank you.

You could always suggest something people want to know?

The synopsis stuff I have is too small for a whole post. It's more instructions on how to convert a romance manuscript into a 3 paragraph essay that doesn't give away the plot than anything else. That won't work for other genres.

 

[greyblob]

You could always suggest something people want to know?

The synopsis stuff I have is too small for a whole post. It's more instructions on how to convert a romance manuscript into a 3 paragraph essay that doesn't give away the plot than anything else. That won't work for other genres.

How about descriptions, characters, environments, etc. How much is too little and too much. Which ones to describe and which to ignore. I think I have the gest of it figured out, but I'd like to hear your opinion.