Corny Endings
By Kathleen Bolton | August 27, 2007 |
So. Here we go again.
After another year of dogged determination or sheer insanity, I’m ready to draft out the final chapter of my current wip. Except I don’t know how my book ends.
I mean, I have a vague idea of how it should end (hopefully leaving the reader slavering for more), but I’m waffling between an upbeat ending or something more artistic (e.g. sad). I confess I’m so sick of my wip right now that I want to slap some perfunctory ride-into-the-sunset down and get onto the hard work of revisions. But I know it’s either come up with the ending now, or come up with it after wasting more months navel-gazing. I choose getting on with it now.
So I went back to my trusty Vogler and Frey, and refreshed myself on the guts of good endings.
According to the masters, a good ending should:
- Tie up unanswered questions
- Show how your protagonists have changed
- Reward or punish your protagonists
- Give the reader an emotional catharsis (note: this doesn’t necessarily mean a happy ending, it means eliciting an emotional response–like tears or surprise or discomfort).
A bad ending:
- Has too many endings because the writer couldn’t choose one
- Leaves subplots unresolved
- Ends too abruptly
- Doesn’t support the theme of the story
I guess I should confess now that I’m a fan of the corny ending. Scrooge running out into the street on Christmas Day, thrilled to be alive. Jane Eyre’s, “Reader, I married him.” Danny Zuko’s hotrod soaring into the heavens in the last frame of the movie Grease.
Indeedy, I love me a cornpone ending. Doesn’t mean I want my book to have one, though.
I’m going to take a few days to study my favorite endings to see if I can deconstruct what it is about them that makes them sing to me. Hopefully I’ll find my ‘right’ ending soon.
What makes a good ending for you? Schmaltz? A breathless surprise? Good triumphing over evil? Or maybe the opposite. I’m interested in hearing your opinions. It could help me figure out my own ending.
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
The one essential for me is that, even in the most tragic ending, there should be a note of hope / redemption. The central character(s) should have learned something. I prefer not to be left bitter and depressed.
Hmm. That’s really a tough question, even though it seems the answer would be straightforward. Satisfaction comes, I think, from seeing that final authorial brushstroke splayed out on the page in the way the best serves the work. Stay true to the genre, play out the conclusion and don’t leap away from the hard stuff, and be sure to leave the reader in a place of some satisfaction–otherwise they may not want to read further works.
endings? cool! personally, i prefer the ending to have some meaning behind it; i always hate it when authors rant on about a certain something, then out of desperation for an ending for the story, just sort of stick one in your gut, screw that there’s no finality or moral to the situation. i think that the emphasizing change in your character bullet you have up there probably means most to me.
For me an ending has to lay the characters bare. As a reader, we’ve followed them faithfully through triumph and defeat. We feel like we know what they’re capable of, what they hunger for, and what self-imposed restraints hold them back. I’m always rooting for the hero/heroine to break through their baggage, work up their nerve, and make that dangerous leap towards what they want most in the world.
well, i’m a happy ending kind of person. i did just finish seeing ‘becoming jane’ yesterday afternoon. and the question of happy endings vs. reality did come up. and in the end, even jane chose the happy ending, after many trials for her heroines, and she made sure they always ended up with rich men! really good movie, highly recommend. ann hathaway was so beautiful. p.s. congrats kathleen on the completion of your wip! that, in and of itself, is a happy ending!!!
These are great perspectives. I guess I prefer to shut the book feeling uplifted and satisfied, but I don’t have any problems with a few questions left unanswered. I don’t like endings that are too pat, in other words.
Lots to think about. Thanks, everyone!
What I want from an ending is to feel as if the tumblers of a combination lock have fallen magically into place, opening a door into my heart.
Or maybe what I want to feel is a door clicking softly shut, but not before revealing one last glimpse into the character’s heart… as his or her struggle, which began on page one, comes to a conclusion that feels both surprising yet inevitable.
Inevitable because the ending will have grown out of the choices that the character has made along his or her journey, but surprising in that the reader won’t be able to predict it.
The key to unlocking the ending of your book, I suspect, is in your character’s heart… and in the emotional arc of the story that began with the first words that you put down on paper long ago.
And I’ll bet the key to your ending will appear in your hand the moment you close your eyes … and let go of the ending that you think should appear… and allow your character the freedom to discover his or her own destiny.
Good luck!
I personally perfer endings tinted with both sadness and a gleam of hope at the very end to add a hint of suspence and leave the reader to imagine for themselves what the futures of the characters will hold. It all depends on your story; you have to analize the book and decide what kind of ending your characters would choose.