Writing Endings

[inevitableentresol]

I have a real trouble writing endings. I plan my ending, I can see it, and then just a little from the final push I often grind to a halt.

This has happened to me many times. It always seems to be for a different reason. So far these have included:

> I hit a plot point I hadn't worked out yet, or forget what I'd decided to do about it.
> There are so many threads to tie up and my brain busts something trying to hold onto them all.
> I get worried readers won't like how the story is going to end.
> I get sucked into research instead and never come out.
> I get crippling embarrassment that my story is rubbish, and if I don't finish it, I never have to show it to anyone.
> I get distracted by other ideas for stories and lose momentum.
> Story fatigue. My brain just wants a break from these characters or the setting.
> Or conversely, I'm enjoying the story so much I don't want it to end.

Does anyone else have trouble with endings? How did you solve it? Or are some stories just better off staying unfinished?

About half the time, I breeze right through to the end of a story no problem. I don't know what makes these any different than the ones that I have trouble with.

Any thoughts? What works for you?

Comments

[sarillia]

I really wish I had some useful advice on this but I'm not sure how this works for me. I always plan my stories about 3/4 of the way through and then leave the ending open as I'm writing. Somehow it always just sort of comes together by the time I get there, though I'm constantly surprised by it. I guess maybe it helps that I don't put too much pressure on it. I just let all the details simmer in the back of my mind until some ideas come up that just seem to naturally flow out of the story. Of course they need to be fixed up later and then I deal with the same problems and insecurities as you but I find them easier to deal with when I have something concrete down that I can tinker with rather than when I'm trying to make myself do the initial work.

[inevitableentresol]

I've also found that over-planning the ending does not work for me. Not putting too much pressure on myself is key.

My approach at the moment is to start many, many stories and not necessarily worry about finishing them. The more I start, the more will get eventually completed, just by accident if nothing else. It seems like backwards logic but nothing else has yet worked for me so well.

Perhaps I should just stop worrying. We're all different. Yet it's hard not to feel like I'm doing something wrong when other writers seem to have a much higher finish rate. Or is this way of working normal and nobody really talks about it?

I reckon I finish a little less than half the stories I start. And I'm talking about ones I've put at least weeks of work into. There are countless others where it's just plot ideas and a couple of pages of the first chapter or dialogue.

Your comment was really useful, thanks. Though my trouble seems to increase the more I've already written. Having something concrete already down makes things more difficult.

[sarillia]

I have no idea what's normal. Writing is one of those things where it seems like no matter what your method is, you're probably worried you're doing it wrong because there's so much conflicting information and advice. As far as I can tell, you just have to figure out what works for you and try to ignore the people insisting there's a Right Way.

[inevitableentresol]

Great advice, thank you. :)

Sometimes people try to give me how-to-write books as presents. I pass them all on unread for exactly this reason. Even if there was good stuff in them, it's just not worth it on the offchance they'll make me feel like I'm doing it all wrong and tense up.

Every time I read writing advice online, even from writers I admire, I disagree with most of what they say. The only exception, for some reason, is Graham Linehan. I get a lot from his commentaries.

[splinteredstar]

Yeah, seriously. I have read a dozen "advice for writers" books and maybe gotten three useful bits of information, and a great deal of "well you're clearly doing that wrong".