Goldilocks and the Three Endings

Some of you have recently become members of the Tiki Team by clicking on my Follow button. Thank you. I like new friends. I also like all my old friends here. So, everyone, kick off your flip-flops, introduce yourselves, and make yourselves at home.

If I haven't already welcomed you to Under the Tiki Hut, I'll do so now. Welcome!

If I have welcomed you, then you got to hear it again. I'm happy all of you are here, and I hope you'll come back and visit often.

On Mondays I blog about writing. Usually it's something a little off the wall or an exercise or a commentary on things we need to be aware of. Rarely will you find any sort of how-to post here. For starters, they're everywhere by writers with a lot more street creds than I have.

But the real reason I choose not to do how-to is because every writer has his or her own way of doing things, especially writing things. If I do post about something particular, it's always what works for me, or how I accomplish something. Maybe it will work for you or maybe it won't. Or maybe it will give you an idea or two of your own to try. Or share what works for you.

Even if I forget to say it, it's never meant as you MUST do it this way.

Today I want to chat about endings. What's worse than reading a story that has you enthralled or caught up in how the plot would resolve or how the hero and heroine would ever get together . . . only to go "what?" when you finish the last page.

Over the past few months I've read several novels. Most of them had full, satisfying endings. Then there were two.

One just stopped. There was barely a climax - don't go there - and definitely no denouement. I wanted to know what happened next . . . and I never did find out. Except for making up my own ending.

The other kept on going and going and going following the climax. But had I blinked, I would've missed the denouement. A good twenty pages, maybe more, all still devoted to how the characters related to one another. The author had spent the majority of the book belaboring these relationships, and why I kept reading, I'm not sure, except the author was highly recommended. The story was finished, done, over, kaput - yet the author still hadn't had enough. I wanted to scream.

I know who these authors are, and I won't read them again, at least not for a long while. There are others on this same list of mine. People obviously like them. Some regularly make the bestseller lists. But I still think they could write better endings. And I still won't read them again.

The ending needs to fit the story. How simple is that?

Don't let yours fall short. Or long. Make it just right.

Like Goldilocks :)