My day was too busy to get to the library to check out Nancy Kress's book Beginnings, Middles and Ends, so I did the next best thing to find some answers to the questions I posed in yesterday's post. I googled Nancy Kress and story endings and came up with a good many choices of article to read. With limited time, I read only a few, but one struck me as being very informative and also explained the many ways of completing a story.
Go to http://www.writersdigest.com/article/?p_ArticleId=5708 to read Nancy Kress's article "How To Write Successful Endings."
One type of ending that Ms. Kress writes about is one she terms 'the barely there ending' which seemed to fit the story I mentioned yesterday. I still think it is not going to be a satisfying ending for many readers.
Have you ever read a story or a novel where the ending seems to have been thrown in hurriedly with an attitude of 'let's get this over with so I can get on to the next project?' I've run into that situation several times in the past year or two. With all it takes to complete a full novel, it seems a bit sad to end it with little thought and little regard for the reader.
Endings are important, but so is the rest of the book. There's no place where you can slack off. The entire project deserves the very best an author can give.
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Thanks for the link. I look forward to checking it out. I do have trouble with endings. The problem with me is that it SOUNDS like an ending...contrived, you know? It doesn't quite flow into a proper closure but is more like a bit exclamation point. Thanks for researching this...
ReplyDeleteI really do know what you're talking about as far as an ending SOUNDING like an ending. Almost a cliche type of thing. Right? I know because I have problems with it quite often myself!
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