I have trouble with endings. When I begin writing a story, I do not necessarily know how it will end. Some people have told me that this is not a good way to write, but I find that it works best for me to write one "day in the life" section at a time. I have explained when I am defending my random order concept (instead of writing in chronological order) by pointing out that my writing style works as if I am meeting my characters and find out a little bit about them at a time, from different parts of their lives.
But when it comes to finishing a story, I often get stuck. Even if I know what the culminating event is, the denouement is still difficult to put on paper. It was most apparent to me when I was trying to bring a semi-autobiographical novel (my longest yet) to a close. I figured it was because I could not end my own life story, and so I didn't know how to end the story of such an autobiographical character. But the truth is I have this issue with every piece I write. The shorter the story, the easier it is to leave open-ended, so I often use a non-ending in those cases. But it feels like a cheap trick when writing longer and more in-depth stories.
I'm curious if there are exercises for this, or if there is a way that I can work through this issue. I don't necessarily see dynamic endings in those novels that I read, so I know that it is not a matter of going out with a bang. But those authors do seem to at least satisfy the reader with a finish of some sort. In fact, I'm not even sure that my endings are particularly unsatisfactory. I just know that I struggle and wonder if I have indeed finished the stories. Most of the input I have received on my writing has been about beginnings and broader concepts.
Case in point, I have a few really strong stories that I would like to submit to literary magazines, but I worry that my endings will weigh the judges' decisions against my work. I know that if I had more time to practice and just get words down, then I would have more confidence in this area. But the fact is I don't have time even to do the things that I do from day to day.
But no excuses. I hope to tackle this dilemma with regular writing practice. Perhaps I'll write endings first. Last sentence before the rest of the story. That just might do it...
Nice blog, Shannon.
ReplyDeleteI've never really done much prose writing, but I used to belong to a screen writing salon for about 5 years when I lived in L.A. You might say our approach was always very organic and that worked for me. We were encouraged to kind of let our characters lead us to the ending. Not that we'd have no idea of where to go, but sometimes trying to force your characters into a pre-conceived ending can leave you with something that feels very forced or stiff. I'm personally more interested in character driven material rather than plot driven stories and I believe that if the characters are fleshed out and believable enough, they will take you where the story needs to go. Of course an exception to this would be a story based on real events, in which you pretty much know the story from beginning to end at the start anyway. But still, I think it's a more interesting story if you have a handle on the characters. I struggled for years with a script that was kind of an historical epic and I never got it done because I couldn't get inside the heads or language of the real life characters.
I very much agree with you, Jim. In fact, I hardly ever force my fiction. Rather, I allow my characters to tell their stories to me, and I transcribe them. My stories and novels are all character-driven, and often called literary fiction for that reason, rather than fitting the mainstream fiction category. But for some reason, the characters can't tell me when to stop writing. Another person had commented (but it somehow got lost in the internet ether) that most great writing doesn't really "end." I didn't mean that there had to be a solid ending like "Two bits" to "Shave and a haircut." I meant that the book or story has to have a place to rest and allow the reader to digest the whole. Even with non-endings, the author doesn't simply drift off without completing his thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI've written quite a bit, and I've published a dozen or so of my short stories and poems. It's not as if I'm completely baffled by the process. It's just that it's an interesting dilemma, that once the story is done, we must find a way to safely (or not) bring our readers back home to reality.