THE END IS NIGH

I recently tackled how to begin your story and now blog-reader Sleepycatt wants me to tackle endings. What you all don't realise is that middles are the really tricky bit: we must work very hard to avoid saggy middles. I think it's the chocolate and sitting down all day hunched over our keyboards what does it.

Telling you about endings is easy. Writing them is easy too. You just put "THE END" and go and lie down in a darkened room to prepare for the party.

Obviously, it's the bit just before you write those magic words, THE END, that's so fraught with worry. There are two reasons for this:

1. Readers are most annoying. Some of them want happy endings; others aren't satisfied if there's even one character left alive. Some want everything neatly tied up; others want to wonder. Some like mystery; others wanted it crystal-clear. Some aren't even satisfied with an ending: they want an epilogue too, greedy sods. 
2. If you've written a good book, your reader is seriously narked that it's finished. Especially if your bloody publisher has gone and filled the last few pages with adverts for other books, some of which may not even be yours, and your reader had thought there was at least another chapter to go. So, your pissed off reader is going to be pissed off whatever ending you do.

In view of both these things, there is only one sensible general point to make about endings:

Do what feels right for your book - someone's going to hate you, whatever you do, so just do it, shut your eyes and get over it. Stay loyal to your book and, for once, sod the readers. Normally, I say think of your readers first, but in relation to endings there is no point in thinking of them. Every book I've written has had people who loved the book but wished the ending had been different. And others who loved the ending. What you don't usually get is people who hated the book and loved the ending: so, do it for your book, not your readers.

However, you wouldn't want me to stop there, so let me offer some specific points to consider. Please file them away in your head and consider them only if you are genuinely having a problem with your ending, and then only obey them in as far as they help your book. Your book is the boss.

AGE and GENRE MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Certain types of book tend to require different types of ending. Books for children [as opposed to YA] require greater optimism, clarity and resolution. Books for teenagers are more open to a variety of endings but you'd still be unlikely to get away with a very gloomy ending. With adult genres, as well as children's writing, you must be an expert in your genre so that you know what type of ending is usual in that genre. [Break rules if you want to, but know the rules first.] More "literary" fiction is, by its nature, much more open to esoteric and risky approaches, but any lit fic writer who needs general advice on endings probably isn't ready to write the middle either!

SOME RESOLUTION IS ESSENTIAL

Although not every thread has to be tied up neatly, you can't leave strands completely flailing in the wind. The reader needs to know that you haven't forgotten a character on the edge of a cliff. So, let's say you don't need a neat ending, but you do need the reader to feel that at least some good degree of resolution and partial closure has been reached. Even if you are leaving the way for a sequel, it should be apparent that the sequel will involve new adventures for the characters, not simply a completion of the ones you should have completed here. After all, your sequel may be a couple of years away, or never happen at all.

Your book deserves a proper ending, even if your readers disagree what that ending is.

IT'S ALL ABOUT SHAPE AND STRUCTURE

An ending should round the book off. When it comes, it should feel as though this is where the book was leading all the time, even if the reader didn't see it coming until a little while before. It has to feel like part of the book, rounding it off as though it's what you, the writer, intended all along in a controlled planning kind of a way, even if your planning is no more controlled than mine [which is not very].

THE LEAD-UP IS IMPORTANT

By the time the reader reaches the end, big surprises are not necessary, though twists in the tail are fun if handled correctly. There should be a sense of things coming to an ending, of threads being pulled together in advance and not all at the same time. Your book does not end in the last chapter: it has begun to end before then, which is all part of shape and structure.

I LIKE SECOND-ENDINGS

Second-endings are a bit like epilogues and are sometimes offered as such. They feel something like a sigh of relief, a bow at the end of a performance, a wave goodbye, the follow-through of a golf swing, even an encore after a well-received concert. The work is done, the threads are tied as much as they're going to be, but there's something else you'd like to say, something that you think the book and the reader deserve. An example of a book where I did this and which seemed to hit the mark with readers was Deathwatch. It may make you cry, because you'd forgotten about this minor character, but there he is, and you're glad to see him again, and how he says goodbye seems very fitting. Thinking about it, I've done second-endings in Fleshmarket, The Highwayman's Curse, The Passionflower Massacre and Sleepwalking, too. This could be a habit.

DO NOT CHEAT YOUR READERS

Your readers have expectations. That's why they've spent hours following your characters. Although some of them won't like the ending, and may hate you, I don't think it's fair to cheat them, if for no other reason that you might quite like them to read your next book. Waking up and finding it's all a dream is a cheat [and a cliché] and there are many other ways in which I hope you won't cheat your reader. But do it if you want to - if it's right for your book.

ON THE OTHER HAND...

I have just done the ultimate cop-out. My next book, Wasted, which is about risk and chance, has two endings. The difference between the two is enormous - life or death, though it's not as simple as that - but the difference hangs on the thinnest knife-edge, the equivalent of Schrodinger's Cat, which is another theme of the book. But, before you get to read them, you have to toss a coin to determine which is the actual ending. So, if you don't like the ending, don't blame me: blame the coin...

That's the end from me. So, to round off, say good-bye and prepare you nicely for THE END:
There are so many vocal and widely-read people who read this blog that I'm sure there will be a plethora of comments and views of "endings I have loved and hated". I think that would be great - it will point you all in the directions of endings to inspire or warn you. But remember: it's your book and really only you should decide the best ending for it. It's your privilege and your power. Use it wisely!

 THE END