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  1. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    1,000 Ways To..... End A Story

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by J.T. Woody, Jul 17, 2018.

    GB Reader posted a thread asking for help on how to end a short story.

    I'm having the same problem!
    When I complete short stories, I put them aside and don't look at them for a long period of time. Then I bring them back out and re-read/edit them for potential submission.

    Well, with two of my shorts, I've seem to hit a wall with the endings. In both of them, the protagonist dies (should be easy, right? Death. The end).

    The first story is kind of surreal: boy doesn't fit in; he's a sensitive boy who is afraid of heights who was bullied from the time he went to school. He has a traumatic experience with on of the bullies that results in him falling from from a high place, breaking his arm and getting a concussion. From that day on, he becomes obsessed with heights. He feels that, while falling, time seems to slow down to a stand still. It becomes an ongoing theme and a coping mechanism for him during hard times. His parents are going through a divorce, this he gets suspended from the 6th grade for assault, his best friend commits suicide in high school, his therapist is a creep. In the end, he wants to know why these things are happening to him and wants to go back to the beginning, and does so by jumping off a building (the whole "my life flashed before my eyes" thing).
    I've rewritten the end so many times in various ways: .... 1) he thinks about his best friend suicide...... 2) he thinks about his parents and his therapist and his bullies (were they the reason he was "messed up"?).....3) he questions whether or not he fell that day he broke his arm of if he intentionally meant to jump (insinuating that he was always "messed up")
    Or should I just end it with him standing on the roof and let the readers fill in the blanks of why he did what he did (i've currently deleted the last few paragraphs of the ending and just left it hanging)?


    Second story takes place in a dystopian future: family is picnicking in the desert, at the edge of a suburb in ruins. They are the only family left. The mother is hysterically crying over a spilled glass of juice ("There's not enough left!"), so the dad tells the boys to go play while he calms the mom. The main character (sort of) is the oldest of the boys, who is 10. He and his little brother wander the deserted neighborhood as he reflects on what it used to look like and how his friends "went away" one by one to this space ship that would take them to a new world with green grass and swimming pools and baseball (what his dad told him). He remembers the various people in the neighborhood, and in the typical sibling fashion, hashes out some issues with his brother (fighting and teasing). They eventually wander back to the picnic where their mother is "asleep" and the dad is sad.
    Again, I've rewritten the ending so many times: 1)they look up at the sky and watch the ship leave without them (proving that this "space ship" the father told his sons about was real), 2)they hold each other as the world actually ends (the idea of the space ship was to get off of earth because the world was about to end), 3) they go on with their picnic and, like the mother, fall asleep (juice=spiked. peaceful, quick, and painless), 4) [and what it currently is now], the dad tells his children about that magical place where everything is green and alive, where their friends are waiting for them, as the kids drink the rest of their juice and drift off to sleep and the boy looks up at his dad's sad face (not enough juice left, as the mother says) and realizes what he had already known, the ship had never existed.
     
  2. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I'm sorry, but death is probably the worst ending a short story can have. You're talking about submissions, you've got to read what's out there. It's all in the delivery, but maybe something inside is telling you to take a tired story in a fresh direction. That would be my guess.
     
    jannert likes this.
  3. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    I don't set out to write these stories. I don't map them out. I write and thats where it always goes. It would feel forced and unnatural if I take something that im in the middle of writing and suddenly add rainbows and sunshine, or a happy, neatly wrapped up ending. I don't know why my short fiction is like that; my short fiction has always been like that since I've started writing. Its not to say that that is all that I write (my longer works are totally different from works 20 pages and under). The books and stories I read have nothing to do with death or darker themes about dying. It is what it is.

    I don't find the stories tiring at all. Its just the endings don't click. its not "right" or I didn't do it the "right" way. the subject isn't the issue to me. Its like painting... I'd paint something and its not quite right to my eye. My classmates and my instructor could say great things about it, but to me, all I see is one lopsided angle, or that eye doesn't quite match the other eye. Or maybe I should add something - anything- to this one blank area.
    You know something isn't right, but you cant quite pinpoint why that is or what you need to fix it
     
  4. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    Read more contemporary short stories. I can't stress that enough. It just sounds like you really don't know or understand what's out there. And I say this because you mention submitting. You want to give yourself the best chance. Reading does that. And reading tends to sort out the majority of problems like the one you're having here.
     
  5. DeeDee

    DeeDee Contributor Contributor

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    They are all very nice endings, but the ending needs to be connected to the rest of the story in some way. It can be happy or sad, it can bring closure or not. It all depends on the whole feel you want to achieve with the story. What do you want the reader to think and feel when they finish reading the story, what reaction should the story evoke? Start from there perhaps.
     
    J.T. Woody likes this.
  6. WaffleWhale

    WaffleWhale Active Member

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    I have to disagree. The worst ending any story can have is "it was all a dream".
     
    John-Wayne, jannert and X Equestris like this.
  7. X Equestris

    X Equestris Contributor Contributor

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    Agreed. Death can be poignant or appropriate in the proper context. "It was all a dream" played completely straight just means everything that happened was completely pointless. Nothing changed. Nothing was achieved or lost. Finding out you were just dreaming in real life is aggravating enough. I don't need that in the fiction I consume too.
     
  8. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Your second story is extremely good. It would have the most punch, in my opinion, if the oldest boy realises before the end that there never was a ship, and comes to understand what his parents are actually doing. I think that's actually a 'coming of age' story with a huge undercurrent of sadness. Sort of like 'no, there is no Santa Claus,' but with horrific undertones.

    The key to the story is the boy's character. How does he see the world? What are his hopes and dreams? What kind of person is he? If you make him convincing, the story will have huge impact on the reader. I remember realising there wasn't a Santa Claus (I figured it out for myself) and feeling okay about it. I was grateful to my parents for having given me that lovely childhood experience. I can never understand adult people who are angry at their parents for 'deceiving' them about Santa. It's almost as if they haven't grown up themselves, and still want Santa to exist. Imaginary characters are a pleasant part of childhood. However, when you leave childhood behind, the imaginary characters (and space ships) go with it. It's what 'growing up' means.

    Your first story also has potential. I'm not as taken with it, mainly because I get a little fed up with 'bully' stories, which seem to be very popular at the moment. I know bullying is a serious issue, but it's always been with us in one form or another, and doesn't always end in suicide. Children can find ways to cope, and become stronger adults for the experience. I think that makes a more interesting story, and makes a less pathetic character as well. But this is sheer personal preference on my part entering here. If you want him to end (or re-start) his life by re-creating the thing he's most scared of, then that's a worthy story ending as well, I suppose. (Just DON'T have it be a dream. Major urrkkkk ending.)

    I think a short story packs more punch if the writer knows what they want to say when they write the story. What are you trying to say? Figure that out, and how to say it will emerge, I reckon. Don't just create a pathetic character, pile on the problems, then wonder what you should do with him. Instead, concentrate your efforts on answering this question: what usually happens to pathetic people who struggle to surmount their problems? Then figure out what you want to say about that.

    Are your pathetic characters missing opportunities to turn the situation around? If so, why? Are there really no opportunities to make things different, or are they just not seeing opportunities, or are they deliberately not taking opportunities they can see?

    Do you believe suicide is the inevitable ending for your character, no matter what he does? (Ask yourself why you do—or don't—believe this.) Are your characters trying to get out of a bad situation, or just wallowing in it? Are they the kind of people who believe life is against them and they are helpless to change anything? Or are they the kind of people who believe they CAN overcome problems—but then circumstances seem to trap them in a spiral of misery, over and over again? Is that just 'life' or is there something they're doing to ensure these kinds of things happen over and over again? You, as an author, have to decide what YOU believe, in order for your stories to be convincing.

    Your ending will come clear in your head, once you know where you stand on the issues the story raises—including the kind of character you are dealing with.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2018
    J.T. Woody likes this.

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