Children's story ending... HELP PLEASE!!!

You should have figured out the ending before hand or else what were you building towards when you started? As a reader, we should have in the writer that they know what they are doing and that everything that is placed in the story has a purpose and a meaning in the end. If you don't know what it is yourself, then you're not going to have faith in yourself, and we're definitely not going to have faith in you. You're writing a children's book, you should have had a clear theme laid out right from the beginning when you first started this and the ending should only validate it. It's not rocket science. The problem isn't your ending or what to do with it, your problem is that you didn't start with it and built towards it, having complete faith in yourself that whatever you were doing in the beginning that would all make sense and have a purpose in the end.

 

This may have already been said but if he was trying to find a shell that was right for him, why make it so that he's too oblivious that the "shell" he picked was really a toy car? I think that's where you messed up a little. Fix that and then coming up with a suitable ending should be much easier.

 

It's a kids book. They don't notice those kinds of flaws.

 

Yes but my point was it would open up the plot and bring cohesion to the story. It would be a more meaningful action if he didn't do it blindly. For instance, after selecting the unique toy car to be his shell, he could be rejected by the other snails even more but then a child sees him, amazed and call other kids over and, boom happy ending where he ends up finally finding an accepting home by a family of humans who think he's a cool snail for having a toy car on his back. Sequel idea: He starts a trend of toy car shells and the family begins to have snail races for family and friends to see. He start off as slow but- and this is why I left my earlier comment shorter before. I personally wouldn't want the ending to be written for me. I thought hopefully just a helpful suggestion would do.

 

Okay, well I reread every single post earlier tonight twice, then opened up Word and went for it!

I just wanted to say thank-you again to everyone that offered any help or suggestions =)
Everyone's different suggestions and opinions got my juices flowing again and so I was actually able to write! So goodbye writer's block~

I kind of combined more than one suggestion from a few people and worked out what I hope is now a cool ending. I just need to perfect the wording..etc a little.
Once completely done, I'll be posting the final in workshop section... So will let ya guys know in case anyone's curious how it turned out or is open to giving critiques.

Thank-yous

 

Oh and BTW; your suggestions helped so much that it actually by chance set up a sequel! LOL.
It ties to the ending we ended up with and will not only give me something fun to work on afterwards, but give the kids I read it to somethin cool to look forwards to as well =)

 

Actually, without trying to come across as a wet-blanketing old granny know-it-all, I think I'd like to reinforce drifter's point a bit. (Drifter seems to be banned. I don't know why, but I feel the point he/she made on this topic was valid.)

I'm not so bothered with the fact that the writer started out without an ending in mind—lots of us do that, and the story grows with the writing. I'm bothered because the writer asked for other people's ideas of what the ending should be.

This is becoming a too-common subject on forum threads, in my opinion. Help. I'm stuck. What should my character do next, etc. This is writing by committee. Getting opinions on what you've already written is fine—that's what critiquing is all about. But getting opinions on what you SHOULD be writing, or what your story should be before you've written it? That's crossing a line, and I feel it's a mistake.

If you feel stuck for an ending, just wait. Let it cook in your own head until YOU come up with the 'right answer.' If you run to somebody else for help every time you get stuck for an idea, you'll never actually be writing your own story. Yes, other people will come up with fantastic ideas you never thought of yourself. But you'll never know what your own insight would have been if you'd stuck with the problem and solved it yourself, will you? If you glom onto one (or more) of these other solutions instead? You'll have taken the uncreative way out.

If your writing is to be unique, and not just a hotch-potch of other people's ideas, you need to solve your story problems yourself. That means thinking deeply about a story idea, and not giving up until the solution comes to you. By all means, ask for help with any WRITING problems you encounter ...how best to tell your story, structure, SPAG, etc. But if your basic story isn't really your own story—from start to finish—what's the point? It's the difference between being an artist and coloring in a coloring book or painting by numbers. All of these give you a pretty picture at the end, but only one of them will be your own work.

I think writing by committee is a bad habit to cultivate—unless collaborative writing is going to be your thing. I never say never, and I suppose in certain cases a brainstorming session can get your creativity flowing again. But other people's ideas can become intrusive. The ideas other people give you suddenly become your ideas, and they will be hard to shake.

 

Well at risk of going a bit off topic (as Rachelle has said she got what she needed, I don't feel too guilty!) I respectfully disagree with @jannert

Obviously there is a sense of achievement from producing something from start to finish by yourself but the idea that a story is the work of one person's imagination is a modern one. Obvious examples : Shakespeare rewrote source stories and adapted history. Chaucer pretended to have found his works of fiction as the kudos at that time was in discovering, rather than creating something new. Fairytales/myths are constantly being rewritten. TV/films/books/comics etc all adapt one another and reuse the same plot in new ways

Human beings work in teams in all sorts of ways for all sorts of purposes. Writers take inspiration from all walks of life. I suppose what I'm getting at is, I think the line @jannert feels is being crossed is quite a blurry one to start with!

Personally I do prefer to write alone first and then get feedback from others but I don't think it's a 'mistake' to do otherwise.

Obviously there comes a point where a poster is just saying, "I want to write a story about a crab, tell me what to write" and I wouldn't bother responding!

In this case, Rachelle had hit a bump and asked for some ideas to get her moving again. Plenty of posters were intrigued enough to make suggestions. Which ones she takes, how she writes the ending and any further ideas that are sparked off in her head as a result of reading the suggestions are all opportunities for creativity. It's up to her whether she feels happy with letting other people have that level of influence over her story, and of course, up to us whether we feel comfortable giving that level of input.

I appreciate @jannert is giving an opinion and I hope it's clear I'm not trying to start an argument- it just got me thinking about my own opinion in response

 

I have one question... HOW DA HECK DOES HE SLIDE INTO A TOY CAR? Ok, sorry that was a bit abrupt. When I think toy car I think "Hot Wheels" which isn't easy for a hermit crab to "slide" into. XD

Perhaps at the end someone points out it's a car and he then goes on a journey to return it to the boy who in return gives him another shell? I don't know... I'm bad at writing kids' stories.

 

Of course, you're right. I do understand the value of brainstorming. And I do feel that this OP probably is doing it right as well. Her story was nearly finished and rather than seizing upon one of the answers she got, the responses seem to have sparked her own creativity. So all good, I reckon. Never say never, I guess.

However, I do feel it's a dodgy habit to get into. Ooops I'm stuck, I'll ask the forum. Of course you get responses. What makes me nervous about this method of story creating is thinking : but what if there was nobody to ask? Would this writer just abandon the story? Maybe, maybe not. But if they don't abandon the story, what they WOULD do is come up with an ending all on their own. They would think about it a lot, have a eureka moment, and things would fall into place for them. I hate to see this part of the creative process being bypassed.

And thank you, by the way, for demonstrating how a disagreement over writing issues can be debated without any hint of nastiness or name-calling, etc. I'm very appreciative you took the time to think about my point.