I have an idea for the ending of my book. I wont spoil or go into too much detail but basically it will end with the main character learning that the journey in the book is actually him reliving the original journey he had many years ago. At the end of the original journey the main antagonist froze him in a time lock (along with two others) and were forced to relive the jurney again and again without knowing of the time lock. Eventually the other two go out (for reasons i will no explain) and the third, the main protagonist could never seem to get out. This is not really the ending , more like a few pages before but i wont reveal the very ending yet. But i also dont want to have a cop out ending for the reader. I dont want the reader to think the whole book was pointless becuase eventually re living the journey helps him to get out of the time lock. I suspose it has a hint of The dark tower ending? but yeah. I dont want to commit to this ending (currently still planning the book) until i get some advise on it. Many thanks for all of your time Also ps I dont want the administers to think im clogging up the forums im not. no more threats for a while. sticking by the rules
Cool username - John Locke was an awesome dude. As far as your ending...so do you mean that he has to go through the whole quest again, or that he was just reliving something (kind of like "it was all just a dream")? If he's in the middle of going on a journey again and again, that could be cool. But if it's the latter, as you've mentioned, it seems like a cop out. I'm just asking to clarify. And ultimately, you're the author, so your call.
Hrmmm I never have any real issue with my endings. In fact, the ending is always the part I nail...It's the beginnings that get me >.<! If you make it end on a note where the main character just goes back to the start of his journey than it's 'taboo'. It's nothing more than a cheap cop-out the way we see with writers using the 'it was just a dream'. If it ends with him breaking out of the time-lock, realizing he's been reliving the same events and taking down the bad guy it'd be cool.
Watch/read (I can't say whether reading is the same as watching, because I've still only seen the film) Shutter Island. Sounds kind of like that, but with more, umm... magic? And also an actual antagonist. And I loved the ending of the Dark Tower. I couldn't stop myself from reading on. It's pretty much my greatest (literary, as a reader,) failing, that I continued to read after I was told I didn't have to any longer. :C
hi people Yeah I agree with the whole cop out thing, Ashrynn it will be more like he breaks out of the timelock. So everything in the book really happens in a few seconds of the time lock. Then yeah he will go kill the main antag oh and btw Mallory agreed John locke was awesomeee
This reminds me of the movie Memento, where the guy has anterograde anmesia and can't remember that he's trying to accomplish the same task over and over. That movie worked. Just be weary of frustrating the reader. There has to be some form of resolution, whether it's a cheerful or somber one.
I think as long as there was actually a point to you writing about the whole time lock journey, it should be all right. I quite liked your idea when I read it, so depends on how it's written I think! However, it doesn't sound like an ending - it sounds like perhaps an ending to say, Volume 1 of a trilogy or something. I mean, surely there's gonna be a story (or certainly I'd personally wonder) once he breaks out of the time lock? The world will be different, your MC will discover new things, how things have changed, how he has to cope and adapt etc etc and the villain will have the upper-hand. How's your MC gonna win against this sorta challenge? And people - will the characters you've established be changed outside of the time lock? Surely they must, 'cause time continued without your MC. And you're gonna have to explain just where your MC was all this time out in the normal time zone and why no one missed him (if he's physically trapped). And if he's only mentally/spiritually trapped (or whatever - anything except physical) - then where was he all this time in the normal time zone? This time lock - is this another realm, dimension, a different world, or is it all in his head? (the "all in his head" option would make it feel like a cop-out I think). All in all, I like it! But you have a few questions you have to answer if you wanna use it. The way I see it, it's not an ending and if it's the ending of a book, then it must be a cliff-hanger where you must follow it with Vol. 2.
