Hello everyone, I'm a new member and I hope to stay here and read and learn from other writers. I recently created a story which i will post once I've been a member for 14 days. And my story has an open ended ending where after my protagonist speaks, the story ends. Some people that read my story said that they felt that the ending seemed rushed instead of complete. Is there a way to give the reader a sense of a deliberate ending and not something that was rushed by the author with open ended endings?
Perhaps the story seems unfinished. Managing an ending that leaves open questions is not a technique that can be dealt with in generalities. You must provide sufficient closure, or the reader will conclude your story was abandoned.
I'm not sure if this remedied the problem I had. But i decided to end the story with my protagonist doing an action---the action is him leaving a town--- after he speaks a line of dialogue. I thought it might better as a conclusion to do that. I'll post the story in the Writing Workshop once I've met the 14 day requirement.
Welcome blackstar21595. I look forward to your posting of your open-ended ending. They are tricky to pull off satisfactorily. I admit that I hate movie endings that deliberately leave a resolution ambiguous. (I'm not saying your ending will do that). When a movie I've invested time and maybe money in to watch to the bitter end just throws the ending into my lap, I feel derision for the writer for not deciding how it should end. It’s too artsy. A "you decide" ending seems a colossal cop-out to me. There are good open endings. Our MC has made progress enough against the opposing forces of the story that the reader is assured that s/he will have success in the future. Or, for a negative sort of MC, the ending can be the MC is winning now, but you know forces are gathering to bring him/her down. There was a WW II British propaganda movie early in the war when Nazi German appeared unstoppable, where at the very end our hero – a James Bond-like assassin – parachutes into the night over Germany. You know the character well enough by then to know he has the skills to get to Hitler. Still, I need to read your story to see if the ending works for me or not. I’m looking forward to it.
Just so that you know, even though I'm new to these forums, you can expect me to stay here forever (or at least as long as I live). the story that has this open ended ending has 2019 words to be exact. When I post it on February 4(that's when it will be my 14th day) do you want me to PM you and tell you to check it out or will you check the writing workshop on Feb 4th?
no one can tell you if it works or not till they read it... that said, you should never post an entire story/piece of work that you hope to see published some day... doing so can drastically narrow its chances of interesting a paying publisher, since it can be read for free online...
mammamaia, you beat me to that bit of caution about publishing blackstar, I'll read it whether you decide to post it or a very similar story with a similar ending. Likoe thers here, I'll be on the lookout for it after Feb 4. No need to PM.
actually it's on the workshop now lmao. I guess I didn't need to be a member for 14 days then, a week was good I guess
