How's It Going to End?

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If you've never seen The Truman Show with Jim Carrey, I highly recommend that you go and watch it. Right now. I'll wait.

...

Did you watch it? Wasn't it awesome? And how about that ending?

Endings are important for books (and movies). A truly good ending can make you happy for days -- and a bad ending can leave you feeling angry, cheated, and possibly ready to storm an author's house with torches and pitchforks *coughStephenKingWizardAndGlasscough*. So, as an author, I take endings very seriously.

Right now, endings are on my mind because I'm right at the beginning of a shiny new novel, and everything about it is awesome and amazing and exciting (for now -- that will change when I get to the middle, but at the moment I'm loving the book). And, for perhaps the first time in all my novel-writing years... I have no idea how it's going to end.

Oh, I have a vague concept that the main character will somehow triumph over adversity. But that's all I got. This is slightly worrying.

He might just kill everyone. And then all get to write the epic final line: And everyone died. The end.

But that just isn't a satisfying ending.

So I've been contemplating truly great endings in the hopes that one of them will spark a fabulous wrap-up for Shiny New Book. Here's what I have so far:

Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz -- okay, so this one was unexpected and made me... emotional. Very, very emotional. But once I stopped weeping, I realized that the book had to end the way it did, and I was satisfied. Mostly. If I ever meet Dean Koontz, I might smack him a little. But then I'd be okay.

Night Watch, Terry Pratchett -- I absolutely adore Pratchett, and this one is my all-time favorite Discworld novel. Yes, it's got a lot to do with Vetinari being a primary character, and being terribly Vetinari-ey throughout, but the ending has a lot to do with it, too. It's masterfully done, with everything wrapped up and accounted for.

The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan -- Yeah, it's a movie. But the ending is epic. EPIC. I adore being completely surprised... and I loved the way that, when this movie was in theaters, absolutely no one talked about it after they watched it. The ending was that good. Even the mean-spirited people didn't want to ruin it.

What are some of your favorite endings? And if you don't mind... would you tell my how my book is going to end? I'm still lost.

Comments

Karen said…
Odd Thomas is one of my FAVORITE books! Poor Odd - he breaks my heart.

Other books that have epic ends? Hmmm...

The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell. The end is tragic but all the more satisfying because it really can't end any other way.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (part of her Wicked Lovely series). This one was my favorite.

Spirit Dances by C.E. Murphy. The latest in her Walker Paper series. The end literally was a W!T!F!H! moment. I had to go back and reread the last few chapters twice because it shocked me (and that's hard to do).

Every book Rob Thurman has ever written. Epic and satisfying.

...and your book will end like its supposed to end. Don't worry. It will come to you.
May 3, 2011 at 7:48 AM
Sonya said…
Hooray! I don't have to preach the Gospel of Odd. :-)

All these sound great... I'm going to have to check them out! Except maybe The Reapers are the Angels. I might still be crying over Odd Thomas a little... don't know how much more tragedy I can take. LOL
May 3, 2011 at 10:34 AM
The Frizzy Hooker said…
The ending of Odd Thomas made me cry. I think I yelled at my roommate for not warning me.
The ending of Faefever made me scream and shout. I had convinced myself that it was a trilogy. So I guess it wasn't an ending?
Enders Game. Poor Ender. Poor poor Ender. That was a hell of an ending. Adults are butt holes.
May 3, 2011 at 12:48 PM
Sonya said…
Oh, me too! I wept, like Lestat crying blood tears weeping, man. And I had no one to warn me, since no one else I knew had braved reading it yet.

I got messed up with Faefever -- it was the first (and ended up the only) of the Fever series I read. Someday I should start from the beginning...

Ender's Game is another great one! And I concur... poor, poor Ender. :-(
May 3, 2011 at 2:00 PM
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