How's It Going to End?

By -

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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE WRITE PRETENDAS

By -
Image
WE at the League of Reluctant Adults are pissed. Miffed. Put out. Thoroughly riled. We don't often get political, nor do we often get angry. But an angry Leaguer is an UGLY thing. Just look at Mark over there, all snarly with rage. Why are we angry, you ask? BECAUSE WE DIDN'T GET BOYCOTTED. There's this group calling itself "The Write Agenda," who claims to be a bunch of authors looking out for other authors. In reality, we're pretty sure they're a bunch of con artists who got mad at people calling them con artists. Why? Because they attack two of the best friends an author or an aspiring author can ever have: Writer Beware and Absolute Write Water Cooler . Here's John Scalzi's breakdown of what this Write Agenda is, and why they're doing what they're doing. For those not in the know, Writer Beware and Absolute Write Water Cooler are free services that collect information on agents, editors, and publishers. They report on thin...
Read more

Carniepunk Giveaway and Tour!

By -
Image
So, I'm sitting in my kitchen working at my laptop, as far as you know, when the doorbell rings. As any normal human being would, assuming there was a solicitor at the door or a sappy-eyed child selling diet-busting candy, I reached for my gun and slipped to the floor to avoid detection. Creeping across the hall, I lifted my head just in time to see the bestest shit-brown truck that ever existed barrel away leaving a puffy beige package on my doorstep, just like an unwanted baby...or THIS... YESSSSSSS!!! Carniepunk ARCs came!!! Now, some of you may know that this literary wonder was the brainchild of my friend and fellow Reluctant Adult, Kevin Hearne, author of such Iron Druidness as HOUNDED and star of a certain Single Ladies Dance Spectacular, featured here (feel free to witness that particular madness as you continue to read toward the inevitable contest): As excited as I am about my story in CARNIEPUNK (July 23rd), THE SWEETER THE JUICE (a post-apocalyptic zombie h...
Read more

5 Great Horror Movies to Rinse the Bad Taste of Ouija Away

By -
Image
In my ongoing effort to save you from studio horror movies cobbled together from the compressed shit of Hollywood burnouts, I bring you alternatives to OUIJA! #insteadofouija OUIJA has hit DVD/VOD and there's nothing we can do about that but don our gas masks, hunker down and pray for dawn. A horrifying prospect, but at least we can be entertained while waiting for the fallout to subside. Here's a few fantastic 2014 horror movie releases to make you feel like the world is still worth living... OCULUS seems to be a secret to this day. Despite some great buzz and a truly inventive style of storytelling, bouncing back and forth in time so fast the audience is left in a constant state of unease. The story wraps itself around a rapidly deteriorating family relationship brought to the brink of insanity by the presence of a haunted mirror. And that's where things get weird. The acting is pretty above average and the horror set pieces are jarring. OCULUS wasn't my fav...
Read more