Summer Shorts - Endings

Plan a narrative that has one ending and then write a second equally feasible conclusion.  Once you have decided which one you prefer, you may be able to incorporate elements of both, which will help you to structure the plot of your story with greater subtlety, keeping the reader guessing how it will turn out right until the last moment...

Christmas Cracker Number Ten - Endings

New Year's Eve feels like a good time to be thinking about how to end things.  As the year draws to a close you start to get some kind of perspective on how it has been and I rather like reading and watching the various media roundups of the highs and lows -- it  helps you to take stock.

Being at the cusp of the year like this does illustrate one of the key points of a good ending to a story : it is not just a case of looking back at what has happened, because as one year ends another one, fraught with all kinds of possibilities, beckons. It's the same in fiction. A well tuned narrative should conclude in  a way that at some level anticipates the future. This is not just for the purposes of writing a sequel — I’m not that cynical — but it can give your novel ongoing momentum and in a strange way that enhances the reality of the world you and the reader have together created: it can continue without you; somehow, it has an independent existence.

Happy 2011!