On Endings
O hai fandom, i r still here. R u?
RL has been fairly hectic of late, so I have been reading in fandom, but that's about it. However, I was thinking about stories in the shower this morning. What? I have lots of random brain-meanderings in the shower.
So endings. They seem to be one of the hardest things to achieve successfully, particularly in longer fics. The shorter ones are often a snapshot. They have less build up, they require less winding down. But longer fics (I'm thinking 10000+ words) can be really tricky. They usually include a pairing, often with the two romantic leads coming together during the course of the story. (This may just reflect on my reading material of late, I haven't exactly done any serious research on this.) I've read some great build-ups, rich and textured, with some character development and world-building and excellent pr0n. But it seems they often get through the climactic (climatic? I am having a vocabulary failure, sorry) scene and... they're done. Cue standard Mills and Boon ending. The two main characters have a soppy romantic exchange, or the POV character has a moment of soppy romantic reflection, and they all lived happily ever after.*
I'm not a writer, so I can only speculate. Is it simply difficult to actually draw a line to say where the story ends, so it can be a bit abrupt? Is it dull to write, because you've done all the good bits and now it's over? Am I just being insultingly simplistic?
Does anyone have thoughts or opinions?
EDIT: I've been thinking about this some more - does it have to do with writing toward the climax of the story rather than the end, as such?
*OK, disclaimer here - I tend not to read DarkFic or straight out angst unless someone massively recommends it. I like my happy, or at least hopeful, endings. That said, I'm prepared to read through a lot of trauma and angst to get there. Just so's we're clear.
RL has been fairly hectic of late, so I have been reading in fandom, but that's about it. However, I was thinking about stories in the shower this morning. What? I have lots of random brain-meanderings in the shower.
So endings. They seem to be one of the hardest things to achieve successfully, particularly in longer fics. The shorter ones are often a snapshot. They have less build up, they require less winding down. But longer fics (I'm thinking 10000+ words) can be really tricky. They usually include a pairing, often with the two romantic leads coming together during the course of the story. (This may just reflect on my reading material of late, I haven't exactly done any serious research on this.) I've read some great build-ups, rich and textured, with some character development and world-building and excellent pr0n. But it seems they often get through the climactic (climatic? I am having a vocabulary failure, sorry) scene and... they're done. Cue standard Mills and Boon ending. The two main characters have a soppy romantic exchange, or the POV character has a moment of soppy romantic reflection, and they all lived happily ever after.*
I'm not a writer, so I can only speculate. Is it simply difficult to actually draw a line to say where the story ends, so it can be a bit abrupt? Is it dull to write, because you've done all the good bits and now it's over? Am I just being insultingly simplistic?
Does anyone have thoughts or opinions?
EDIT: I've been thinking about this some more - does it have to do with writing toward the climax of the story rather than the end, as such?
*OK, disclaimer here - I tend not to read DarkFic or straight out angst unless someone massively recommends it. I like my happy, or at least hopeful, endings. That said, I'm prepared to read through a lot of trauma and angst to get there. Just so's we're clear.