Important PSA to authors

amother

OP ↓

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 1:55 am

I invested a lot of time in reading your book and then you abruptly ended it without a satisfying conclusion. It seems to be some kind of trend, perhaps in order to get readers to keep thinking about the (unfinished) story. Or to leave an opening in case your book becomes a bestseller and you decide to write a sequel. However, it’s so frustrating to be left hanging like that!

If the last 20 chapters discuss a major surgery, don’t end the book without us knowing if the guy recovers. Don’t end the book without telling us if the main character finally had the baby she was praying for. Or got married to the guy of her dreams. Or whatever the whole book was leading up to!

I would greatly appreciate an ending like this- “Sara finally agreed to marry Danny and they had a beautiful, if simple, wedding. They were happily married overall and were blessed with three daughters. Sara worked as a speech therapist and Danny worked as an accountant until they retired together at age 65. She and her husband eventually moved in with their oldest daughter Rikki until they both died in their 90s. They were buried nearby in a Jewish cemetery.”

I’m only partly exaggerating. At least end it with the burning issues being resolved.

Thank you. Rant over.

amother

Honeysuckle

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 1:59 am

YES!

And please, I am reading your book for entertainment. Let me close the book in a good mood! I know real life is full of misery, I'm reading a book to escape it for a little while.

Living happily ever after may be cliche but I don't need to add angst for the characters I just spent hours with on top of the angst from my own life.

The books I return to again and again are the ones with happy endings.

amother

Butterscotch

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 2:09 am

Writer here!

Agree with op about not leaving things hanging but strongly disagree about tying it all up neatly. There’s a fine line in between those two options, where you leave the reader with enough to go on so it’s not like you ended the story abruptly mid-plot, but you also left a nice chunk to the imagination.

When people ask me: But what happened AFTER xyz was resolved at the end of your book, I tell them: You tell me!

Re happy endings, I’ve done both and I will just tell you this: There are all kinds of people in the world, and not everyone appreciates a Pollyanish ending. Writers need to cater to all preferences, not just yours.

Hope this clears some things up!

amother

↑ OP ↓

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 2:28 am

amother Butterscotch wrote:

Thanks for your input! I’m curious why you need to leave a nice chunk up to imagination.. I really prefer you just tie it up neatly for me!

ora_43 ↓

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 2:52 am

I think it's all about expectations.

Eg if it's a straightforward 'whodunit' mystery, we'd better know at the end who did it and why. OTOH if it's a gritty police procedural about a world-weary detective, it's OK if some cases are never neatly resolved.

If Sarah and Asher are the main characters of what begins as a romantic comedy, we'd better not only see them get together but get a view of them being happy together. OTOH if Sarah's dating life was only ever the background for a story about the relationship between her and her older sister, then it's OK if we never find out who she ended up with (although we'd better know what happened with her sister).

But yeah, one major mistake beginning authors make is mixing up 'unexpected' and 'good'. An ending that doesn't answer the questions you've spent the whole book setting up is sure unexpected, but it's not good. And failing to give the readers what they expect is one of the writing sins that you can't compensate for. No amount of beautiful prose is going to make a book good if the ending isn't satisfying.

↑ ora_43

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 4:14 am

amother OP wrote:

Thanks for your input! I’m curious why you need to leave a nice chunk up to imagination.. I really prefer you just tie it up neatly for me!

Not that poster, but a few reasons:

You can't answer everything (without getting clunky).
Sarah and Asher got together. But what about Sarah's friend Rivki, who was also dating?

The author could devote 50 pages to spinning off a whole side story about this side character getting together with some guy - but that makes the book too long. And the reader's there for Sarah and Asher, not this random character.

The author could have some character say a quick, "Oh, did you hear? Rivki got engaged." But - that's not satisfying. Who'd she get engaged to? How did they meet? Are they going to be happy?

The author could tell us: "Rivky later got engaged to a lovely man named Yonatan. They were very happy together for many years, despite his unfortunate tendency to belch at the dinner table." But - that's very clunky, in a book that's been told in close-third perspective until now. It jerks the reader violently out of the story.

Ultimately giving us a small hint that Rivki just met a guy she likes, and letting the reader imagine the rest, is the most satisfying way to do it without risking ruining the story.

All stories ultimately end in death.
If the author tells you that Sarah and Asher were happily married for 65 years, and were buried together, you leave the cute romantic comedy thinking about aging and death. Not what most people are looking for. Better to leave our young couple in the magical flush of new love.

Sequels
Maybe the author is considering writing a spinoff novel about Rivki's dating story. This is perfectly fine as long as the main points in the Sarah/Asher story are wrapped up.

amother

Azalea ↓

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 2:25 pm

Hm, as an author, I'm of two minds on this. I think that stories need real endings (for main characters more than minor!) and I find it cheap when an author doesn't commit to one in the hopes of being thought-provoking. If it isn't literary fiction, there's no need for that, and I find it lazy to leave a story without a satisfying ending regardless (even in literary fiction).

But I don't know if I'm sold on the idea of a happy ending in every kind of story. A romance? Sure. Everything else? Maybe not. Sometimes, when the ending is a little too perfect and every loose end is tied up too well, it feels very twee and childish— you want to feel like the ending is earned and realistic, and if everyone is friends and every relationship is perfect and every character is happy and content, then it just doesn't ring true.

But at the same time, I differentiate between a happy ending and a satisfying ending (as the OP did). Most stories don't need happy endings. But they do need an ending where the reader is satisfied and feels as though the story had some purpose to it. The reading experience should be good from start to finish, regardless of whether or not the characters are having a good time.

amother

Seagreen ↓

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 3:31 pm

Fans on 'booktok' will classify books by if it's a happily ever after (HEA)

There's soemthing about reading a book that gets nicely tied up and leaves you with a good feeling. Do all books need to be like that? No. Should there be books in this 'genre? I think there should. I don't think it's childish to have a book all finished up, it's just an easier simpler read, and dare I say lots of moms want that when reading. I find that in general secular books get all finished up much more than frum novels.

(I remember the first time we read a literature story in school with a 'thought provoking ending that didn't end. I didn't liek it then, and I only like it now if it's really done well)

amother

↑ Azalea ↓

Mon, Aug 19 2024, 5:00 pm

amother Seagreen wrote:

Booktok is mostly for romance novels, that's why the focus is on the HEA. I've seen a lot of discourse about it within writing spheres, and I do agree that most romances should end with that HEA because that's the expectation of the genre.

But a book where every single character is perfectly happy and all issues are totally resolved? I would strongly maintain that books like that are really geared toward children. This is where satisfying endings come in.

You don't believe that the woman who grew up with an abusive mother has worked things out with her, they're both happy now, and there's no trauma. Conversely, you don't believe that she's completely wiped the mother from her memory, completely despises her, and barely thinks about her at all. A satisfying ending is one where the woman comes to terms with her trauma, and maybe takes some healthy steps toward recovery. If everything is perfectly happy with no leftover conflict, the reader is more likely to be dissatisfied than if we get a bittersweet ending or a tentative beginning sort of ending.

amother

↑ OP

Wed, Aug 21 2024, 5:17 pm

amother Azalea wrote:

Good points here!
So let’s say the main issues need to be resolved in some way. I’m still mad about the book I read that felt like it was missing a chapter.

amother

↑ Seagreen ↓

Wed, Aug 21 2024, 5:43 pm

amother OP wrote:

Good points here!
So let’s say the main issues need to be resolved in some way. I’m still mad about the book I read that felt like it was missing a chapter.

Yes! Sometimes I'll to back in the book and try to figure out when a situation was resolved. If ur not planning on resolving it don't bring it up. The point of conflict is it needs to be resolved.

amother

Raspberry

Wed, Aug 21 2024, 5:43 pm

It doesn't have to be a happy ending, it just needs to be satisfying. Which means giving some resolution to any significant issue in the book.

There should be a warning label on those book, "inconclusive conclusion" and then only people who like those books will pick them up Smile

(Are there really people who like those?)