FICTION FOCUS
End in sight
Nothing spoils a good book more than a bad ending. Give your readers satifying closure at the end of your fiction with advice from Margaret James ut then he/she/they woke up and found it was all a dream.
Margaret James
These days, no writers of fiction would dare to round off a story in such a clichéd (and frankly insulting to any reader’s intelligence) fashion, would they?
Actually, quite a few authors can still be tempted to take this easy way out. As a reader for several literary competitions, from time to time I still come across that aforementioned dried-up and inedible old chestnut, along with: he’s not having an affair, he’s planning a surprise party. Also popular in some quarters is: yes, I know I did a bad thing, but I’m paying for it now, otherwise known as the Guilty Hero’s Monologue.
Although a work of fiction in any genre doesn’t always need to tie up every single loose end in a pretty little bow, a mystery novel ought to solve the central – ahem – mystery and answer any Big Question asked at the beginning of the story to both the characters’ and the readers’ satisfaction. A romantic novel should show the central protagonists reaching some kind of equilibrium, even if this involves parting forever, or one or other (or even both of them) dying. The central characters in fiction should need to make choices, get things right, get things wrong, and somehow pay for any mistakes, as opposed to stroll away from any metaphorical bin-fires telling themselves it was nothing to do with them. Choices made by fictional characters need to matter, and maybe change the course of their lives, even if the consequences of those choices won’t be fully realised until the publication of a sequel to the original story. It’s usually okay to end a story by revealing that everything seems to be fine, at least for now. Your historical novel which ends in July 1914 on a happy, upbeat note, for example, showing the central characters getting what they want, will always beg the question: what’s going to happen to them when what they will call the Great War, and we have come to know as World War One, is declared in August?