There Is No Real Ending: Frank Herbert Quote

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” This Frank Herbert quote epitomizes one of the biggest struggles with plotting: the story has to have enough details and depth built into that it could truly continue (like real life does), but at the same time, enough of those details need to be left out of the story to focus on the plot.

The Place Where You Stop the Story

I’ve already talked about realism (the key to realism, how to fake it, the top tool, when realism attempts backfire, researching for realism, etc.), plotting (a framework, with post its, against your characters, etc.), and how to figure out what details need to be in the story, so here are a few ideas to consider when deciding where to stop your story.

Level of Detail

To have a truly satisfying ending, a book needs to both wrap up the main questions of the plot and hint at the characters’ futures. If you go into too much detail about those futures, however, you’re really starting the exposition of the next story. That can weaken the sense of resolution if it goes too far.

On the other hand, if you can’t resolve the main questions of the plot without mentioning something, then that needs to be in the story (unless it’s part of a larger plot that links several books together).

Some of the concepts of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series can be helpful with this. The idea that time is a wheel with no single beginning or ending is one way to approach this problem – the ending of one story is simultaneously the beginning of another.

Kind of like the “what next?” question at the end of a western. We hear the character answer, but we don’t get to see it.

Placement in the Series

A single-shot book, the second book in a trilogy, and the last book of a series all have slightly different options and needs when it comes to the ending. While you can definitely treat any book like a stand-alone book (and should to an extent, IMHO), there is far more leeway with a book that’s in the middle of an established series than with a single book or the final book in the series.

• A solo book has to answer all the big questions in that book to some extent.
• The last book in a series has to answer all the big questions in the entire series to some extent (including questions raised in previous books).

Middle books can leave a lot more hanging because the fact that it’s a series has already been established by the first book(s), and the following books can answer some of the questions.

Special Cases

Certain types of stories may call for an extended falling action or denouement:

• Stories with extremely intricate plots and subplots (They have more resolving to do.)
• Frame Stories (You have to complete the frame.)
• Thematic Stories (If the author is trying to develop a theme as well as the plot, some extra time may be needed to complete that.)
• Genres (In some genres, it’s perfectly acceptable to have no resolution to a stand-alone novel. In others, it’s completely taboo.)

As usual, there are probably others I haven’t thought of now, but that’s a start. Do you have any tips for picking where to end a story?

-Em