problems finishing

Happy Ever After – or is it? How do you get a good end?

Written by Della Galton on February 1, 2015. Posted in News, Questions from Dear Della, Tips on writing, Writing. 5 Comments

For me, endings have always been the most difficult thing to get right. But a bad ending can ruin an otherwise excellent story. There are all sorts of bad endings. You probably recognise most of these. They don’t really need explaining.

Is that it?
So what?
Where’s the rest?
I worked that out in Paragraph One.
Did I miss something?
What happened to Harry?
You’ve got to be joking!

So – how do you make sure your ending doesn’t fall into these categories? Here’s a list of types of endings and tips that might help to make them work:

Circular stories – link the beginning with the end, often by time or place, for example we end up when and where we began.
Twist – as it sounds. Spring a surprise on the reader, but do give them the clues to work it out.
Surprise – these are a little bit gentler than a twist. Usually a surprise means some piece of information is withheld from the reader. An agent I once had called it the after eight mint effect.
Straight ending – these don’t contain twists or surprises but they often contain a universal truth. They are often poignant. Can also be amusing.
Link the title with the end – these are often stories with a theme, for example, a story called Faith, turns out in the last paragraph to be about ‘faith’.
Motifs – you might have a running motif through the story, for example a recurring sentence, or a recurring phrase that ties up with the end.
An off the page end. You finish with a pointer as to where the story/characters will go next. Things aren’t neatly tied up but there’s an indicator that the characters will be ok.

It’s worth remembering the following too:

An ending must resolve the problem you initially set up.

It must be relevant to the beginning.

If you’re stuck for an ending, look at what you’ve written so far. The clues to the end will always be in what you’ve already written.

And while we’re on the subject of endings, did I mention the sequel to Ice and a Slice is out this week. Yay! The Morning After The Life Before is my latest novel and I’m very proud of it. SJ doesn’t quite get the Happy Ever After she thought she was heading for! Nice matching cover for Ice and a Slice too – Can you spot the hidden message in these two covers?

The fabulous covers were designed for me by Peter Jones. Find out more about his book cover designing service here.

The Morning After The Life Before comes out on 5 February 2015 and is available for pre-order here. Ice and a Slice with its funky new cover is available here. They are both £1.99, less than the price of a glass of Chardonnay!

Wednesday Writing Spot – Writing Problems and Solutions, part two.

Written by Della Galton on October 2, 2013. Posted in Endings, Wednesday Writing Spot, Writing. 8 Comments

The Problem – A Satisfactory End This problem has nothing to do with writers’ bottom by the way, or pigs for that matter – this is a different problem entirely – I am talking about achieving a satisfactory ending to your short story. I have always had trouble getting, what is to my mind, a satisfactory ending. And I was reminded this week that I’m clearly not the only writer who struggles with this. I’ve just judged the Wells Festival of Literature Short Story Competition. I can’t say too much, because to date they have only announced the short list, but here are just three of the problems I came across. And they all involve unsatisfactory endings. Please forgive my tongue in cheek headings.

The ink ran out

These are the kind of endings which stop dead. Once or twice I actually found myself looking for another page. The stories often begin beautifully and have great writing, but then just stop. Nothing is resolved, nothing is explained, we are just left wondering what happened. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all in favour of endings that are enigmatic – or even a little open ended (as long as they work). But they must still be endings. It must be clear we have reached the end – and the writer hasn’t just wandered off for a coffee and is coming back in a bit to write the last sentence.

Obvious from the outset

These are the opposite end of the scale. With a couple of the stories I guessed from the outset where we were going. And I was proved right. Which was disappointing. Again, these stories were often beautifully written, but it isn’t enough to take me on a journey from A to B if I can see the destination from the outset. Sometimes it may be enough if I am deeply moved by the journey, but not often to be honest. I need more. These are the stories that tend to read more like anecdotes or accounts. And anecdotes or accounts of an event, however moving, aren’t stories.

Yeah, but so what?

These are the ones where I reached the end and thought, yeah, but so what? Once again, some of these were fantastic ideas – but a fantastic idea isn’t enough to carry a short story, not without a fantastic ending to complete it. Sorry – there were quite a few of these.

Solutions

If it was easy, I suspect we wouldn’t have such problems with this, but here are some of the solutions that have worked for me. I hope they may be helpful for you too.

The ink ran out

These endings usually require a little more thought. Often the writer believes they have written a satisfactory ending because it is clear to them what happened – but this hasn’t come across on the page. (I am guilty of this myself) I just had a story returned to me which had exactly this problem. The solution, I realised, as I read through it was to underline the theme and make sure that it tied up with the ending. Make sure you know exactly what your story is about. And make sure the reader does too. Don’t spell it out, but do give your ending power and resonance. I believe this can be done most successfully when the theme is crystal clear in the writer’s mind.

Obvious from the outset

This one’s a little easier to resolve. Almost always it just means that some of the information you have given us up front needs to be withheld – so that there ARE some surprises. I’m not saying there has to be a twist, but there does have to be something that the reader doesn’t know at the outset. A theme here works well too. Your surprise could be tied up with the theme.

Yeah, but so what?

I found that these type of endings broke into two types. Both of them were to do with not caring enough. Either I didn’t care enough about the character so that when he/she got his happy ending (or not) I didn’t care much anyway. This one can be resolved by making him more likeable/believable/interesting.

Or… I didn’t care because the plot, while often absolutely fascinating, didn’t seem to have a point. For example, a lot of amazingly intriguing stuff happened and then we found out why, but there didn’t seem to be any real rhyme or reason to it. I think these work brilliantly if the writer can slide in a universal truth at the end. An example of this would be – and I’m moving away from short stories here to novels – the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. This is a great book and has the most fabulously resonant closing lines I’ve ever read. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t read it but it actually ends with a beautiful ironic statement which outlines a universal truth about humanity. (well it does in my humble opinion) It doesn’t get much bigger than that. And as this is a blog post about endings, I had better just add a closing paragraph, hadn’t I! The ending of your story is the last thing a competition judge/editor sees. Get it right. A perfect ending will get you noticed. 🙂

While you’re here, please check out my two writing guides. How to Write and Sell Short Stories published by Accent Press and The Short Story Writers’ Toolshed published by Soundhaven.com

And if you’d like to know more about the Wells Festival of Literature which takes place from the 11th to 19th of October, click here.

The Wednesday Writing Spot – Plotting the longer Short Story

Written by Della Galton on July 10, 2013. Posted in plotting, Tips on writing, Wednesday Writing Spot, Writing, Writing problems and solutions. 3 Comments

Plotting was the bane of my life when I started writing. It still trips me up now occasionally, particularly when I’m changing lengths, for example from 1000 to 2000 words. So here are some tips for writing the longer short story. They are very popular in fiction specials.

This advice also works well when trying to reduce your longer stories to short ones. Just reverse it.

What’s the difference between 1000 words and 2000 words in plot terms?

There is not as much difference between the two as I thought when I first started writing. I assumed that if I needed one or two main characters with a problem to solve in a 1000 word story, then I’d probably need more characters and more of a problem for a 2000 or 3000 word story.

I soon discovered that this was not the case. You won’t necessarily need more characters or more plot for a longer short story, but you will need more development of both. This is usually achieved by writing more scenes.

Very short stories

In a 1000 word short story you won’t have room for more than a couple of scenes, probably three at the most and that might be pushing it. We will probably join your character at the point of change or conflict. For example, let’s assume your character is worried about a forthcoming appointment she has the following day. Your story might go something like this:

Scene one

Your character is discussing her worries with friend or partner.

Scene two

Your character goes for the appointment.

Scene three

Resolution and possibly a twist.

If you did follow the format above for a 1000 word short story, then you’d have to make your scenes extremely short – you’d have just over 300 words to devote to each one.

If you had more space to play with, you might also have a flashback of exactly why your character was so worried about her forthcoming appointment. Your story might then go something like this:

Scene one

Your character is discussing her worries with friend or partner.

Scene two

Flashback in your character’s viewpoint to show a previous occasion when she had to go to an appointment and it didn’t work out – hence meaning the stakes for today are higher and we (hopefully) care about it more.

Scene three

Your character at the appointment.

Scene four

Resolution and twist

The number of characters and the plotline are the same, but the story is longer and has more depth because we have more development of both.

This helped me so much when I first got it. Hope it helps you too. And if you’d like any more advice on writing short stories, please check out my two writing guides. How to Write and Sell Short Stories published by Accent Press and The Short Story Writers’ Toolshed published by Soundhaven.com

The Wednesday Writing Spot – Plotting the Short Story

Written by Della Galton on July 4, 2013. Posted in plotting, Wednesday Writing Spot, Writing. 2 Comments

Plotting a short story is something that many writers, both new and experienced, find difficult. I include myself in this. It is not always easy, and I say not always, because occasionally we all have those magical days when it is.

For the days when it isn’t, I have outlined some techniques below that should hopefully help.

Starting from Scratch

Give your character a dilemma to solve. Preferably make it the sort of dilemma that will force your character to re-evaluate his life or his attitudes. In this way he will have changed before the end of the story.

Be as nasty as you like. The tougher the problem that your character has to face, the more drama you’ll be able to create.

Make sure the resolution to the dilemma is credible, but also make it as unexpected as you can. This is the tricky bit. Knowing you have to provide a resolution to the story before you start can be very off putting for some writers (it is for me!).

Starting Halfway through

Now, this might sound strange, but I find this is by far the easiest way to plot. By starting halfway through I am saying that you should just start writing. Certainly give your character a dilemma to solve, but don’t worry about the rest.

For example : I once sold a story of 1000 words called The Best Laid Plans, which I’d started the previous year and got stuck on. My original idea was as follows:

The story opens with Katie in bed in hospital on her 25^th wedding anniversary, which is not quite how she planned to spend it. Since she married Paul most of their anniversary plans have gone wrong. On bad days she thinks they’re jinxed and on good days she thanks her lucky stars they ever got this far. This was a light hearted story and the humour was provided by flashback (the story is in Katie’s viewpoint) to previous disastrous anniversaries.

I got stuck at the 750 word point, which I frequently do. I couldn’t think how to resolve this story. This is where the plotting bits come in. Because the story is already half written, there are only so many options.

They could have a late anniversary celebration which could go wrong
As above, but it doesn’t go wrong.
They could split up (not very satisfactory for Woman’s Weekly)
They could decide not to celebrate on the actual day itself, but at other times in the year, after all a marriage isn’t about just one day a year.

I stopped here because I’d found my solution. I used a mixture of number 1, 2 and 4.

Plotting is actually just a chain of events that leads your character to a satisfactory resolution and that resolution will largely be determined by market.

When you’re stuck on a resolution – this is another problem I have frequently, then I suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

What is it that I am actually trying to say?
What is this story about?

The Best Laid Plans was a humorous story, designed to entertain, but it did have a serious underlying message – a universal truth, if you like. A wedding anniversary is the day that couples celebrate on, but the other 364 days of their marriage were just as important. They could also laugh about the things that went wrong.

The answer is in what you’ve already written

The seeds you’ve sown early in the story will provide you with the ending. Look at what you’ve set up carefully and then explore every possible option. One of them will be the right one.

The Title

Another quite useful thing I’ve learned is that the title should underline the theme, as in The Best Laid Plans – so if you are the type of writer who knows the title before they begin, then this can be very helpful.

And if you’d like any more advice on writing short stories, please check out my two writing guides. How to Write and Sell Short Stories published by Accent Press and The Short Story Writers’ Toolshed published by Soundhaven.com

Next week we’ll look at plotting the longer short story.

Happy writing.

Welcome to Della Galton’s website

Tag: problems finishing