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Coming to Conclusions
May. 22nd, 2006 10:24 amI love a good ending. In fact, I love a good ending that goes way past where it should. I want to know how everything turns out, every little thing. If it's a tenuous happy ending, I want to take it to totally happy. I want to see all the little domestic details that fall widely outside the plot and only serve to make me feel happy.
So what is a good ending? My gut instinct is not to trust my gut instinct, because I always want to know that everything is not only okay, but is fantastic and cosy and workaday, and that doesn't make a good ending at all. So to counter my own desire for these details, I tend to think the ending comes at the first hint that that future domestic bliss is possible.
For instance, let's say we have the movie Titanic, and the actual ending was that Leonardo Dicaprio didn't ( spoiler ). Say the ending actually was that Kate Winslet and Leonardo meet up again in the streets of Boston. Wouldn't the best ending for that scenario involve them seeing each other across a crowded street, and then move toward each other? How far do you go into the the happy ending? Should they kiss? Should we follow them to a local hotel? Should we get a flashforward to their joyous domestic bliss (maybe in the credits)?
To what degree is a good ending one that gives you a push off to imagine the rest of the story? I think I come at this from a fanfiction point of view, but I'm tempted to say that that's just what it should do, leave you with pieces to imagine. Good pieces. Not suspense pieces. So if you get enough details to know that they're going to be okay, and then if you're so inclined you can imagine the rest of the ups and downs and the bliss; that's what I'm picturing. As if this ending is just where this part of this story ends, and there's another story that comes later, but that's not one that fits into this book, or possibly into any book.
But then, is that a terribly unsatisfying ending? Is it a good or a bad thing if you have a conclusion that makes people say, awww, that's nice, but what happens next? What does he say? What does she do? How do they talk about these dramatic events? Do they tell other people about them? Do they have post traumatic stress and eventually break up because of the pressure? Do they have kids with weird nautical names? I'm fighting with my instincts here. As a person I would like to write a story forever, into the insipid details afterward, but my fear of doing this by accident makes me cut an ending too short, leaving too many questions unanswered.
I'm working on my graphic novel project, and I know roughly where it needs to end, but I'm not sure how far into the scene to go. I'm tempted by the tease of having it all end moments before a reunion, where you can guess what will happen from that point on, but you'd have to just guess at the details. Like if Leonardo Dicaprio spies Kate Winslet across a busy street, looking in a different direction, not knowing he's there, and him just smiling and about to leap forward. I'm debating about actually showing the reunion, though. Is it enough to just know that the star-crossed lovers are about to meet again against all odds? Or is that not enough?
So what is a good ending? My gut instinct is not to trust my gut instinct, because I always want to know that everything is not only okay, but is fantastic and cosy and workaday, and that doesn't make a good ending at all. So to counter my own desire for these details, I tend to think the ending comes at the first hint that that future domestic bliss is possible.
For instance, let's say we have the movie Titanic, and the actual ending was that Leonardo Dicaprio didn't ( spoiler ). Say the ending actually was that Kate Winslet and Leonardo meet up again in the streets of Boston. Wouldn't the best ending for that scenario involve them seeing each other across a crowded street, and then move toward each other? How far do you go into the the happy ending? Should they kiss? Should we follow them to a local hotel? Should we get a flashforward to their joyous domestic bliss (maybe in the credits)?
To what degree is a good ending one that gives you a push off to imagine the rest of the story? I think I come at this from a fanfiction point of view, but I'm tempted to say that that's just what it should do, leave you with pieces to imagine. Good pieces. Not suspense pieces. So if you get enough details to know that they're going to be okay, and then if you're so inclined you can imagine the rest of the ups and downs and the bliss; that's what I'm picturing. As if this ending is just where this part of this story ends, and there's another story that comes later, but that's not one that fits into this book, or possibly into any book.
But then, is that a terribly unsatisfying ending? Is it a good or a bad thing if you have a conclusion that makes people say, awww, that's nice, but what happens next? What does he say? What does she do? How do they talk about these dramatic events? Do they tell other people about them? Do they have post traumatic stress and eventually break up because of the pressure? Do they have kids with weird nautical names? I'm fighting with my instincts here. As a person I would like to write a story forever, into the insipid details afterward, but my fear of doing this by accident makes me cut an ending too short, leaving too many questions unanswered.
I'm working on my graphic novel project, and I know roughly where it needs to end, but I'm not sure how far into the scene to go. I'm tempted by the tease of having it all end moments before a reunion, where you can guess what will happen from that point on, but you'd have to just guess at the details. Like if Leonardo Dicaprio spies Kate Winslet across a busy street, looking in a different direction, not knowing he's there, and him just smiling and about to leap forward. I'm debating about actually showing the reunion, though. Is it enough to just know that the star-crossed lovers are about to meet again against all odds? Or is that not enough?
