The Last Word; November 20 2021

I was pleasantly surprised, this Halloween! I took my kid out to demand candy from strangers – y’know, as you do – and spent a lot of it concerned that it’d be like the last couple of years. Either no kids, or no protective masks. But, we saw a good amount of participating kids and decorated houses! My kid came home with an impressive haul and we had a grand time.

I also got back to work on November 1st, as per NaNoWriMo tradition. I’ve revised my latest manuscript as intended and hoping the changes are the right ones. And now, with ten days left of the month, I think I’ve gotten it pitch-ready exactly as my deadline asked of me.

Of course, in the process, I did fall behind on blogging again. That was my bad!

Naturally, a ton of stuff has happened in the world, and I feel unqualified to talk about any of it. So much disappointment and bad calls and expectation – you know, News As Usual – and it’s got me thinking about the stuff I write. Namely, about endings.

There’s always discourse among writers and readers when it comes to what makes for a good ending. Whether it’s happy, with the characters fulfilling their dreams, or ‘happy’ with them inexplicably changing tracks to get married and have 2.5 kids and a picket fence, or sad and bitter and rife with death… There’s always going to be an ending that feels more appropriate.

I’ve gone all over the scale, in my writing career. When I was a kid, almost everything I wrote ended in death – noble sacrifice, especially. (Gee, I wonder where my martyr complex came from.) I’ve worried recently that I don’t lean into the ‘gritty, realistic’ endings enough, anymore, until I realized I just wasn’t killing everybody to get to the conclusion.

Now, the only endings that work for me are the ones that feel ‘right’, but how does one define that?

My most recent novel doesn’t end as ‘happily’ as it could. There are three POV characters, and of the three of them, only one winds up getting what they actually wanted – maybe two of them, if I’m being generous. But it’s still the ending that feels appropriate to me, because even if it’s not what one of my characters expected or personally wanted, it’s definitely what’s best for the world the book is set in. The endgame is still in line with what this character would do, still completes the arc in my estimation, but it’s not happy.

I do worry that, if and when it gets into the hands of more readers, people will think it’s not a satisfactory way to finish the book. It definitely confused my beta readers at first, though I think I cleaned it up some and made the ‘why’ of it clearer.

Still – as a reader, writer, or both, what sort of endings do you find most satisfying? Let me know in a comment!