I've almost finished my first draft and am finding the ending really, really challenging to write. Have slowed down hugely, keep going over and over it. And because I have 2 protagonists, I'm finding that they are both coming to a climax (as it were) at the same time, which may be too much. Just wanted to share it really, and wondering how other people have found writing their endings and are there any tips/suggestions?
susiex

That's a difficult enough question even without the complication of there being two protagonists.

I imagine the thing to aim for in an ending should be resolution in the mind of the reader. At one level, this is simply resolution of the intricacies of the plot. At another, and this is where it is likely to be satisfying or not satisfying for the reader, it perhaps needs to be the resolution of something within the character/characters, of the conflict between them or of the development that's been taking place inside them individually as a result of what has been going on in the novel.

Would it be helpful for you to take a decision as to which of the two protagonists you think your reader will most identify with and therefore which character's 'resolution' will be most important to the reader? That might help things fall into place more easily.

Incidentally, I thought that Arthur and George by Julian Barnes was a very effective example of how to deal with two protagonists. On the other hand, as he was working (more or less) from history, he didn't have to work out the ending for himself!

Chris

Thanks, Chris. That's a very concise summing-up (I only wish my ending can be as concise!). I may be trying to pack in too many resolutions into one chapter. That's a good point about which character I think the readers will have sympathy/empathy for. I know which one I feel a bit more engaged with, and am having much less of a problem with her ending than with the other character's. Maybe that's what's underlying it. Also, her ending is more complete and satisfying for the reader, while the other character's ending is more of a question mark (it would feel too 'easy' to have both ending satisfactorily). Thanks for listening, by the way. Who else can us writers talk to about such things?
Susiex

Ending are hard to write. When I got to the end of my first draft (writing it), I slowed down to a crawl. I wanted the ending to have a tremendous emotional charge to it, like in a movie. But, I finally realized, it could not make it end like a movie in any form or manner. When I book ends, it just ends. You just have to do the best you can and accept the fact that the ending will never equal what you feel, and that you will ever be satisfied with it.

Azel

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The only ending I remember that impressed me was Moby Dick, and I am not a big lover of classics. A writer can’t just write a good ending. The main part of the book has to build up a huge emotional charge, and the ending is the release of that charge. This is the only way I can think of to end a book with a emotional charge. If the book does not have this, the book has to just end without much fanfare.

Yeah, I guess it's true that a writer may never end a novel in a way that is totally satisfying to him or herself. You just have to keep trying. I feel like there's something I'm not 'getting' - but my instinct is to leave it for now and carry on to the end, then think about it in relation to the whole when I re-read it through.
Susiex

Finality in the concept of story is difficult, as is resolution, because we're only ever really seeing a part of something. Likewise with beginnings. I think the comment about 'resolution' is apt, because it's more tenuous than 'ending'. I began my novel at the 'ending' and worked toward the 'beginning' writing start to finish, an exploration, in a way, of the idea. Cliff hangers are easier, but to finish any book is difficult for so many reasons. Myself I struggle with middles. The start and finish of any particular tale are more or less worked out before I begin.

JB

Yes, I started this one with an ending/resolution for one of the characters and this has more or less worked as originally planned. Maybe that's the secret. Maybe when your unconscious knows what it's aiming for, it will work out its own idiosyncratic path towards it. I struggle with middles too, JB

Well, it's the age old adage - if you aim at nothing, you generally hit it!

JB

So true. I think there's also a psychological element to all this - you've lived with this project for so long and now it's ending...it's like a relationship, I guess. At least there's the prospect of revising and making it better. But I'm definitely dragging my feet.

I just wrote loads of different endings - then get someone else to choose one

That's not really the point of this thread, though, is it,
px

Yes, endings are hard, though I find middles harder. (Not sure beginnings are all that easy, either!)

I may be trying to pack in too many resolutions into one chapter.

It's worth remembering that you can 'end' one thread a bit before the other - in the previous chapter, say, and wind it down slowly, while the other is still at high pitch to keep the reader on tenterhooks.

Emma

Poppy, if only I could THINK of several endings!! Well done for managing it.
And Emma, yes, thanks, that's kind of what I'm trying to do, only I'm keeping one character's resolution up in the air, having completed half of it, and am going away to the other's to prolong the tension.
BTW, funny coincidence, today I came across a hardback copy of your novel in a local bookshop when I was looking for something else, then later was looking up another novelist's agency and it turned out to be your agency too! Synchronicity!
sx

I agree with Emma that not all your characters and sub-plots have to come to their cresendo in the final chapter. You can overdo the Big bang, I reckon. My books also tend to have more than one protagonist (or pair of protagonists), and the sub-plots are almost as important as the central story. Not all of those stories can come to their major crisis and resolution at once or the thing would become unwieldy!

But even if, for some characters, the final major twist comes a way off the end of the book, I try to ensure that every character has some kind of finishing off. It needn't be anything big - it can just be a small final scene of him/her doing something very characteristic, so that the reader leaves him/her behind with a reinforced feeling of his/her role in the book. When I'm reading a book, I don't think it feels right if a character you have been engaging with (even a relatively minor one) just disappears three chapters from the end never to be seen again. What I did in H&M (though it's a bit kitsch and wouldn't work, perhaps, in a more 'serious' book) is to finish with a series of tiny cameos - a line or two each - leaving all the cast doing something which is very essentially them. The idea was to give a sense at the same time of rounding off/tidying up, but also (if possible) of lives going on and continuing to be led... But maybe that is not any good in a book which has a much tighter focus on one or even two main protagonists.

The other thing that has already been said and which I totally agree with, is that it has to be a gut thing - the business of what acually happens to your chaacters as opposed to the timing or the how-to-write-it. You cannot force a neat and tidy ending on your people if it isn't right for them.

Rosy

Rosy, this is all so helpful.
My major worry is the 'Big Bang' and I'm trying to intersperse the 'big' scenes with quieter/funnier moments or it will all feel too breathless and traumatic.
But it IS pretty breathless and traumatic!
One of character's ending is 'tidy' in terms of outer-world events. The other's is more of a psychological resolution, and her outer life will remain unsorted. I think it's because it's psychological I am finding it hard to know how much to resolve. I'm realising, through listening to you all, that it doesn't all have to be resolved, inside or outside.
I'm planning on a brief epilogue, just giving moments from some of the major characters to show how their lives are continuing.
One other thing - does anybody recall an ending which involves looking at a figurine of a human/humans and realising it's hollow? I've written it, but have this sneaking feeling I've read something like it before - Margaret Atwood? Elaine Dundy?
Thanks so much all,
Sx

I don't think it feels right if a character you have been engaging with (even a relatively minor one) just disappears three chapters from the end never to be seen again

Oh, buggerit. Most of mine do that.