I am in the process of thinking about how I can shape the ending to my novel and, whilst I know exactly how it'll end, I thought, "wouldn't it be really cool if I ended like this" and then remembered that Cell ended in pretty much the same open-ended way, and when I finished Cell all I could think of was "I am so annoyed with this book right now. what a lazy-assed rip-off".

Which obviously put me off the idea of leaving it open-ended because I would like people to... well... like my novel.

Oh I don't know. We'll see...

I have to admit I dislike open ended novels, unless there's going to be a sequal to wrap it all up.

That's the thing, in an ideal world I am going to get a 5 book deal and write the series of the century, so an open-ended ending would be perfect. Sadly this is the real world and that's not going to happen. Oh I don't know...

I have to admit I dislike open ended novels, unless there's going to be a sequal to wrap it all up

Cell 2: The Callback

Coming to a bargain bucket near you soon.

JB

Lol, JB

IMO, the problem with King is he is pretty hopeless with a lot of his endings. Either out of contractural obligations or general boredom, he writes to a set time limit and then, it seems, ready or not he quickly wraps it up and sticks The End on the bottom and moves on to the next project.
One can only assume he had no idea how to end The cell and gave little thought to the amount of headbanging it would enduce amongst his fans - just googled 'Cell ending' and there are an awful lot of irritated readers out there, so you're not alone in being annoyed, stagename.



- NaomiM

lol glad I'm not alone! Guess the moral of the story is "say no to openended endings" lol will have to re-think.

But King pulled off an admirable open ending in The Mist, did he not? Like anything, I think it's comes down to how it's handled. Cell had a very dodgy premise and far too big a theme for its slender pages, and it also suffered because King has done that end-of-the-world thing so much better elsewhere (e.g. The Stand). I mean, Cell was even worse than Dreamcatcher and I really didn't think that was humanly possible.

I wouldn't base any of your writing ideas on Cell, if you want my honest advice. Seek out stories where open endings have happened and happened well?

JB

To be honest I don't actually think I have ever read a story as open-ended as cell so maybe that's why it sprung to mind when I thought about my own story.

But many thanks for the advice, I will give "Mist" a blast after I finish this other book I started (which will prob take me a while ) so I'll probably have a better idea then of what works and what doesn't.

And more to the point, if I actually get the finger out and start writing the final scenes I'll be able to see a bit better if it's potentially going to be a good idea or not

Where's my pen...

No, not read the Cell (and won't based on this thread) but don't think I can think of anything I've read that is genuinely open-ended. I can think of loads that suggest the story will repeat itself and loads more that hint at a potential follow on, but I don't think it is possible to have a complete novel that doesn't in some way complete the story it is telling... even if only to say "Looks like I've really screwed up this time, ouch, that firey brand hurts (and will continue to hurt for all eternity) what's that? AAAGH! NO PLEASE NO! NOT AGAIN! AAAGH! Looks like I've really screwed up this time..." (etc).

in an ideal world I am going to get a 5 book deal and write the series of the century, so an open-ended ending would be perfect

Just a thought, but one of the "get published" books reckoned a series of books implies diminishing sales as (with very rare exceptions) the second and third books are likely to sell primarily to people who read and liked the first...

Aaaah that's true about writing a series, never thought about it like that, thanks! At the end of the day, even when writing a series, the books should really be "readable" as a stand-alone novel as well, so it's tricky isn't it... Thanks for all the replies to this thread, it's been very helpful. I think I know where I'm going with it now, and your posts really helped.

Thanks!

Steph