Happy Endings

Happily ever after. That's how we expect stories to end. When they don't, something usually feels wrong and off kilter.

For me, the ending is the hardest part to write. I'm tempted to go on, adding to the adventures and misadventures of my characters. At some point, though, I must give the reader a rest. It is up to me to decide when and how my story ends.

Most of my endings have been happy. One has not--though even in tragedy I tried to leave on a note of hope. I didn't plan that ending at all. I sat at my computer and typed, praying for a reasonable way to finish the story. My fingers took over. I wrote it. I read it two or three times. I asked my son to read it and give his opinion. I still wasn't sure. But I went with it. And the ending is definitely memorable.

In another book, the ending crept up on me. I wrote a wonderful summarizing paragraph. Then I kept on writing, adding more and more to the story. I went back over those last few pages many times until I realized that my perfect ending was buried in the text five or ten pages before I stopped writing. I went back and corrected that, of course.

My greatest challenge was writing the book to end the series. It's done now. There is both happy and sad. I've asked my son to read the manuscript through to the final page. He isn't finished yet.

I'm tempted to just have everyone ride off into the sunset. But I want to make my stories real, and real life is much more complicated.